5. Clonie Gowen is a blonde beauty who’s been making money playing poker since 2002. She has 27 cashes for almost $300,000 in career tournament earnings.

4. Cindy Violette is another blonde who has 18 cashes for nearly $700,000 in tournament earnings. She has a line of women’s clothing as well.

3. Jennifer Leigh has had three cashes for $45,000 worth of winnings, but she’s been in Playboy Magazine. Lots of hot; not so much in the way of poker credit thus far.

2. Evelyn Ng is an Asian beauty from Canada. She has 20 cashes for $270,000 in tournament winnings. The hottest pure poker pro on this list.

1. Shannon Elizabeth is a genuine movie starlet who has long been considered one of the hottest girls on the planet. She has nine cashes in the last two years, including a third-place finish at the 2007 NBC National Heads-up Championship.

The Foxwoods Poker Classic went early into the morning of April 10th and it still wasn’t decided. The WPT $9,700 + $300 Championship event at the Foxwoods Resort Casino attracted 333 players playing for the $3,230,014 prize pool.

The Foxwoods Poker Classic got underway Sunday, March 24th with a $260 + $40 No Limit Hold’em Shootout. There are 10 preliminary events with buy-ins all the way up to $4,800 leading to the Championship, which began Friday, April 4th.

Three players remained: Erik Seidel, Andrew Barta and Robert Richardson. Each had around three million in chips and no one was really making any moves. It would be Seidel’s first WPT Championship if he can hold on to win. Andrew Barta has two previous cashes, one an 11th-place finish in a WPT event in 2005. Robert Richardson has no major cashes to his credit and would be considered the underdog to win it.

Jennifer Harman and her poker pro husband Marco Traniello have joined an elite group of sports clientele that the Prince Marketing Group represents. The Full Tilt Poker-sponsored poker players will join icons like Magic Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Dennis Rodman and Joe Frazier in promoting brands for the marketing company.

The couple is very popular with poker fans now that their first child has been born. They present a positive picture of a family that balances gaming and family life, with great success at both. Harman plays in the biggest poker games in the world and Marco has had numerous big tournament cashes over the last three years.

“The couple is widely recognized within the poker industry, with Jennifer the top women’s player and arguably the best poker player in the world, and Marco… top-ranked in Italy,” said a press release about the two hiring the marketing firm.

The NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship is coming up again at the end of February, and the lineup of big names is as long as ever. There are a few “dream pairings” that I’d like to see go at each other. The one I’d like to see the most would be Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth. Forrest plays a style where he looks to get in with small cards and hit a hand. This is the exact type of thing that sends the “Poker Brat” Hellmuth on tilt.

Sam Farha and Scotty Nguyen would be another good matchup. They both employ chat to gain an edge, and the banter would surely be entertaining. Mike Matusow and Michael Mizrachi would also be entertaining, as they both have a mouth on them, but it probably wouldn’t last very long. I’d also like to see Jennifer Tilly beat her boyfriend Phil Laak, and she’s capable.

David “The Dragon” Pham had 16 cashes in 2006, including six final tables and three wins. After a year like that, no one expected David to do what he did in 2007. Last year he improved to 17 cashes, 11 of them final tables, with four of them being wins. He won over $1.8M in tournament play, and was the CardPlayer Player of the Year for 2007.

David is a cousin to poker star Men “The Master” Nguyen. He came to the country as a refugee aboard a boat fleeing Vietnam when he was 17. His lifetime stats are as impressive as his 2007 stats, with over $7.2M in tournament earnings in the last seven years. Always a contender for Player of the Year, Pham won the prestigious award in 2000 as well. He has two WSOP bracelets and five WPT final tables, but has not won one yet.

1. David Pham won his second Player of the Year honor and $1.8M in earnings this year.

2. J.C. Tran was second in POY standings and earned $2.9M this year.

3. Jonathan Little earned $2.5M in tournament winnings including a WPT win in May.

4. Tom Schneider earned $733,589 including 2 WSOP bracelets in 2007.

5. Scott “BigRisky” Clements won over $2.2M and finished fourth in the POY standings.

6. Scotty Nguyen won over $800,000 and had seven final tables this year.

7. William “Bill” Edler won over $2.7M including a WSOP bracelet and a WPT championship.

8. David Fox won almost $700,000 including a WPT Finals event in November.

9. David “Devilfish” Ulliott has won over $1.2M this year including two WPT wins.

10. Jerry Yang won the WSOP main event and over $8M, he makes the list because he becomes the second-largest tournament prize winner in history.

According to the US Internet Movie Database, a movie focusing on the life of Thomas Austin Preston Jr., better known as Amarillo Slim, professional poker player and lifetime gambler, is in production.

The film is currently categorized as “in production,’ has been in development for some time now. Nicolas Cage, who will be playing the lead role of Amarillo Slim, is credited as a producer along with Braxton Pope.

Christopher Wilkinson, whose credits as screenwriter include “Nixon,” and “Ali,” both biopics, is adapting Amarillo’s book, “Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived,” for the big screen.

Amarillo Slim, during his career has won a total of four WSOP bracelets (1972, 1974, 1985, 1990) and has won over $590,000 in tournament play. Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.

Most professional poker players spend the lion’s share of their playing time in live games. The big-name tournament players are famous because of the television coverage of their live play. Lots of these players play online, but it’s not like the live tournament scene. Most celebrity poker players are sponsored by an online poker site. They wear the site’s logo in live events and play on the site for periodic promotions or whenever they want to.

Full Tilt Poker has professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham on their team.

PokerStars has Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rouso, and Humberto Brenes.

UltimateBet sponsors professionals Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Jim Worth, Devin Porter and Annie Duke.

1. Erik Seidel has to be the man. He has eight bracelets, four of them in the last six years. He has won over $7M in tournament play, plus his cash table earnings.

2. Allan Cunningham has five WSOP bracelets in the last six years, including three in a row. He has earned over $8.7M in tournament winnings.

3. Scotty Nguyen consistently cashes wherever he is. He cashed six times at the WSOP 2007, including an 11th-place finish in the main event.

4. Phil Ivey is one of the top players today. He has five WSOP bracelets in the last seven years, and two big wins in Monte Carlo in 2007.

5. Tom Schneider won two WSOP bracelets last year, one in Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better, and also in Omaha/Seven Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better. He also made the final table of the $2500 HORSE event.

The top candidates for player of the year would have to be J.C. Tran, William “Bill” Edler, Jonathan Little and David Pham. They are at the top of just about every professional ranking list out there right now, all within a few hundred points of each other. Pham leads the CardPlayer Magazine standing with 5,410 points with 10 final tables. He is third on the PokerPage’s ProRank 1 list with 25,378 points.

J.C. Tran tops the ProRank 1 list (27,044 points) but is in fifth place (4,458 points) on CardPlayer’s. Bill Edler is second on PR 1 (25,446 point) and fourth on CP (4,777 points). Jonathan Little is fourth on PR 1 (24,477 points) and second on CP (5,272 points).

That makes the race for the best player up in the air at this point. There’s not many events left in the year, but my money is on J.C. Tran to win.