Monday, July 24, 2006

PokerShare.com Sponsors Mikey The Chimp At The WSOP

Yes, the rumors are true. PokerShare.com is sponsoring Mikey the Chimp at the 2006 World Series of Poker. Yours truly will be at the press conference at the Palms Hotel where Mikey and his trainers will tell us about Mikey’s professional poker training for the WSOP and on Chimpanzee’s cognitive abilities.

“Everyone has heard about the intelligence of primates and Mikey is one of the smartest around. PokerShare.com is confident that our purchase of a seat to the World Series of Poker will get put to good use by Mikey,” says, Lucan M. Toh, CEO of PokerShare.com.

HAIRY SITUATION FINDING A POKER-PLAYING MONKEY?
There are very few primates that have the cognitive ability of Mikey. “After a gruelling search across North America,” says Lucan Toh, CEO of PokerShare.com, “we have spent our efforts on one lucky chimp.” Mikey has been professionally trained to recognize the colors and shapes of suits and numbers. His favorite move is going “all in” but don’t tell his competition. His website, WWW.MONKEYSHARE.NET will show video footage of this chimp practicing his “all in” moves with his trainers.

BANANAS OR CHIPS?
With spectators going bananas for this animated chimp, Mikey will be playing for chips! He wants cold hard cash for his retirement, which has become a more serious problem for show business animals. After chimps perform for several years, they must retire, and like humans, live off of their earnings for the rest of their lives. Mikey’s trainers are available to comment on Mikey’s retirement plan and where he hopes to retire, should he win the 2006 WSOP.

MIKEY CHALLENGES MEDIA TO HEAD’S UP MATCH!
After his press conference at the Palms, Mikey will also challenge a journalist to a live poker match. Journalists and producers will receive a banana split and share in cold Bannarama Vodka Blended’s at the press conference.

CHIMP OR CHUMP?
Mikey the chimp will be sending all of his losing opponents BACK to next year’s World
Series of Poker (WSOP), compliments of Pokershare.com. That’s right, Pokershare.com will sponsor his losing victims to get right back up after defeat, and play again for free in the 2007 World Series of Poker!

Pokerzone TV to promote classic Skill Game

GameAccount Launches Televised Backgammon

#1 online skill gaming provider GameAccount and Pokerzone will collaborate to bring viewers live Backgammon via Pokerzone’s global Poker and gaming lifestyle channel (www.pokerzone.tv) available via satellite, cable and broadband television.

The partnership means that Pokerzone will use live in-game footage taken from GameAccount’s WorldGammon brand and destination site (www.worldgammon.com) to educate and stimulate interest in this classic parlour game. Backgammon has a huge worldwide player base and its legal status as a pure game of skill has ensured a dedicated online audience as well. Hundreds of thousands of people enjoy a daily game of virtual Backgammon, from recreational newcomers to the more serious experienced pros.

Pokerzone (Sky Channel 843) will drive the editorial content and draw on GameAccount’s existing expertise to demonstrate the appeal of Backgammon to a targeted gaming audience. Each episode will last 3 hours for an initial run of 12 episodes, as well as additional repeats, every weekend, starting this October.

This unique collaboration marks the first time online players will be used to specifically promote and demonstrate Backgammon. Pokerzone have already achieved a track record in televising Backgammon, debuting the world’s first televised matchplay Backgammon event in addition to a series of lifestyle documentaries surrounding the “Sport of Kings” in 2005.

Celebrity Guest Beats Regular at Free Hold’em Tournament

Star of ACES the Movie Wins Wednesday Free Roll at Aces.com

She said she practiced a lot for her role in ACES the Movie and has been playing a lot since then, and it was obvious as she quite tidily won the weekly Free Roll Tournament at Aces.com last week. Much to the surprise of everyone at the final table – including her -- Lacey Toups, star of the sexy new poker movie that Aces.com is sponsoring, wound up triumphant with over 50,000 in chips.

Toups battled it out at the Final Table with an Aces.com regular who frequently places second in the weekly tournament but never manages to win. It was down to the actress, “ZevTTTP1” aka “Brill”, and a skeptic that couldn’t be convinced one of his opponents was in fact the beautiful star of the poker movie. There’s a $100 bounty for anyone that can knock out the celebrity guests at the regular tournaments over the next few weeks.

“I don’t know if the guy didn’t think it was really the girl from the movie playing poker with them,” said Toups, “Or if he just couldn’t believe that a pretty girl could be beating him so badly!”

“coolnike305” ended up head-to-head with Toups and placed second in the free tournament. The manager of Aces.com made him a believer by awarding him the special prize for the evening -- an all expense paid trip to Aces.com’s DVD Release Party in Los Angeles later this summer.

“Lacey told me she wasn’t that great a player, so we honestly didn’t expect her to win.” laughed Aces.com Manager Rene Quesada. “We’re giving the prize to the second place player, so he’ll get to meet Lacey and the rest of the cast at the Party. We’ll be giving away lots more prizes like that, and lots of free DVDs too.”

“It was a really fun tourney. It felt really cool to win. It was funny because I didn't think I would win something that I was involved in for other reasons!” said Toups from her home in Florida the morning after her online victory. “I guess I really am getting better at this game! My boyfriend plays and I have learned a lot from him. Like when to fold and when you just gotta go all in!”

This Wednesday night (11:00 pm EDT), Christina Morris, the cheating trio’s leader in the movie and director Daniel Zirilli will be the special guests at Ace.com’s free Texas Hold’em Tournament. Sheena Chou, who plays the spoilt Chinese schoolgirl in the movie, says Zirilli is good, but she pummeled him one night while on location in Rio de Janeiro. She’ll host the online tournament the following week.

This weekend, Aces.com is bringing the cast to Las Vegas to enjoy a few days of the World Series of Poker.

“Apparently there’s a huge billboard with the three of us up on The Strip, right outside The Stardust” said Morris. “I can’t wait to take a picture of that!”

The cast will report on their adventures in Las Vegas July 27 – 31 in their blog, which will include audio podcasts (Episode 2) from all the parties and events the stars will be attending.