Poker Girls

Lauren Kling is a magnificent 23 years old poker player, freshly graduated from Berkeley. She admits to have been playing poker for five years now, but she only started playing live tournaments about a year ago.

Her career winnings exceed $300,000 and show a steadily rising pattern. She has taken  part in four events at this year’s WSOP and reached the money bubble in two of them, which is a pretty good ratio. And, most importantly, she is still in the competition for a Main Event title.

The Bellagio Cup VI, running parallel to the WSOP Main Event, 'houses' the first event of the World Poker Tour season 9, the WPT Championship $10,000 tournament. Tilly, almost as much talented at playing poker as at acting, won the Cup's $5,000 Tournament ($124,455). This event took place this Sunday.

Jennifer Tilly

Her boyfriend, professional player Phil Laak also commented on Twitter about her victory with much appreciation and pride: “Holla! My girl just shipped the 5k Bellagio! Max ship. Max joy.”

The results of the event are as follows:

There have been several rumors during the WSOP, stating that Liv Boeree and her sponsor, UB.com will stop cooperating. PokerNews Daily, however, has information saying that the two sides are only renegotiating. 

Liv has won the EPT San Remo Main Event, with which she gained a stunning $1.7 million.

Although Liv’s contract with UB has truly expired, according to a UB spokesman they are discussing renewing of the contract. 

“Liv’s contract has expired. We are in contract renegotiation discussions now.” 

As it has been announced earlier this week, Vanessa Rousso (member of the PokerStars pro team) has signed an endorsement deal with EQ Labs, the company thart produces EQ Energy drink. Rousso joins a whole team of celebrities already advertising “The Smart Energy Drink”.

Vanessa Rousso

EQ is a tablet that dissolves in any kind of beverage and provides instant energy. It is made of vitamins, Gingko Biloba and caffeine (but less than a cup of tea). You can have it in Mo Apple, Strawberry Dream and Lemon Lime flavors.

Vanessa is currently taking part in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, but she found some time to comment on the issue: “I’m so happy to be part of the EQ Energy team! I have been working with the CEO for a few weeks and really believe in the product and the company. The energy tablets are awesome. They taste great, are super portable, and of course, give me a real energy boost.”

Rousso admitted that she has also been using EQ tablets at the poker tables and loves them:
“As a professional poker player, my energy levels and mental acuity are of the utmost importance. If I lose my focus for just one second, it could cost me a tournament and millions of dollars. EQ keeps me alert and focused when my opponents are ready for bed.”

The deal between Vanessa and EQ Labs has a time frame of a year. In exchange, Rousso receives shares of the company.

Seven female poker players have been nominated for the 2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame this year, two of which will be chosen into the Hall of Fame in September.

On the list, we can find current well-known poker players along with older celebrities and poker legends. Here they are:

Tiffany Michelle, sponsored by UB, has turned 26 last week and decided it was time to celebrate. She and her buddies headed to the Crystals in Las Vegas, to eat, drink, pose for pictures, dance and have a good time on a Friday night.

Michelle was accompanied by other Team UB pros Liv Boeree, Adam Levy, Smantha Ryan, and 2006 WSOP Player of The Year Jeff Madsen, among others. They first had a nice lobster dinner at Eva Longoria’s restaurant to give the night a start. After that, the party kicked off at the Eve nightclub, also at Crystals.
Michelle’s birthday presents included a very fancy cake, made of pink and black fondant, chocolate and edible gold chains.

Michelle probably had a very good time, or at least this is what her Tweets from that night indicate: “Off the hook at @Eve_NightclubLV. Best bday ever, not to mention the SICKEST cake.”

Lacy Jones is officially apart of the Full Tilt crew now, after recent announcements of her signing a sponsorship deal with the second biggest online poker site. Jones who was a sponsored player for Absolute Poker until late May, departed from the company on good terms after spending a couple years with them. It wasn’t long after her contact expired with Absolute Poker that Full Tilt crabbed at the opportunity to sign the model/host/poker player.  

Not just a model

The stunt that Shaun Deeb and his mates played out yesterday at the WSOP Ladies Event, has landed him in some hot water. Deeb, who organized together with his fellow male friends to enter the WSOP Ladies Event managed to raise attention.

