Sunday Reading

WPT Live Updates maven Jeff Holsey is featured in a story in the NY Times this Sunday about how Twitter is changing pro poker. Jeff and team are back on the WPT beat this July 13th at Bellagio for Day 1A of the Bellagio Cup V. S(t)weet!

POY wins PLO

J.C. Tran, the 2007 WPT Player of the Year, won the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOP last night earning his second bracelet and a $235,685 first place prize. Also scoring gold yesterday was the original Uncle Tilty, James Van Alstyne, who kept his cool all the way to a bracelet in the $1,500 HORSE event. Today all eyes are on the $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship where Jennifer Harman, Chad Brown, Soheil Shamseddin, and Greg "Full Blown Tilt" Muller are still in contention for the hardware with twelve players left. Get all your updates throughout the day from Pokernews.

(Photo: Mike Sexton gives J.C. Tran his WPT Player of the Year watch. Last night Tran won his second bracelet in his never ending quest for more jewelry.)

Mr. and Mrs. Grinder

Mark Seif tweets that Lilly Elviro is now Mrs. Michael Mizrachi as the long-time couple has apparently finally tied the knot. From Seif's 140 character limited message the Grinders seem to have taken their vows this morning in Las Vegas so that Michael could take part in the $1500 No Limit bracelet event. Family business, indeed. Congratulations to the newlyweds from everybody at the WPT.

Sharks in Space

Confirmation came today that Cirque du Soleil founder and WPT finalist Guy Laliberte will get taken for a ride this September on a Russian Soyuz rocket into outer space. Laliberte, who finished fourth in the Season Five WPT World Championship won by Carlos Mortensen, will be the first WPT finalist to travel into outer space and, if all goes well, next year hopes to orbit Phil Hellmuth.

Laliberte, who according to Forbes magazine is worth over $2.5 billion dollars, is also the subject of my all time favorite WPT update. During the Championship the ticker at the bottom of the screen said that if Laliberte won the first place prize of nearly $4,000,000 his overall net worth would increase .16%. Refreshingly, it wasn't life changing money after all.

(Photo: At the WPT World Championship V Guy Laliberte, who is preparing to blast off from Earth, considers Kirk Morrison, who recently dropped off the face of the Earth.)

Yes He Did

It's only fitting that a man who once wore a Yes We Can t-shirt to a final table won the $1,000 Stimulus Special at the WSOP, as three time WPT finalist Steve Sung finally broke through to the number one spot for his first gold bracelet. Our hearty congratulations to Muggylicious and how fitting that he won holding pocket Kings as that was the hand he busted out with in Barcelona in 2007 and at the Five Diamond in 2008.

The ninety-ninth WPT Millioniare added $771,106 to his bank account for winning the fourth largest live tournament in poker history besting 6,011 other entrants. Check out Steve's twitter feed to learn that, unsurprisingly, winning a title is "soooo sweet."

We Like Her

Not just an excuse to post a photo of a beautiful woman, it's also a chance to congratulate Sabina Gadecki on making last two tables at the Poker4Life charity tournament in NYC last night. From Sabina's last tweet she was still in with twenty left. Not too shabby for a starting field of 270 with the first place prize a $10,000 entry into the WSOP main event. From the Poker4Life Facebook page it seems NY Knick forward David Lee made the final ten only to lose out to noted poker shark Loren Finklestein. Mr. Finkelstein, if you wear a bikini to the WSOP we will certainly consider posting that photo as well.

Sabina's success got me to thinking which WPT Hostess was the best poker player. Take it all with a grain of salt, of course, but at least I know my list is better than the ranking some whiz on twoplustwo created when he rated a table at the WSOP $40,000 event and put Nam Le as the soft spot. As another poster explained, "that's just dumb."

Best Poker Playing WPT Hostess
1. Kimberly Lansing
2. Sabina Gadecki
3. Shana Hiatt
4. Layla Kayleigh
5. Courtney Friel

Throw sideline reporter Amanda Leatherman into the mix and you have the makings of a pretty good WPT Ladies Night. First one out has to ask everyone else "how do you feel?"

NYC Poker

Tonight in Manhattan is the annual Poker4Life charity tournament to benefit the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. Top prize is a seat to the WPT Invitational, an event Poker4Life founder Ethan Ruby (above, left) almost won in season six. Sabina Gadecki will be in attendance and in fact is sharpening her skills at this very moment. Side note: The Buoniconti Fund is one of the many chairities supported by Mike Sexton. Somebody should put that guy in the Hall of Fame.

Watch (or not)

I couldn't bend my mind around it enough to watch the whole thing but maybe you will enjoy the WPT's own Layla Kayleigh on the Hannity Great American Panel hosted by Fox News star Sean Hannity.

Vote Sexton

The WSOP has opened up nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame to the public and, no surprise, The Muck is voting for Mike Sexton. He was the winner of the 2006 WSOP Tournament of Champions, European Heads Up Championship back in 2003, has a bracelet in Seven-Card Stud and over $3.7 million dollars in lifetime tournament earnings. As the voice of the World Poker Tour he helped popularize the game the world over and has remained a tireless ambassador for poker even testifying in a recent South Carolina court case that poker is indeed a game of skill. Sexton is also a humanitarian, regularly donating generously to various charities including half of his $1,ooo,ooo prize from the TOC. He is one of the good guys and he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. Do your part. Vote Sexton today.

Timex Rewind

Fourth place finisher at WPT Venice, Mike "Timex" McDonald, writes up an excellent Euro poker trip report on his blog with brutally frank assessments of various players and one hand history that ends with the sentence, "I never thought I'd win a big pot in a major live tournament with 6 high but there's a first time for everything." Check it out.



(Photo of Mike from Bwin's tournament coverage located here.)

Sweden's Sven Ragnar CopyPaste is Tall, Rich

One more photo from Bwin's coverage of WPT Venice where Swedish player Sven Ragnar Åström won the title in his first ever live poker tournament. Nice one to start your career with and even after he blows the $530,000 first place prize on Swedish fish and pants labeled Alpine and Skytopper, he will still have the Tiffany bracelet to prove he's a champ. Now on to Barcelona.