Poker Stars, TV Stars, Wannabees & More
Everywhere we look today there are poker players in tournaments being filmed by Hollywood camera crews making a television show. Is it poker or is it showbiz? Will the new breed of super player we discussed earlier come with a SAG card? This Tuesday at Sam’s Town the pilot episode of the Final Table Challenge will be played and filmed. Nine players from around the country will join one wildcard player for a Final Table showdown and $50,000 first place money. The tournament will then be edited with some sitcom type stuff featuring a regular cast of actors. Depending on the success of this first pilot, the tournament and the TV show may become a weekly offering on national television with a different group of players joining the regular cast each week. The finale will be the winners of the weekly shows playing in a semi-final round leading up to the final main event. Not only can you win a big pile of money but you will become a nationally known poker champion. The audience for this show at the Sam’s Town Live showroom will be on a first come seating basis.
The WPC, Women’s Poker Club, tournament at the downtown Horseshoe will begin their main event tomorrow, Saturday, at 9:00 am. The Horseshoe’s daily 2:00 pm No-Limit Hold’em tournament will also be available. 
Anyone with an extra $1000 can take a hike down Fremont to the Plaza Hotel and enter the Ultimate Poker Challenge where you will be joined by another fifty to one hundred poker players, amateur and professional, attempting to qualify for a seat in the semi-finals and then on to the final event with millions in prize money. The action at the Plaza gets underway at noon. All of the Ultimate events are filmed and are currently being broadcast on national TV. Just another opportunity to become a showbiz star. The Four Queens Poker Classic is one more downtown tournament in full swing. I have only covered downtown. Poker tournaments at the strip casinos and the outlying local rooms add up to 24/7 live poker tournaments here in Las Vegas. Poker players have their choice of tournaments action.
The players that fit into the “I’m already rich and famous” class can rest comfortably knowing that Bravo is committed to another round of the “Celebrity Poker Showdown.” They have signed up twenty-five new celebrity players and even have a new sponsor, NetZero, after the former sponsor, Cingular, dropped out because the players were drinking cocktails and uttering bleeped curse words. Can you just imagine that? Celebrities, alcohol, cussing and poker all on the same TV show, the shame of it all. Yea right. Makes me want to throw my damn Cingular cell phone into the bleeping dumpster.
Rumor says the All In Magazine will be offering another issue in the near future. The web site has been updated with a new cover shot; but, no information is available as to when we can expect to receive our copy.
The latest Four Queens Poker Classic event play-by-play from Debbie Burkhead
can be found in the extended entry. The Nine's List and more poker happenings around Vegas tomorrow.
By Debbie Burkhead
Yohanes Muruz Storms Through the Final Nine
to Capture 1st Place in the No-Limit Hold’em Event
Today’s No-Limit Hold’em event drew 130 players and created a prize pool of $20,661.
There were 20 minutes remaining in level 10 with $100-$600 blinds and a $100 ante.
Jordan Mayors went to the final table in the lead with $24,000, Yohanes Muruz was in second with $23,200, Tom Brownscombe was in third with $19,800, Gary Schneider was in fourth with $16,700, Maximo Martinez was in fifth with $12,600, Ron McMillan was in sixth with $12,500, Tim Ramsey was in seventh with $8,300, Herb Vandyke was in eighth with $6,800, Mike Moskowitz was in ninth with $4,200 and Mike Pugliese was trailing with $2,000.
Shortly after the final table play began Herb Vandyke called all-in with Jh-10h against Max’s pocket queens. Herb flopped a straight flush draw but neither the turn or the river helped his hand and the pocket queens took the pot. Herb took 9th place and $755 for his finish.
On the very next hand Ron McMillan moved all his chips in with pocket queens only to get called by Gary Schneider with pocket rockets. The board brought no help for Ron and he had to settle for an eighth place finish and $1,135 in cash.
Just after Ron’s departure Tim put all his chips in with 7-8 of spades and got called by Gary holding 7-10 of hearts. The board came 7-5-5-3-9 and Gary’s 10 was the key card. Tim had to settle for a 7th place finish and pocketed $1,515.
At 7:45 the blinds rose to $500-$1,000 with a $100 ante.
Maximo Martinez was the next casualty when he took his A-K against Yohanes’ pocket kings. Maximo took $2,270 for his 5th place finish.
It wasn’t long after Max departed the final table that Tom Brownscombe was collecting $3,025 for his 4th place finish. Tom put the remainder of his chips in with 10-2 against Yohanes’ pocket eights, big mistake, Yohnanes was knocking players out left and right and Tom was no exception. Tom pocketed $3,025 for his 4th place finish.
Gary was the next player to take on Yohanes and once again Johanes sent him to the rail. Yohanes flopped a straight draw and the turn card finished it off. Gary took 3rd place and $3,785.
At heads up, Yohanes was in the lead by $18,000 and Jordan offered Yohanes a deal he couldn’t refuse. Jordan took 2nd place and $6,880.
Yohanes was declared the no-limit champion and took home 1st place bragging rights and $12,480 in cash along with a beautiful chip set trophy.