Thursday, July 2, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Today is perhaps the most glamorous day of the World Series of Poker, as celebrities from the entertainment, sports and poker worlds come together for the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament. A total of 138 players bought into the $5,000 event, and as always it’s hoped that the players will voluntarily donate some of their prize winnings (most donate all) to the Ante Up for Africa charity.
This is the third year that the Ante Up for Africa charity (created by UltimateBet’s Annie Duke, actor/director Don Cheadle, and Norman Epstein) has held this event at the World Series of Poker, and it seems like every year it brings even more famous faces to the Rio–and more people who gather at the rail to see those famous faces, take pictures, and ask for autographs.
But as I said last year during last year’s Ante Up for Africa event, it’s fine to focus on the glamorous celebrities and the excitement of the tournament today, so long as you remember why this event came together tomorrow. I said that this is the third year that the Ante Up for Africa event has been held at the WSOP, and that means that the humanitarian disaster in Darfur is still going on three years on. In fact the situation suffering from the war and genocide there is more dire than ever before.
In the January 5, 2009 edition of the New Yorker Jonathan Hart wrote about aid workers from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who are trying to help a quarter of a million Sudanese living in refugee camps just across the border from the Darfur region. If you’re interested enough in the poker tournament and the celebrities playing in it to read this post, then I hope you also read Hart’s article and understand why so many people support this cause. And if my words don’t move you to learn more about the catastrophe in Darfur, then perhaps these photographs taken by Christoph Bangert at the refugee camps will:
You don’t have to become an aid worker to help the people suffering in Darfur–each and every one of us can provide in some small way that can add up to big changes. Make a donation. Write to your elected officials to make sure they don’t let Darfur fall off the world stage. And keep yourself educated about what’s happening in that part of the world. The Ante Up for Africa tournament comes one day a year, but the charity operates 365/24/7. And that’s how often their aid is needed.
Tags: 2009 wsop, Annie Duke, Ante Up For Africa, ante up for africa tournament, charity poker tournament, don cheadle, world series of poker, WSOP, wsop ante up for africa, wsop charity tournament
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Friday, March 13, 2009 - P0ker J0
Hello all:
Well what a busy couple of weeks it has been! My head is spinning (big 80’s hair and all) 
As I’m sure most of you know, Annie Duke is kicking some serious butt on the Celebrity Apprentice. The girls won again this past week and Annie is still a strong contender in the game. I love how she steps up to the plate and just gets shit done! I think the girls are all just getting to know her – but for those of us who know her here in the poker world – that is just how she is! Look out for another episode this coming Sunday. I believe that NBC will only show one of the two hours this Sunday with a full two hour episode airing next Saturday on March 21st. Keep an eye out for some news on the UB auction site. We will soon be auctioning off some products from the Celebrity Apprentice on the site. Stay tuned for more information!
So Annie and Phil just finished filming the ever popular NBC Heads Up Challenge. It will air some time in May I believe. I think there was some fierce competition. It is interesting to me to see how mainstream poker has become. So many celebrities from the entertainment world have made poker a big part of their lives. I know Annie drew Brad Garrett in the heads up and Don Cheadle also was invited to play. I am thrilled that he wore the UB logo for the event! He and Annie go way back as they co-founded Ante Up for Africa together.
So Phil has been a busy bee. He has started to embrace the technology available to everyone today. I’m pretty impressed – I won’t lie! He now has a Facebook page, he has his own YouTube channel and has just recently announced that he is twittering! (is that even a verb?) Check it out here!
Annie and P0ker H0 will not be hosting The Ultimate Poker Show on Rounders Radio this Sunday (the great Hollywood Dave will be at the mic!). They are both teaching at the World Series of Poker Academy in Vegas. Always a good crowd with lots of poker knowledge flying around. P0ker H0 even told me he went to Vegas on a private jet!! I just hope his ego doesn’t start to get big! Actually – who am I kidding?? His ego is already big enough!
Well I think that is all for now – will be back next week! Have a super week and chat soon.
