The annual WPT Celebrity Invitational took place with the final table set for 2nd March, 2011 the participants have been set. Find out what happened here.
The World Poker Tour hosted its popular annual Celebrity Invitational event this past weekend at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. This ‘invite-only’ show piece attracts some major Hollywood stars and celebrities to the red carpet with past attendees including such famous faces as Jennifer Tilly and Jerry Buss. This year saw a long line of established names turn up including Oscar nominee John Hawkes, music artist Chaka Khan and actor Lou Diamond Phillips.
Living up to its reputation as ‘the exciting and fun tournament on the circuit’ this event did not disappoint. Individuals such as Don Cheadle, Corey Feldman and Rikki Lake got involved to add some glamour to proceedings whilst poker professionals such as Phil Laak, Mark Seif and Eric Cloutier got stuck in to add some respected poker prestige to the star-studded field of 482 players.
Taking place over two days some intense humor, serious poker playing and general banter was enjoyed by all those who participated and watched on as poker professionals, movie stars, TV faces, musicians, sports stars and other famous names from the celebrity world did their best to make the final table of six players, taking place in March.
$95,000 was raised through re-buys with the World Poker Tour adding $5,000 to make it a round $100,000. All of the money raised will go the non-profit organization Chrysalis which helps place the poor and homeless into jobs in an effort to help them get their lives back up and running.
After two days of competitive action that consistently had a ‘holiday camp’ atmosphere to it – all in the name of a worthy cause – the six players for the final event were decided. The world of chess heralded two of the tournament’s main stars. Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva are two of the highest ranked chess players in the world. Clearly their chess skills are transferable to poker given there success here. Lawyer Damon Schramm battled as if he was in a court room to take the third seat at the final table. Surely this is the conviction he really wants! Poker professionals George Rechnitzer, Davidi Kitai and Dan Heimiller were flying the flag for the professionals as they forced their way into the final table. A few times they went toe-to-toe during the tournament in hands that could have seen one of them be eliminated.
So the main event final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational will see three celebrities taking on three poker professionals in a really mouth-watering showdown. Can the chess alliance of Skripchenko and Khaziyeva bring poker glory to their preferred discipline? Can the lawyer overcome the odds and run wild? Or will the poker professionals prevail and keep the title within the poker profession? It’s going to be one hell of a final table!
