Trishelle Cannatella Wins Trash Talk Championships
The name Trash Talk Championship may lead you to believe that poker at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was down and dirt Saturday afternoon, but in reality it was all smiles, fun and money for a good cause as celebrities and poker pros alike took part in the charity poker event. The $1,000 + $70 event drew more than sixty participants and helped to raise money for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The tournament’s field included a host of celebrities like “Curb our Enthusiasm’s” Cheryl Hines, artist Michael Godard, Nancy Cartwright, Shaun Sipos of “Melrose Place”, Nicholas Gonzalez, director Joe Reitman and Dennis Haskins, better known to most people as Mr. Belding on “Saved By the Bell.” Big poker names turned up as well, including Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho, Kathy Liebert and the stable of Victory Poker sponsored pros. The group includes Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, Alec “traheho” Torelli, Lee Markholt, Paul Wasicka, Brian Rast and Dan “Blitz” Bilzerian just to name a few. Victory served as one of the sponsors for the event, which included a red carpet walk, silent auction, cash games and an after party as part of the festivities.
Half of the prize pool was set aside for Osbourne’s foundation and, though Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne were not in attendance, the sent a message to the field expressing their gratitude that people were spending time and money supporting the cause. All told, more than $11,000 was raised to benefit the foundation.
As the tournament got underway, while there was certainly a little trash talking, most of the participants were down to have as much fun as possible, ordering drinks, making prop bets and filming numerous segments for the forthcoming online television network, Victory.tv. To sweeten the prize pool, bounties ranging from a bottle of Ketel One vodka to a free pair of shoes were placed on random players’ heads.
The theme of the day appeared to be girl power, as a large number of women both took part in the event and found themselves in a position to take the whole tournament down. By the time the final table was set, the field was split between guys and girls, including reality television star and Absolute Poker sponsored pro Trishelle Cannatella, Plaboy Playmate of the Year and Victory Poker Team Pro Sara Underwood and Markholt. Valerie Torelli, mother of Alec Torelli, also made the final table and seemed to be the crowd favorite with nine to go. Railbirds kept cheering on “Mama Torelli,” but she couldn’t overcome her short stack and made an early exit from final table play.
The fun and games continued even after the final table was set as a crowd gathered around to take in all the action. Some of the pros took to playing “Johnny Lodden Thinks,” but, oddly enough, the game’s co-founder Esfandiari was not one of the people taking part. In between Lodden Thinks bets, Markholt was doing his best to get wagers going on who was going to win the event. Despite being the most experienced poker player at the final table, Markholt spent wanted to put his money on the fact that one of the remaining ladies in the field would take the tournament down.
Markholt’s prediction was correct and it was a woman who ended up being the last player standing once all was said and done. Cannatella jumped out to a huge chip lead during four-handed play when her A-K held up against Underwood’s K-J to eliminate Underwood in 4th place. Cannatella inherited Underwood’s sizeable chip stack and began putting her chip advantage to use by moving in on her remaining two opponents. After eliminating Markholt in 3rd place, it only took fifteen minutes or so before the tournament was over and Cannatella was crowned the champion.
Cannatella almost didn’t make it to the final table though. Thinking she would just make a brief appearance at the tournament, she booked her flight back to Los Angeles for 8PM and found herself facing a tough decision with two tables remaining; stay and play or make her flight. “I was playing really well, but I kind of donked off half my stack because I thought I was going to be leaving,” Cannatella told Poker News Daily. She was able to grind her way back into contention though and it paid off with a high profile victory for a good cause. In addition to the prize money, Cannatella also received a seat in the upcoming WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in California and a 20-pound custom crystal trophy.
Related Poker Tournaments News:
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Useful poker information:
- HOYLE - Edmund Hoyle (1769-?) was the authoritative source for rules of card games. Hoyle is to card rules as Webster is to word definitions.
- PASSED OUT. - A hand in which nobody opens. What happens next is a function of the game being played.
- COLD CALL - Calling both a bet and raise at the same time, as opposed to calling a bet then later calling a raise made after the call.
- FREEZE-OUT - A table-stakes game that continues until a small number of players (possibly only one) has all the money. The major event in The World Series of Poker is a freeze-out game.
- TOP TWO PAIR - In flop games, having hole cards that make the highest possible two pair hand.
- LOCK - A hand that cannot be beat under any circumstances. Also: NUTS.
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