Ben Affleck - legitimate poker champ?

[Josh]

The gambling-happy thesp took top honors at the California State Poker Championship Sunday, besting a field of 90 players and pocketing a $356,400 purse.


Affleck was the first celeb ever to triumph at a major poker tournament, and officials at the L.A.-area Commerce Casino, which hosted the event, said they expected to see more of him on the pro circuit.


"This is not likely the last time you'll see Ben Affleck at one of our final tables," said spokeswoman Nancy Friedman. "He has become a respected member of the poker elite and continues to work to improve his game."


The victory secured the Daredevil star a buy-in spot in the World Poker Tour Championship next year, which is expected to pay out about $7 million in prize money to the planet's shrewdest poker players.


In a brief post-play speech, Affleck said he got lucky and was glad he proved that he was not a "complete donkey" at cards by besting poker pro Stan Goldstein, who came in second, and Castle Rock Entertainment honcho Chuck Pacheco, who finished in third place.


Fellow actor Tobey Maguire (news) didn't show the same card-playing mettle--he was knocked out in the first day of the three-day tourney.


The victory was redemption of sorts for Affleck. A known frequenter of Vegas casinos, the Oscar winner wound up losing to Sex and the City's Willie Garson on the inaugural episode of Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown. Then again, he was only playing for a children's charity, instead of his own bank account.


So Affleck will always have his poker-playing prowess to fall back in case of career crisis--but as of now, the Beantown native has plenty ahead on his shooting schedule.


He'll next be seen in Surviving Christmas, opposite Christina Applegate (news) and James Gandolfini (news), in which he'll star as a lonely record exec who rents a family to spend Christmas with him. The film is due out this November.


Affleck will also star in Glory Road, the story of how coach Don Hoskins led an all-black basketball team to victory at the 1966 NCAA (news - web sites) National Championship. The film was scheduled to start shooting this month and is due out next year.


In addition, he and hometown pal Matt Damon (news) are currently working on selecting the finalists for the third season of their pet project, Project Greenlight.

[Cogito]

I heard about this, and damn... it rules.

Anyone follow the celebrity poker thing on Bravo?

Samwise, halfwise. Dang.

[Matt]

My best friend is from Texas originally. He has a friend who just finished 2nd, I believe, in the 2004 World Series of Poker. I think he pulled in 3.5 million. DOH!! He was an amateur who made it in through internet poker, I believe. I think the new season of WSoP begins on ESPN next week.

[Cogito]

Impressive -- wuts his nane?

[Matt]

I'll call my friend tonight and ask. I remember the guy tells the show that he is attending SMU but that's a lie. lol He was kicked out of Princeton at one point though.

[Josh]

The great thing about Affleck is he isn't even playing in the celeb version, he's playing in the REAL DEAL.

That's pretty cool.

:)

At least his gambling addiction is good for something.

[7therror]

Hey Matt are you talking about Moneymaker? I can't remember his first name, but he actually won the 2003 championship.

He never played in tournaments before, only on the internet.

[Luthien Tinuviel]

I love Celebrity Poker Showdown! It's a fun show :D

[garfield hates mondays]

Ditto.

[Deus Ex Machina]

Chris Moneymaker.

My roommate is obsessed with watching reruns of the 2003 WS on ESPN. I think he's seen the final hands from 2002 and 2003 around a hundred times. *sighs* Why couldn't he be a Law and Order fan?

What is this Celebrity Poker Showdown? I don't need any new addictions, but that sounds interesting.

[Cogito]

The celebrity poker show is excellent. Dave Foley is hilarious as the host.

Sean Austin was on the show, and got knocked out RIGHT away -- the poor dude just had NO damn idea how to play, and made some really awful decision -- combine that with some bad luck, and boom, yer gone, baby! I felt bad for him.

Matthew Perry was the only other celebrity I recognized, and he did a lot better, but played WAY too tight.

The winner was some stunningly good looking actress in a green dress, who apparently had no poker playing experience at all, but played like a genius -- it was poetry in motion; she bullied people, stole pots and just pwned everyone's ass. And, she also pulled out a damn funny "Oh I'm just a girlie" act a couple of times, betting "this many green chips" when she was heads up against a dude who seemed to be pretty good.

I think there's an episode coming with James Woods, which I'm REALLY looking forward to.

[crappertay]

I preferred the low-key poker tourneys on TV. They're getting overblown now. One I watched a while back there was practically no room on the table the two remaining guys were trading so many chips. Nuts.

[Matt]

I talked to my friend. My short term memory is horrid but I think he said they guy's name is Dave Anderson (or Henderson, lol I'll have to call again) he is in the 2004 Tourney of Poker on ESPN which begins on Tuesday I think. He finished 2nd and won 3.5 million approximately.

[Deus Ex Machina]

Originally posted by Matt UGA
I talked to my friend. My short term memory is horrid but I think he said they guy's name is Dave Anderson (or Henderson, lol I'll have to call again) he is in the 2004 Tourney of Poker on ESPN which begins on Tuesday I think. He finished 2nd and won 3.5 million approximately.