P0ker J0
p.s..did anyone notice how I didn’t manage to get a Bon Jovi mention this blog?? 
I couldn’t quite find a way to get him in there.
Tags: Annie Duke, brad garrett, Celebrity Apprentice, don cheadle, Facebook, Phil Hellmuth, rounders radio, Twitter, World Series of Poker Academy, YouTube
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Sunday, January 25, 2009 - Annie Duke
On Friday I headed to Sundance to play in an event there for Ante Up for Africa (www.anteupforafrica.org). We started planning the event back a few months ago and I decided at that time I would go to Sundance and come back on Tuesday to really make a trip out of it. My boyfriend, Joe, really loves Sundance. We went there a few years ago and he just is like a kid in a candy store when he is there. So I was really excited that we had such a good excuse to go this year. We were going to see a bunch of movies, raise money for charity, get some free stuff at the gifting suites, go to some cool parties and just, in general, have a an awesome good time.
Then the inevitable happened. Two days before we were supposed to leave Joe booked a job on In Plain Sight. Now I need you to understand that this has happened the last FIVE trips we are supposed to take. Well not a job on In Plain Sight specifically, obviously. But he has book a job on something. When we went to Italy he couldn’t show up till the middle of it last Christmas. When we went to Boston for spring break he left in the middle. When we went to Hawaii for ten days this summer he couldn’t even come at all…and that was after we had planned the trip with my brother for a year! I am not kidding. We had this trip planned for a year.
Okay…so I am super cranky that he could not come. I changed my trip to leave Friday and come back first think Monday morning. I made my friend, Glen, come with me. And off I went without Joe…
So the event Friday night was great. Don Cheadle, my cofounder of AUFA found out he could come at the last minute. He thought he couldn’t get there but then had to be there for a movie premier anyway. I got to sit next to him the whole night and it was nice catching up with him and his wife, Bridgid. I think the event raised a bunch of money though I won’t know who much till mid week.
But after that, when I woke up Saturday, I just wasn’t feeling great and, frankly, wasn’t having so much fun without Joe there. I mostly just missed him. Now, I met a bunch of really great people there including our hosts for the weekend Darrell and Erin. But I started coming down with something and found myself wanting to be home so I came back to LA Sunday morning, played the UBOC championship, and then did the Rounders Radio Show with P0ker H0.
Obviously it was worth it to go up there for the AUFA event but next vacation Joe better be coming the whole time!
Tags: Annie Duke, Ante Up For Africa, AUFA, don cheadle, P0ker H0, rounders radio, Sundance Film Festival, UBOC, www.anteupforafrica.org
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Sunday, December 28, 2008 - Gene Bromberg
We’ve almost reached the end of 2008 and this is usually the time when people look back at the past year and remember all that took place. Trouble is that during the holidays most people spend the better part of a week staggering around in a tryptophan coma or an alcoholic stupor. I don’t know about you guys but I’m worried that I’ll have nothing left in the tank for New Year’s Eve. I’m beat. Every day it seems like I’m wolfing down a huge platter laden with ham, turkey, fish, pirogi, and various forms of potatoes. Everyone is breaking out their best cabernet sauvignons and filling the fridge with beers that don’t have the word “Lite” in their name. It’s like they say, too much of anything is bad–even excess.
So looking back at the past twelve months through this boozy haze ain’t easy. Especially if you’d like to be somewhat accurate. Fortunately I lugged my camera around for most of this year and have a few pictures that serve to jog the memory so I can remember just what the hell happened.
This is what the opening day of the 2008 World Series of Poker felt like for me, everything a blur. And only seven weeks to go!
I was covering a different event in the Brasilia Room as Phil Hellmuth was trying to win bracelet #12 in a $1,500 H.O.R.S.E event. I ran over during a break to see what was going on and was confronted by a mob around the outer feature table. Usually there are only a handful of people around that table, but of course Phil knows how to draw a crowd. I held my camera in the air, squeezed the trigger, and hoped I got something good. This picture was taken at 12:30am, by the way, so lots of people thought the best thing to do in Vegas that night was watch Phil play poker.
