© March 7, 2008
By Daniel Cox
Editor, Gaming Review On Line

Los Angeles – Unlike Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Wedding Crashers, my desire to crash the Celebrity Invitational had nothing to do with trying to take advantage of an unsuspecting bridesmaid, but instead by being a bridesmaid myself. I nearly received a legitimate invitation to the tournament the week before, since the winner of the LA Poker Classic Media Tournament receives a seat to the tournament. Unfortunately, I lost a highly contested heads-up battle to Justin Marchand, Card Player Magazine’s Chief Media Officer. Justin, who eventually finished fourth at the televised final table, is a quality player in his own right, having previously cashed at the World Series.

The Commerce Casino hosted The World Poker Tour (WPT) held the Sixth Annual Celebrity Invitational Poker Tournament March 1-3, 2008. This tournament is where Tinsel Town's red carpet meets poker's green felt. Some of Hollywood's brightest stars, top professional poker players, amateur players and philanthropic fans who paid up to $10,000 each through charity auctions play in a relaxed and fun-filled atmosphere. With 444 players, it is the largest televised free roll in the world. The final table prize pool exceeds $200,000 and a $25,000 WPT Championship seat is given to the winner.

II have been covering the World Poker Tour (WPT) for Gaming Review Online (http://www.GamingReview.org) for the past three years. Since I crossed off playing in a World Series of Poker event last year, playing in this tournament has been a top poker related item on my bucket list. As a media representative, I was given access to all of the pre-tournament activities. Sitting down with Kenna James, Jan Fisher and Linda Johnson at a WPT mini-Boot Camp was a educational. With me at the table was Debbie Perkins, a WPT Boot Camp veteran and friend of Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher. Going to the pre-event cocktail party and buffet was an exhilarating experience. As a budding journalist, the cocktail party was a great opportunity to pass out my card, make my name known and hopefully get visitors to my website.

The World Poker Tour’s Public Relations staff had been helpful in trying to get me an invitation. Two weeks prior to the Invitational, they put me on the stand-by list. At 7:00 PM, as the tournament was starting, word came down that all 40 tables had been filled. Feeling dejected, I was just hanging around the registration table when word that two new tables were opening up. As the two tables filled, they also opened an alternate list. As they began writing names, I handed the women behind the table my card and she placed my name on the list. Shortly thereafter, I was given a Player badge and a seating card. I went up to the media stand to get ready for the game and misplaced the seating card. I twice emptied my pockets and had a nightmare of getting this close and not getting in. After several minutes I found the card next to my computer. I got to my seat and found out it had been given away. As I headed back to the registration desk, I ran into Debbie, who spying my Player Badge asked how I got it. She followed as I walked back to the registration desk and put myself back on the alternate list. She also gave them her name, hoping to get an available seat.

At 7:20, someone busted out and finally got my shot. I said “Good Luck” to Debbie and headed to Table 19. The original word from the organizers was that the event would break at midnight. I had vowed to make it past my previous best in a major tournament when, I made it to one hand before the two-hour break at the 2007 World Series of Poker Senior’s World Championship event.

The table had a great mix of celebrities, poker professionals and amateurs. Starting with me in seat 1 and going around the table was Sid Jain, a graduate Student and semi-professional poker player who finished 26^th at the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Next was Ghost Whisperer and The Practice star Camryn Manheim. Amateur Mike Katz and an LA area musician Mike Glita were next. Seat 6 held multiple WSOP bracelet winner, professional player and Poker Hall of Fame inductee Billy Baxter. Billy was the eventual 3^rd place finisher in this event. Louis Lombardi, an actor best known for 24 and The Sopranos was at seat 7 and next to him was actor Mike Bunin best known for the home poker games on the hit show My Boys. Amateur Mike Kohn and poker professional and WPT Legends of Poker winner Joe Pelton rounded out the table.

The table was difficult to play at first, with Louis acting as the resident calling station, playing nearly every hand. Louis hit quite a few hands and Joe and Mike Kohn made some strong plays to build sizeable chip stacks. After over an hour and a half, my chips were down over a quarter from the starting levels. I had a strong hand, pairing my Queen with a quality kicker. I coaxed Sid Jain into putting me all in and took a huge portion of his chips. Not much later he was knocked out and replaced by actor Erik Paladino, most notable for his performance on ER. Erik only lasted a few hands, suffering a bad beat and being eliminated. He was replaced by poker professional and 2006 Player of the Year Chad Brown. Chad provided some excellent insight into poker play and it was enjoyable talking to him.

Our end of the table seemed to be having more fun, which may explain why the larger chip stacks were at the other end. Mike Glita did not know either the actors or the poker professionals, so we had fun convincing him Camryn was a poker professional. Camryn is a solid player, keeping up with the professionals, making solid plays. She was also fun to talk to, showing us pictures of her son and trying to set up Mike Glita, the young musician, with her assistant. It was a shame when her pocket Kings were crushed by pocket Aces. Not only did it take her out of the tournament, it took away my best conversation partner. She was replaced by Barry Woods, who spent over $9,000 for his seat at the table. Les than a hour later, Barry was gone and Haig Keligian, a long time, solid player and the owner of the Crystal Palace and Ocean’s Eleven casinos. Shortly afterward, poker professional Rodeen Talebi took over at seat 9.

