Clonie Gowen to be featured in Maxim

Maxim Magazine's July issue will feature a spread of the poker glamour girl Clonie Gowen. The issue will have a cover shot of Clonie Gowen and a spread of the WSOP PokerParty. Clonie Gowen is a member of Team Full Tilt and she will be playing in numerous events at this years World Series of Poker. She is not only known for her good looks but she is a stellar poker player and she will look to add to her legacy over the next month.

In related news, Clonie Gowen challenged Miss Paris Hilton to a one hundred thousand dollar heads up match with all proceeds being donated to charity. Full Tilt is putting up the money for this winner take all match. This should be quite interesting. Will Paris put all her chips in if she is dealt the Hilton Sisters? We'll find out soon enough!

So enjoy the latest issue of Maxim starring Clonie Gowen and for those of you planning on attending the WSOP, good luck and enjoy your experiences at the poker table.

The Intercontinental Poker Series

With the World Cup going on right now, and all of the countries showing their national pride what a perfect time for the poker world to televise their rendition of the World Cup by introducing the Intercontinental Poker Series. This past saturday on CBS was the first of 8 episodes to be aired. This poker event is not live as it was played out this past April at the Palms in Las Vegas.

You will see 21 poker players representing 21 different countries in the Intercontinental Poker Series. The format of this poker tournament is as follows:

Thanks to Cardplayer Magazine for the excerpts below:

Twenty-one players are divided into three tables of seven through a random draw. Each table plays a freezeout style tournament with that table’s winner advancing to the second round. The eighteen players who did not advance are divided into three tables of six players and compete for a second-chance freezeout. The three winners from each freezeout advance with the initial three into the second round.

In the second round, the six qualifying contestants play another freezeout, with the winner advancing to the final round. As in the first round, the remaining five players get a second-chance. Two winners advance to the finals.

The two finalists go heads-up in the best-of-three matches to determine the winner. The runner-up receives $150,000. The champion takes home $350,000, a trophy, and the right to be named the Intercontinental Poker Champion for his country.

This is a great format and it is definitely nice to see some changes being made to keep poker on television exciting. This will definitely be a must see event and make sure you check your local listings to see all of the poker action unfold.

Here is a list of all the entries and the countries that are represented:

Australia: Antanas Guoga
Canada: Daniel Negreanu
China: Johnny Chan
Costa Rica: Humberto Brenes
England: Dave Ulliott
France: David Benyamine
Ireland: Don O’Dea
Israel: Eli Elezra
Italy: Marco Traniello
Japan: Yosh Nakano
Lebanon: Sammy Farha
Mexico: Refugio Quintero
Norway: Thor Hansen
Pakistan: Hasan Habib
Russia: Ralph Perry
Spain: Carlos Mortensen
South Africa: Stephen Wolff
South Korea: Jimmy Cha
Sweden: Chris Bjorin
United States: Doyle Brunson
Vietnam: Chau Giang

Well until next time, good luck and enjoy your experiences at the poker tables.

WSOP Main Event going live on Pay Per View

ESPN has stepped up in the poker television rights for the WSOP and more importantly the Main Event. ESPN has agreed to a new contract that will give them the sole television rights through 2010. Along with this comes the right to broadcast every minute of the final table on pay per view until there is a winner. This is huge news for the poker enthusiast as now you will not have to wait to see the action unfold as you will have it brought to you live. Last year, I remember I was continuously refreshing my browser on a few certain websites to see the live updates, but that won't need to be done this time around, now that there is a way to see this action live.

ESPN is going to continue its delayed versions of the events for those that do not want to get the pay per view or for those that want to watch the other events as well. These events will begin airing on ESPN every tuesday beginning on July 18th. For those that are living in Canada and cannot receive ESPN, TSN has yet to announce its television schedule.

My suggestion to you is go out and get this pay per view and watch the tremendous poker players go to work at the biggest poker tournament in the business.

WSOP H.O.R.S.E Event

This event will be the first of its kind in the World Series of Poker and this could legitimize the greatest poker player alive. This event combines the skills of a poker player in all facets of the game. H.O.R.S.E is a combination of (in Limit form) Texas Holdem, Omaha Holdem, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and either Omaha eights or better or seven card eights or better. Obviously this will show which player has a complete game and not a focus in only one game. This will definitely test the players and their ability to understand and dominate each type of poker. If a player is weak in one of these skill sets they had better get their act in gear before they put in the entry fee of $50 thousand dollars. You read that correctly, the buy-in for this event is Fifty Grand. With this amount of a buy-in you are only going to see the greatest poker players on the planet sign up for this one. This will be one exciting PokerParty to watch and see the action unfold.

I'll throw the question out there, Is this event going to take over the "Best Player" classification instead of the Main Event? It will take a little time to make this classification, but it will no doubt challenge the main event for most exciting PokerParty final tables, no doubt.