2008 WSOP Day 15: Tao of Five with Wicked Chops Poker

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

After two tough weeks, I finally had my "Office Space" day when I came in and just spaced out and pretend to work. I really tried to work, but there were too many distractions, so I went with the flow. It was a relaxing day for me as I ended up getting sloshed at a party at Bare Pool at the Mirage.

I managed to finish up an interview with the hombres at Wicked Chops Poker for the latest installment of Tao of Five.


I first met WCP at the 2005 WSOP. They came out for the main event and we hit it off right away. We've been tight ever since and it's been a sheer joy to see them flourish and become what they are. As one media member joked, "Pics of hot chicks? Nah, I only read Wicked Chops Poker for the articles."

What I love the best about WCP is that they just don't give a shit what anyone thinks about them and that attitude is why they managed to succeed over the years. Dozens of ripoff sites and hack wanna-bes tried to "borrow" from the WCP model, but they have come and left, since none of them have the snarky wit and an amazing eye for talent.

For the last four years, Wicked Chops Poker is among the first couple of sites I read everyday. Doesn't matter if I'm in Las Vegas, Sweden, New Zealand, or Hollyweird... I love Wicked Chops Poker.

Anyway, without further ado, here's an interview with Snake from Wicked Chops Poker Fame...

1. Pauly: So when did you guys make the decision to go with full blown tits and ass on Wicked Chops Poker?

Snake: When we started Wicked Chops Poker, we all played poker a lot and had been playing for years out of Atlanta and then we'd go to Tunica or L.A. to play poker and we wanted to start writing about poker and that journey. It was going to be more personal when we started off but then it organically evolved it what it is. We knew there were other blogs out there doing personal stories, and blogs like Tao of Poker that had more of a journalistic approach and story telling. We wanted to find our own niche.

It was right before or during the 2005 WSOP when things changed. There was a photo of April Soctt that we like and we tried to connect it somewhat to poker. We needed an excuse and since she was a model for one of the poker sites we went with it. From that point on when we posted post a pic of a hot girl we tried to find an excuse to connect each girl with poker. After a while, it was just poker and an unrelated photo of a hot chick. We're a big fan of sites out there like Hollywood Tuna for example that post lots of photos of famous models and celebrities. We wanted to combine that element with poker.

Pauly: That's smart. I think poker is fuckin' boring sometimes.

Snake: I know. I think we say on the site, "Hot girls because you can only talk about poker so much."


(Courtesy of WCP)

2. Pauly: But you guys aren't just tits and ass. You guys actually break stories and are an integral part of the best alternative media coverage of the WSOP. So you actually provide an invaluable service, right?

Snake: Absolutely. I think what we do, Wicked Chops and Tao of Poker and Pokerati, is help people who are not here keep of track of what's happening. If you just go to worldseriesofpoker.com or Poker News, you can follow along what's going on at the table. But there's so much more going on away from the tables. There's a huge room here with 300 poker tables. And there's the railbirds and cash games and the pros in the hallway. What we try to do is paint that complete picture and if you put it all together it's a pretty cool event that you see here that the mainstream poker media rarely captures. You don't see all the different elements.

Somebody commented on Tao of Poker that they were even here playing and it was so big that didn't know what was going on. But they had to read about it on your blog to figure out what was happening. This is so big. So if you put together the mainstream media and key blogs covering the WSOP, then you get a clearer picture of what's going on. It's what happens away from the tables that makes it interesting.


3. Pauly: How's your girl Anna Benson?

Snake: (Laughing) The Anna Benson thing, man, we flat out called her a bitch. It was based on our personal experience and seeing her at her table and her being a total bitch to the floor and the dealer and to the players. She was doing an interview with Gambling911 with Jennie Woo and (Jennie) brought up Wicked Chops and Anna Benson said, "Wicked Chops Poker are nobodies, the site is garbage." I actually took it as a compliment. We tried to set up a game since she was living in Atlanta at the time. But we never arranged it.


4. Pauly: Who is the most random person who reads you?

Snake: We got pros that read us. JC Tran is trying to figuring what we mean when we say "JC Tran has spectacular breasts." We don't even know what we mean by that. Since he was asking, we did a clarification post about it. I know that Gavin Smith is enjoying the photos that we are taking this year so he wants to help spot a hot girl on the rail. Daniel Negreanu enjoys the photos a lot, which could end some speculation there.


5. Pauly: Is Dan Michalski gay?

Snake: I have never seen him with a girl before, so that's like prima faca evidence that he's, you know, maybe not into girls, so the opposite of not being into girls means... you're gay or asexual. I was gonna say that I saw him at a strip club one time. He was walking in as we were walking out. He gave us a ride home. He didn't even go in. So he'd rather take a bunch of dudes back to their hotel than go into a strip club. That's even more evidence.

That's it for now.

You can check out the last installment called Tao of Five: Benjo.


Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.