After my strong hand against Sid, I went card dead and played only one hand in the next hour plus, losing when my boat was beaten by a larger one. With several amateur and manically loose players at the table, I could not delve into my usual arsenal of bluffs and feints. As time went on, my chip stack was slowly being eaten away by the blinds and antes. My original strategy was to make it to the second day, and I thought I was going to make it. My plans changed at the first break, when the organizers said the first day would be extended until around 1:15 AM. Unlike some of the nearby tables, we were not losing players at the same rate, so our chip stacks were remaining fairly constant. One table in eyeshot saw Barry Greenstein, Gavin Smith and numerous other players depart rapidly in the first couple of hours.

At 10:45 PM the table broke and I moved to seat 8 at Table 29. I had the hope that I would get to a table without the maniacal players from the first table. Unfortunately, Louis Lombardi also joined me at the new table in seat 2. Also at the new table was professional Blackjack player and Las Vegas celebrity “Hollywood Dave” Stann. Next to him was amateur Jim Cornell. Dan Alspach, a long-time professional player and husband of top WPT female player JJ Liu. Seat 6 held Brandon Hinkle, an online player who won his seat through the new Club WPT site. I ran into fellow Celebrity Crasher Debbie Perkins and her sizeable chip stack in seat 7. Debbie was later involved in a WPT first when the final table was down to seven players. From the Button, she went all in with an Ace – Five. From the small blind, Beverly Kuskol went all in with pocket eights and from the big blind, Billy Baxter’s pocket queens invoked a third all in. With nither hand improving, Billy’s ladies removed the two ladies in a tie for sixth place. To continue the pro/star to my immediate left trend,Gavin Griffin (sans the tie-dyed hair) was in seat 9. Gavin is currently 4^th on the 2008 Card Player Magazine Player of the Year list after an impressive victory in the WPT Borgata Poker Classic a few weeks ago. Filling out the table was amateur Javier Alcanter from Los Angeles.

Play was much tighter at this table, with the exception of actor Louis Lombardi. His loose-aggressive play did not prove as lucky at this table and it was not many hands before his chip stack disappeared. Soon after Louis’s departure, Academy Award winning actor, World Poker Tour Ladies night winner and WSOP bracelet wearer Jennifer Tilly joined the table in seat 1. She brought with her a huge chip stack. Apparently, the solid play from her 12^th place finish in the WPT LA Poker Classic the week before had carried over. I continued to be card dead for the first hour at the new table. Without the fear of a constant A2C challenge from Louis, I was able to pull off a couple of bluffs and blind steals. Initially, I was able to keep my chip stack constant. At one point I had a chance knock out Hollywood Dave. With blinds in the $300 - $600 range, I raised $2,000 from an early position with the Ace – Jack of diamonds. Hollywood Dave placed all in with his remaining $5,000, which I called. With Dave’s off suit Ace – Jack a chop was imminent. Two diamonds on the flop gave me hope of a near double up. No more diamonds meant my chip stack did not improve.

The blinds continued to grow as the witching hour approached. With my chip stack below four big blinds, I knew I had to make a move just to stay in the tournament a little longer. Moments before another level increase, my first face card in 15 minutes, a King, reared its ugly head. The big blind was three seats to my right. Brandon and Debbie had folded, so I raised all in. I was elated as hand after hand folded. I thought with this blind steal I had a few more hands left to catch a hand I could play. When play got to Dan Alspach in the big blind and he went into the tank, I knew I was in trouble. He had nearly a third of my bet already invested, so his call was not a complete surprise. When I flipped my King – Four I commented “Good Call.” When Dan turned a Queen – Jack I knew it was a race, but felt I had a small chance to double up. Like the hand that knocked me out of the Media Tournament for the seat in the Invitational, my hole cards did not hold up and I exited the tournament in about 150^th out of nearly 450 entrants. I looked at my watch and had to chuckle to myself as I saw that if the original plan of breaking at Midnight had held, I would have made it to Day Two.

Leaving the hall and saying some good-byes, I realized that this was still a celebrity event. Actor Ron Livingston of Standoff was out right before me so I followed him to the Celebrity Gifting area. The duffle bag I received had some very nice gifts, including certificates valued at over $3,000 for Dental and Lasik services (if you need them, drop me a line). Everything about the Sixth Annual WPT Celebrity Invitational was first class. It is no wonder that over a one hundred Hollywood stars show up to be wined, dined and pampered at the most fun-filled poker tournament in the world. With Steve Lipscomb moving the World Poker Tour to The Game Show Network at the end of March, even more viewers will see this event than ever before. Look for me on the episode set to air on the Game Show Network on July 21, 2008.