Dave Williams...from Dallas, TX.
http://www.harrahs.com/wsop/event_results/FinalResults1.pdf

Ahh...there's my Google fix for the day.

[Doom]

David Cross was by far the best guy ever on Celebrity Poker last year. He was brilliant.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina
Dave Williams...from Dallas, TX.
http://www.harrahs.com/wsop/event_results/FinalResults1.pdf

Ahh...there's my Google fix for the day.

Thanks. I knew it was Dave. Dang I talked to him about 5 minutes before I posted that. I need to start writing stuff down. DANG!

[Valkary]

Laren Graham (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0334179/) from Gimore Girls is the woman who won.

Much like the overall winner from last year .Nicole Sullivan (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005474/), she was a VERY good poker player who knows a lot more about what she's doing than she lets on.

I love this show!

[Deus Ex Machina]

Women wouldn't be so good at that if men weren't such freakin' idiots. I only say that out of defense for my own gender...that, and I got hustled out of a lot of money by a beautiful woman once.

[Cogito]

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina
Women wouldn't be so good at that if men weren't such freakin' idiots...
Well, I agree there's some truth to that, but I find women tend to have sharper social skills... Of COURSE, the disclaimer: that doesn't apply to everyone -- and of course, once you get into the upper echelons of the game, the skills of individual players far outweighs any statistical, overall variance. And besides, silly antics like that only works at the lower end of the game -- you're not gonna have Phil Ivy change his play because of some batted eyelashes.

And heh, if Laren Graham really is a genuinely good poker player, case in point: I'm an idiot, low-end player, cause I genuinely believed that she was completely new at the game, heheh. Doh.

But then again, I knew that.

I once lost a hand to a grey-haired little old lady who was KNITTING at the poker table. I swear it's true. One of my fave poker stories...

In Biloxi, Mississippi, they had this bad beat thing going... (FYI, bad beat = you have a really good hand, like four of a kind, but you still lose.) Money was set aside from all hands -- just like the house cut, they'd take a little from each pot and put it in a bad beat pot. And the worst bad beat gets this jackpot once a month, or something like that...

Now, the thing here was, the "winner" wouldn't be the only one to get money -- everyone in the poker lounge would get a cut of this pot. This was done to try attract people to the poker lounge. This would make perfect sense of course...

Only, the way they played there, they didn't have forced blinds... The way they did it was, instead of having a buck and forced blinds, they'd put a white chip/buck in the pot, and whoever won the hand, would then be forced to bet that buck -- which would symbolise the opening bet (at whatever the minimum opening bet would be $1 -- $20, whatever).

So the only forced bet, would be by the player who won the hand.

And this made it possible to sit down, and never play a single damn hand, because you were never forced to make a bet.

Well, these two little old grandmothers had realized this, and would sit in the poker lounge all night and day, hoping to be there when the bad beat jackpot was paid out. I mean, it was idiotic -- they just folded every single hand... And one of them actually KNITTED at the table...

I thought, if these two old hags could get the hell outta there, we could get two proper players in there, and get some action going here. Damn old grannie bastards.

As soon as I thought that, the knitting grannie damn well decided to play a hand. And now, in retrospect, I know she could just read every single emotion that bounced around inside my neanderthal skull...

I decided to shove her around, to bully her, to bet real agressive, hell I didn't care if I was mean to her -- being nice to little old ladies, that's one thing, damnit -- this is poker...

I'm a bona-fide, real poker player too baby -- I got a nickname and all, earned it fair an square in the south: I walked into a casino and the dealer greeted me, "Well howdy Alabama, how you doin' tonight?" no shit. I've had old-timers throw their cards down in disgust, screaming "Son of a bitch!" and run from the poker room... I love poker. I screw with my friends' heads playing poker. I rather fancy myself a half-decent amateur.

Then this little gray-haired, knitting granny picked me up and just slam-dunked my sorry ass. She had kings in the hole -- it wasn't a nut hand, but she could totally see that I was just betting aggressively because I was frustrated and on tilt -- read me like a book.

She had every right to gloat, but was just totally gracious -- hell, I think she felt sorry for me.

Never, ever, ever, ever underestimate a female -- any female -- poker player.

There's no knitting in poker, damnit.

[Valkary]

Hmm i kinda mispoke. Sullivan was actually a very good poker player AND knew a lot more about playing cards than she let on.

Graham knew very little about playing cards but was a VERY good poker player because she read those people like books and toyed with them like little plastic (male) soldiers.

There are people who are good a poker and there are people who are good at cards.

You can teach just about anyone how to play cards, but good poker players are born, not made.

[Matt]

alright, Alabama.. that story was funny!

[Deus Ex Machina]

Yeah, nice one 'bama. You're right too, there is something to women being better at reading people than men.