For every Shannon Elizabeth or Mena Suvari seated at the poker table, there are four guys who can hardly focus, fantasizing about sex. Celebrity poker babes gain an edge without even trying because all men can think about is how to get inside their pants.

Without even trying? How much of it is innocent, poker babes distracting opponents just by being their pretty hot selves? And how much of it is deliberate, celebrity chicks actually using sexual attraction to spoil male opponents’ concentration?

Shannon Elizabeth openly admits to using her sensual looks to disconcert the opposite sex in poker. She recently told Blender magazine: “A lot of men get lost in their cards if you introduce a decent distraction.”

You’d think an admission like would make it harder for Shannon to employ this kind of poker strategy. On the other hand, us men are that stupid over women. We know when poker babes are being a tease but let them anyway, pining for a different sort of showdown, after the poker game.

Mena Suvari confirms using the same poker technique as early as when she started learning Texas Hold’em in New Orleans poker casinos. Mena says she uses her petite good looks not only to disorient the guys but to make them think she’s a weak player.

Toby Leah Bochan, who authored The Badass Girl’s Guide to Poker: All You Need to Beat the Boys, told Bodog: “You need to be willing to use whatever advantages you have as a woman. Even if you have to appear weak to win, that makes you a…'’

Read More » Celeb Poker Babes Betting on Body Language

Need an excuse to finally give listening to podcasts a try? Cincinnati Sean from Lord Admiral Radio managed to land Isabelle Mercier for an interview this week, and has the podcast posted and available for download. The Lord Admiral podcast is one of the best (and one of the few) poker podcasts out there, and worth checking out if you’re iPodding it on the train or in the car on the way to work this week. Check it out. Lord Admiral Radio Isabelle Mercier

Read More » Cincinnati Sean Faces No Mercy

· WPT issues press release to pat themselves on the back for record prize pool in Legends of Poker tournament, pointing to the growth of poker. That’s one way to distract from a plummeting stock price. [PR Newswire]
· They’ve got poker in Puerto Rico now? If you get bored of watching some […]

Read More » The Rake: WPT Blows Smoke, Lovely Isabelle, and Mad Money Portfolio Management

Pittsburgh’s most decorated poker blogger, "Mean Gene" Bromberg, is floating on cloud nine today. Then again, it could just be emissions from a nearby steel plant. Regardless, Geno is a happy man - his unrequited celebrity crush just blossomed into a post-modern, pre-stalking, sort of new-age exchange. The lovely Isabelle Mercier linked him up on her new website. Hell, we’re smitten too. She’s a French-Canadian beauty who’s got no remorse taking every last dollar you own off the table. Except for her beauty, the French-Canadian thing, and the good-at-poker part (math is hard for girls), sounds like every woman we know really.

Read More » Nice Website Isabelle - Where’s Your Webcam?