Bodog Beat

Bodog poker pro showed off her sick Guitar Hero skills for a wowed crowd at the 2008 World Series of Barbecue. (Bodog Beat Image)

So, this is the week that everybody hangs on for through the grind of all 53 preliminary events at the 2008 WSOP. The week in which all of the online poker rooms and other poker-related companies throw their "lavish" parties in the hopes of proving themselves the coolest, hippest, most whateverist place to play online poker or with which to be associated. All really futile since everyone know that Bodog has held that title since the midget ninjas and body-painted girls at Tao two years ago.

However, they keep trying and we keep enjoying the fruits of those labors and last night it was the World Series of Barbecue hosted by Howard and Suzie Lederer and Steve Zolotow, featuring a charity poker tournament to benefit Phil Ivey's Budding Ivey Foundation. After much wrangling to get on lists and what-not, we walked up to the entrance to the Tank pool at the Golden Nugget and were given wristbands with no question or reference to any said list….whatever.

We gotta hand it to the Lederers/Zolotow, the Golden Nugget's pool is one of the classier places in Downtown Vegas and a great spot for a pool party, and they managed to not have the place packed with socially-awkward poker players with pasty white skin. The drinks flowed nicely, the buffet was well-appointed with Greek food and the drinks were flowing nicely….wait.

Anyway, it was pretty hot but we wanted to stick around to see Bodog poker pro Evelyn Ng put on another display of ridiculous Guitar Hero skills, especially after being wowed by her performance against PokerNews, and she did not disappoint. She played "Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins on expert level almost to perfection and then asked who wanted to compete. When absolutely no one responded, she realized that she had forgotten to mention that people would be playing against each other and not her. After that, the hands went up and the kids took the stage to prove that we are getting old are are bad at video games.

After that, we went to, umm, the….uh…have we mentioned the drinks? There's something in the fog about a craps table at the Nugget and there's extra money in our pockets today…so, needless to say we think things went well from there.

Tonight is the Bluff Magazine party at Sapphire, which promises to be waaaaay better than it was last year, so after a few hairs of the dog, we'll probably enjoy ourselves immensely and then sober up in time for the Bodog VIP shindig tomorrow night. Stick around and we'll make it vicariously worth your while.