This first WSOPE event of 2008 is shaping up to be a good one. Daniel Negreanu ended Day 1A of WSOPE Event #1 (£1,500 No Limit Hold’em) as the chip leader, stacked at 74,900.

Poker After Dark is running a new tournament next week, featuring Mike Matusow, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, David Williams, Clonie Gowen, and Gavin Smith. Newsbites from the comments : Follow what’s going on with the taping of House of Cards; read about what happened at the taping of Best Damn Poker Show season 2; and read the latest rumor about High Stakes Poker season five’s air date (last week’s prediction of HSP’s taping date was wrong).

Ultimate Bet is going to need an army of lawyers to get itself out of this mess. MSNBC just published an exclusive story on the $85 million dollar lawsuit just smacked down on UltimateBet . The $75M claim was filed by Blast-Off Ltd

The WPT Borgata Poker Open just wrapped Day 4, playing down to its TV final table. Vivek Rajkumar will take the chip lead to the final table, stacked at 6,480,000.

50 years old? Really?

Already one of the two leading poker shows among critical audiences and poker players, including myself, Poker After Dark is proving yet again that it can stay ahead of the curve. In addition to its normal 6-person winner-take-all freezeout tournament, also referred to as the STT, the show has added two new formats: a cash game as well as a heads up competition. The results of these were mixed, but overall the show is still clearly the head of the class in televised poker.

Ok, maybe the pros themselves don’t follow poker as closely as we all do. Pro Poker Players Talk About Their Picks for the November Nine

Day 1A of the EPT Barcelona Open brought in 292 players, none of which was half Spanish, half Dutch model Lorena Van Heerde. View more pics of her here .

“Salty” Joe Hachem was in rare typical form on ESPN, similar to his 2006 WSOP performance above. Hat’s off to ESPN for continuing to show poker players in a little more honest light this year. The most recent case in point is spotlighting “Salty” Joe Hachem being especially salty on Day 1C of the 2008 World Series of Poker

Daniel Negreanu covers a ton of topics (charity, travel, politics, WCOOP , etc.) in his latest vlog, including the 6-8 inches of water on his home floor when he returned from Sweden.

Alexandra Paressant (above) is from France, where the Partouche Poker Tour “friends and family” final table is about to start. Paressant is the chick who said she had an affair with Tony Parker (proven false) and whose ex-boyfriend Ronaldinho sued her for alleged false statements to the press.