So instead I have been filling my poker jones observing Day One of the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. Whoever determined the seating assignments for this one is a genius as “Captain” Tom Franklin and his ex-protégé Brandi Hawbaker are seated back to back. They’re within spitting distance of each other, but so far they haven’t stooped that low. Yet. If you haven’t heard anything about this saga, you must have been living under a rock for the past six months. In the poker world Brandi is bigger than Paris Hilton and right now Franklin is her Nicole Ritchie. Once big-time buds, the two had a falling out when Franklin made the mistake of hitting on the poor lass. I would feel a little sorrier for her if she hadn’t posed for countless half-nude photos that are now splashed all over the internet.

Hawbaker seems too busy at the moment flirting with her entire table to bother with Franklin. Sitting on her left, Paul Wolfe seems particularly mesmerized. Meanwhile, Franklin is trying to keep afloat with a small stack and Phil Ivey sitting directly across the table from him.

Speaking of Ivey, he was the subject of my favorite Railbird Moment of the Series so far. Yesterday, a guy with a cop moustache and greasy 70s hair tapped me on the shoulder and asked if the man at the table in front of him was Phil Ivey. “That’s got to be Phil Ivey,” Cop Moustache assured me. “Look he’s got his blue Full Tilt hat tilted up. And look how he’s resting his chin on his fist. That’s Phil, right?”

“There’s only one problem with your logic,” I told him. “That guy’s white.”

The last time I spotted Cop Moustache he was outside the Poker Tent talking with “Dutch” Boyd. What a conversation that must be.

Brandi Hawbaker is poker's Paris Hilton.  Think about it, she's essentially accomplished nothing (in terms of a professional career), people love to hate her, and controversy follows her everywhere.  She's a bona fide drama lightning rod.  The only thing separating her from Paris Hilton is a hotel magnate father and a "leaked" sex tape.  The girl made ONE semi-deep run at a WPT event, and there was a six-page thread less than twenty-four hours after we put up the video.  Not even "Doyle Brunson Caned To Death By Jaded Ex-Midget Lover" would receive that much attention that fast.  We live in a celebrity obsessed society and, love it or hate it, Brandi Hawbaker is a celebrity...too bad it's for all the wrong reasons.

On a happier note, David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg are engaged.  We interviewed them as well (pretty funny story about how David proposed), and l say congrats.  It's not easy to maintain a relationship on the tournament circuit, but these two look like they're doing everything right.  In the tradition of high-profile couples like "Bradgelina" and "Bennifer" I originally dubbed them "Daverica," but PokerWire Radio host Joe "The King of Hairy Italian Comedy" Stapleton came up with the much funnier "Schoenmine." 

I think that one will stick.

Brandi Hawbaker is poker's Paris Hilton.  Think about it, she's essentially accomplished nothing (in terms of a professional career), people love to hate her, and controversy follows her everywhere.  She's a bona fide drama lighting rod.  The only thing separating her from Paris Hilton is a hotel magnate father and a "leaked" sex tape.  The girl made ONE semi-deep run at a WPT event, and there was a six-page thread less than twenty-four hours after we put up the video.  Not even "Doyle Brunson Caned To Death By Jaded Ex-Midget Lover" would receive that much attention that fast.  We live in a celebrity obsessed society and, love it or hate it, Brandi Hawbaker is a celebrity...too bad it's for all the wrong reasons.

On a happier note, David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg are engaged.  We interviewed them as well (pretty funny story about how David proposed), and l say congrats.  It's not easy to maintain a relationship on the tournament circuit, but these two look like they're doing everything right.  In the tradition of high-profile couples like "Bradgelina" and "Bennifer" I originally dubbed them "Daverica," but PokerWire Radio host Joe "The King of Hairy Italian Comedy" Stapleton came up with the much funnier "Schoenmine." 

I think that one will stick.

Brandi "BrandiRose" Hawbaker sets the record straight.