Annie Duke and Don Cheadle address the crowd during this year’s Ante Up for Africa tournament. I was off that day but of course I went to the Rio hoping to get some photos of the celebrities attending the event. And so were about a thousand other people. I went to the person guarding the main opening and asked to be admitted, and he looked at me like I was something he’d scraped off his shoe and told me no way. I didn’t have the proper media pass, you see. I headed to the media room to see about getting that pass when the guy in line behind me got my attention and whispered that no one was checking passes at the Brasilia Room’s other doors. I opened the door, went inside, and no one bothered me as I took pics to my hearts delight. It just goes to show that it’s never a good idea to ask permission. Do the deed first, THEN ask for permission. Life is much easier that way.
A few pics from the Ante Up for Africa event:
While I wandered around and took photos a quintet of female masseuses were waiting outside the ropes waiting for the tournament to start. They asked which celebrities I’d seen in the crowd and I said, “Well, Matt Damon is…” and all five crowded around me and started pelting me with questions. “Matt Damon! Where? What table? Point!!” I hate Matt Damon.
Ray Romano I like. Why? I was taking a photo and someone came in from my left and nearly got in the shot. “Oh, I’m sorry,” the person said and paused while I snapped the shutter. “No problem,” I said and made room for him to get past. That’s when I saw the polite gentleman in question was Ray Romano. Who could buy and sell me a thousand times over. So I appreciated that.
Team UB’s Scott Ian, wearing one of those so-cool T-shirts that debuted at the WSOP. “I have to GET ONE OF THOSE SHIRTS,” I told myself as I circled Scott and snapped away.
Phil Hellmuth in his natural habitat–sitting at a table during the WSOP Main Event, with film crews in attendance. If I wasn’t sure where Phil was sitting in the Amazon Room, I just looked around for the boom mikes.
The most surreal part about this year’s World Series was seeing Tiffany Michelle, who I worked with the last two years, make her deep run in the Main Event. When play started I said, “Oh, cool, TIffany’s playing in the Main Event” and went back to work. Then she made it past the first few days and suddenly she had a pretty healthy stack. And then on Day 5 or so she wins some huge pots and we started thinking, “Holy crap, she could actually WIN this thing”. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as Tiffany finished 17th, which is still pretty freaking incredible. If you saw ESPN’s coverage you probably saw a bit where Tiffany was eating french fries at the table and catching flack from Scott Montgomery and Craig Marquis about it. Ladies and gentlemen, here is a picture of Tiffany Michelle’s fries:
When she finished the floor staff picked up her tray and put it…on the table I was working at. Which gives you an idea of how I rank out there. Anyway, the fries smelled really good, and I was really hungry, and people kept walking by my table and snagging a quick snack. But I held off, in part because at the time Tiffany still had a ton of chips and there was the very real possibility that she’d make the final table and maybe even be the next World Champion, and I was calculating how much I could sell her leftover fries for on eBay. Then I got my self-esteem back in order and had someone take the tray away.
By the time the field was reduced to ten players and one table my work was done, but of course I wasn’t going anywhere until the November Nine was locked in. I found a perch and took a few shots of the final-table play:
We finished up around 4:30am, had a few cocktails afterwards, and I got home around…noon. Before I left Vegas for good I went back to the Rio to cash in a few chips and see what the place looked like now that the Series had wrapped up. The crews didn’t waste any time breaking down the Amazon Room:
Hmm, this seems long enough already and I only posted pics from the WSOP. I think I’ll pause here before delving into the Aruba Poker Classic and whatever else I have in my folders. Because that’s going to be a marathon by itself.
Tags: 2008 world series of poker, 2008 wsop, amazon room, Annie Duke, blog world series of poker, blog wsop, don cheadle, espn, matt damon, Phil Hellmuth, poker blog, poker photographs, poker photos, poker pictures, Poker Poker Poker, ray romano, Scott Ian, Tiffany "Tiffany M" Michelle, tiffany michelle wsop, world series of poker, world series of poker photos, world series of poker pictures, WSOP
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