The objective of the stunt was to raise the issue that he does not support the message that WSOP is giving: that there is a need to separate women and men in poker. With this main objective clear, Deeb and about 10 of his mates made their way to enter the $1,000 Ladies No-limit Championship. Because of anti-discrimination laws, the WSOP staff cannot legally prevent men from entering a women-only tournament.

Shaun Deeb protesting

Vanessa Hellebuyck the poker pro form France is celebrating after claiming the first win for the females at this year’s WSOP. Her win came in the Event #22: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Tournament where she also managed to bank a whopping $192,132.

Vanessa Hellebuyck

The final table saw a heads-up match between Vanessa and the Danish opponent Sidsel Boesen. In the showdown Sidel Boesen went all-in holding a T 9 and Vanessa wasted on time calling holding a 5 5. The  Q 3 K 4 6 to the table secured Vanessa Hellebuyck’s win and gave her the glory of being the best player out of 1,054 participants, including some guys.

Lynn Gilmartin the reporter for Pokernews caught up with Annette Obrestad after her first cash finish at the WSOP 2010. Annette, who is a Full Tilt Poker Pro managed to walk away with about 10k prize in the 5k NL Holdem Tournament (Event #17). In the video interview Annette talks about her win and about other WSOP events she is looking forward to. She would like to participate in as many events as possible.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Annette Obrestad claimed that "girls suck at poker". These comments are sure to be raising debate in the poker world, as we all know that there are more and more very successful female players (like Liv Boeree, Vanessa Rousso, and Clonie Gowen, just to name a few).

"It's easy money... I've always said that girls suck at poker. I say that because they do. Maybe they just aren't as competitive and don't try to learn from their mistakes" says Annette.

Liv Boeree opens up in her latest video interview when she invited the Poker Players Magazine into her parent’s country home in Sittingbourne, UK where she was brought up. In the two part video interview with Liv not only do you get to see around the family home and meet her mum, but you can also get an interesting insight into her poker career and future plans.

The 25 year old UK born glamour girl has made a career out of being a TV presenter and model in the UK was first introduced into the poker world when she was selected to appear on the TV show "Ultimatepoker.com Showdown" in 2005. After getting a taste of poker Liv continued to play and improve her skills and it wasn’t until April 2010, when she got her big break, winning EPT San Remo, which shot her to poker superstar status.

Liv Boeree, winner of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo gave a video interview to Gambling Online Magazine, in which she tells the public about her future WSOP plans and her musical taste. 

Liv Boeree came out first at the EPT San Remo on 21st April. The tournament had 1240 participants, and the two players competing heads-up were Liv and the well-known Swedish online pro, the 22 year old Jakob 'mendieta19' Carlsson. Boeree received €1,250,000 for the victory, which gave a huge boost to her all-time live winnings (currently standing at $1,932,770), with her previous biggest earning being $42,000.

Liv Boeree

The gorgeous British poker pro, recently voted as one of the 30 hottest poker ladies, has been giving interviews ever since her San Remo victory. The latest one was made by Gambling Online Magazine, you can view it here. The video interview makes it pretty clear why she has received the nickname 'Iron Maiden'.

COED Magazine recently made a compilation of the top 50 women on the web, measured by the number of results returned by Google. Many will be surprised, but not astonished, that Lady Gaga grabbed the number one spot, beating likes of Beyoncé, Madonna, Oprah, Britney Spears and even Hillary Clinton.

Success came to Lady Gaga with the popular single Poker Face, which dominated the music charts around the globe for weeks at end. Other main factors that could have led to her claiming this title is that she is a highly talented singer, and also has a lot of controversy surrounding her, either it be from the outrageous outfits she presents herself in, to the question of her sex gender.

Bodog Poker has been in damage control after having lost several poker pros over the years, with only three remaining by 2010: Evelyn Ng, Justin Bonomo and David Williams. Bonomo announced his retirement from Bodog Poker this January. Williams followed suit after winning the $25,500 buy-in WPT Championship. It was only Ng who remained loyal to Bodog.

In the past few weeks, Bodog Poker has been scouting new recruits with an unusual technique: making the most of the social networks by opening up nominations for the new slot to fans on Facebook and Twitter. This is how they came across Amanda Musumeci, a young and talented online tournament pro.