Whether you recognize poker as a “sport” or not, the World Series Of Poker is one of great annual traditions of Las Vegas and, in my opinion, of all of sport. Poker is a universal game, one that relies on the stamina of a player’s mind while navigating through almost 50 days’ worth of poker tournaments. This year’s WSOP features 57 events, starting from tomorrow’s $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship event to the Main Event‘s induction of the November Nine.

I’m especially excited because I’ll be covering the Main Event live and in person throughout the month of July. I’ll be migrating from my accommodations at the Hard Rock Hotel to the tournament floor at the Rio and delivering daily updates with awesome stories and ridiculous anecdotes that will make you wonder why you weren’t following poker from the onset.

I get it, some of you are sick of watching it on TV. But this isn’t TV. This is the Land of the Badass and gaming goodness will show its papers at the gate. This coverage will kick you in the balls and run off with your wallet. So be ready. It’s going to be badass.

I’m not the first person to point out that getting a potential Super Bowl commercial turned down by the broadcasting network has become something of a badge of honor for some companies (I’m looking at you, GoDaddy). And so in that vein, here’s ‘Clothing Drive,’ an ad with obvious black-bar-styled nudity (SFW) that never had a prayer against the CBS censors. My favorite part about it is the office prude character, who obviously wants no part of this. Well done, formerly American beer that’s not Miller High Life. Well done, indeed. –LiveLeak.

I’ll be in Vegas from Wednesday night for Blogs With Balls 2.0, pimping free-market idealism and a badass poker tournament at the Hard Rock on Friday night. So as far as tomorrow (Tuesday), and Wednesday are concerned, With Leather will be business as usual. Thursday and Friday will be a bit more expo-centric. We’ll have videos of the city and interviews with some of the other people that you read online every day, along with notes from Punte, Brandon, and Ufford (maybe) about getting drunk with a clown and losing a bunch of money on craps.

Until then, continue to enjoy the daily fare here, and keep sending tips to WithLeather-Tips@Uproxx.com. Thanks again for reading.

The new host of NBC’s “Face The Ace,” the latest game show where contestants play various poker stars in heads-up (one-on-one) Texas Hold’em. The former briefcase holder from Deal or No Deal (I don’t know what number case she held, but I bet it was 69! BOO-YAH, SUCKA!) is now who people look at between hands of cards, which is probably better than looking at Gavin Smith. By a lot. Anyway, we saw this, and found some more images of here, a few from here, and a few from all over. If there was a poker euphemism for self-puddery, I’d use it here. Maybe it’s on Masturbapedia, the totally awesome online jerkoff reference that only exists in my mind until I get the startup capital for it. Haha, “up.” Wait, that second one may not be her. Eh, it’s not like “Lil’ Punte” can tell the difference.

I feel like a real degenerate for not having posted any coverage of the World Series of Poker, which started earlier this month, but here’s a quick, almost-no-look recap of every story line coming out of the Las Vegas event: Wow, these young guns are impressive! Phil Ivey won another bracelet! Leo’s doing a poker movie! Daniel Negreanu was so close! Phil Hellmuth is kind of a dick! Brandi Hawbaker is still dead! Bor-ing.

Fortunately, Wicked Chops Poker is picking up our slack with an excellent gallery tag from the proceedings at the Rio Las Vegas. Surely you remember whatzername from SAN two weeks ago. And yeah, there might be too much coverage in our coverage (Xzibit would approve. Maybe), but there’s something about woman playing poker that really does it for me. I guess I’m just turned on by chicks that are good at math.

If you’re a degenerate gambler spawned from the Lascivious virtual concubines of online poker, you’ll appreciate this early EARLY version of what amazingly does pass as computer poker. It’s a post from the wonderfully nerdy vlog Chronogamer breaking down the game “Las Vegas Blackjack & Poker” from Intellivision. It hit the market in 1980, which makes the game older than many of you reading this.

Even as I can appreciate the work that goes into programming any sort of poker game, the sound design for the deal might be my favorite part. Too bad they didn’t take Neteller in those days.

|via Carbon Poker Blog|