:: Shane Warne and 888Poker activities

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

The Crown Poker Room recently hosted one of the most exciting poker events this year, the Celebrity Bounty Tournament featuring Shane Warne. Poker enthusiasts came from far and wide for the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas as part of the 888poker team in the World Series of Poker.

Celebrities such as Nathan Buckley, Les Hill, Kelly Landry, Gary Ablett Jnr, and Daniel MacPherson hosted the sixteen tables in the High Limit Area in a thrilling tournament which saw Nathan Buckley first out. Lauren Phillips and Les Hill were the last two celebrities knocked out leaving Jeff Fenech the only Celebrity Bounty remaining.

Fenech, closely watched by his son Beau, managed to blitz the table. Alongside him, Rosa Crea from Victoria and Arif Mehmet from New South Wales, the lucky ones winning the opportunity to fly to Las Vegas to join Shane Warne and the 888poker team, a package worth $17,000 each!

Celebrities who took part included Shane Warne, Jeff Fenech, Nathan Buckley, Les Hill, Gyton Grantley, Gary Ablett Jnr, Lauren Phillips, Daniel MacPherson, Kelly Landry, Kevin Harrington, and Klara Lisy.

Major prize - Jeff, Rosa and Arif win $10,000 US buy-in to WSOP, flights to Las Vegas, accommodation for ten nights and spending money worth $17,000 each.

Pictures of the event coming soon, plus more about Shane Warne's upcoming poker activities.

********************************************************

**Update as at July 1, 2008**

Here is the timetable of events that Shane Warne and his poker playing team will participate in during the stay in Las Vegas.

Tuesday, July 1 - Official 888poker party at the Lamborghini Showroom hosted by Shane Warne with special guest Jeff Fenech and the Australian and UK poker players that have won the chance to visit Las Vegas and play in the World Series of Poker.

Wednesday, July 2 - Media call at Sunset Park in Las Vegas (10.00am) followed by exhibition cricket match with the Las Vegas cricket team and Joe Hachem and Jeff Fenech with other potential special guests/celebrities.

From 1.00pm it's the red carpet event for the Ante Up for Africa event with Hollywood celebrities. The charity poker game starts at 2pm at the Rio Hotel and Casino.

Friday, July 4 - Shane Warne and Jeff Fenech playing in the World Series of Poker Main Event from 12noon. This is the first day of the competition for Shane and Jeff.

*************************************************************************

**Update as at July 11, 2008**

Shane Warne's Poker reign is over…making it to Day 3 in the World Series Of Poker. He busted out only 70 places from the prize pool, having finished 740th out of
approx 7,000 starting players - a great effort. Warney is very disappointed but did extremely well in his first tournament - the richest tournament in the world.

More news to come as Shane now flies to London.

For poker enthusiasts….

Warne went into Day 3 with 100,100 in chips.
A couple hours into play he called all in on a flop of 7 4 2 with pocket eight's in his hand (88). The eights held up against his opponents Ace-Eight (A8) and Warne eliminated a player and was up to 160,000 in chips and cruising along.

He was then unlucky losing pots with 77 vs Ace-Queen (AQ player all in before the flop) and losing with Ace-King against a worse hand. He was then down to just less than 100,000.

The final hand for Warne:
Anahit Galajian moved all in from the cut-off after it was folded around to her. Shane Warne called from the button before Steven Landfish re-raised enough to put Warne all in. Warne made the call so we had a three-way showdown.

Galajian: {J-Hearts}{9-Hearts}
Warne: {10-Diamonds}{10-Spades}
Landfish: {A-Spades}{K-Clubs}

The board ran {A-Clubs}{Q-Spades}{3-Diamonds}{4-Clubs}{8-Spades}. The ace was enough to give us a double-knockout including Cricket legend, Shane Warne. He got his chips in with the best hand and was a little unlucky.