Over the next week or so, Josh will recap some of his adventures at Blogs With Balls 2.0, the new sports media conference held last weekend in Las Vegas, presented by FoxSports.com, Yardbarker.com, ESPN.com, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, Diageo Liquors and CarbonPoker. This is one of those anecdotes. Actually, it’s a video recap of the parties that everyone threw for us.

The masterminds running the Blogs With Balls Technicolor Dreamcoat have released another video from the Vegas conference, and if you think I came off like an ignorant ass in text, wait until you see this. But honestly, if this is the worst video they have on me in Sin City, I got off easy…as far as anyone else knows. Kevin Blackistone is still undergoing therapy from the experience, and the psychiatrist encourages him in group by awarding him points for his stronger responses.

If you’ve grown weary of the prudishness of your Nintendo Wii, enjoy poker, and don’t live in Australia, then this news is for you.

Wii’s “Sexy Poker” is a downloadable game that lets you play Texas Hold’em and Blackjack against a dealer in an attempt to de-clothe anime babes.

Yep. Use those motion censors remotes to hit, stand, bet … and then reap the benefits of a bikini-wearing animated character. The game features no nudity, which is a good thing for me, bad thing for weirdoes. via.

I’ve never been a big fan of taking something that guys already like and mashing nudity into it. Women are supposed to get naked to make me do stuff that I don’t want to do. And I mean like actual women, not some vector image drawn up by some sexually frustrated dude in Tokyo. I already like poker, so the nudity doesn’t do me any good there. Wake me up when “Wii Sexy Personal Finance” comes out. Because right now my stock portfolio is a hot mess.

Some people will insist that poker on ESPN is nothing short of a sign of the apocalypse, and though I respectfully disagree, I see their point. But there are signs that people might finally be growing tired of watching other people play cards: World Poker Tour Enterprises was gobbled up by PartyGaming earlier this week, a sign of reorganization from which the weekly television program showing the endings of worldwide tournaments may or may not recover:

PartyGaming PLC (PRTY.LN) has agreed to acquiring nearly all of WPT Enterprises Inc.’s (WPTE) operating assets, ending a buyout deal the operator of the World Poker Tour had with an investment group.

PartyGaming will pay $12.3 million as well as 5% of the revenue generated by the assets.

WPT has been beset by years of losses and missteps. Its stock has slumped from $29.50 at its mid-2005 peak to a low in November of 15 cents. The stock rose 8.6% after-hours to $1.14. via, via.

There are quite a few things even poker players hate about the WPT, mainly that the six-handed final table and largely-disproportionate chip stacks don’t lend the telecast to showing “real poker.” NBC faces a similar quandry with its new “Face The Ace” poker show, where random people play heads-up matches against better-known pros. Conversely, ESPN has extended its relationship with the World Series of Poker; the monolith will be televising guys playing cards through 2017. Whatever. That’s just less time for them to air anything on Brett Favre.

One of the better aspects of a slower news day in sports is that you can lead off with a poker story, and do we have one: Phil Ivey (left), who many consider the greatest poker player in the world, made it to the final table of the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold’em even at the World Series of Poker, an event considered by all to be poker’s world championship. Ivey will join eight other players in comprising the “November Nine,” the nickname given to those filling up the nine seats at the final table as the tournament takes a three-month break for a second straight year.

“You have no idea, I can taste it now,” Ivey said. “I’m here and today was a very tough day for me. I lost a lot of tough hands early and I grinded back — now I’m right in the hunt.”

Ivey will start the final Nov. 7 with the second shortest stack among the players left in the tournament. [via]

Each player making the final table is guaranteed to win ninth-place money-$1.26 million, which is pretty cool until you have to pay taxes on it. First place will win over $8.5 million, which is pretty good dimp for sitting at a card table all week.

As for the Blogfrica poker scene, noted blogger Cousins of Ron Mexico won the first Carbon Poker sports bloggers’ poker tournament; you can replay the live blog here. I busted out first and, as determined by the field before yesterday, I will be paying the penance for that with a magical littany of unicorns on the site today. It worked for the monolith. Hey, it can’t be any worse than this, can it?

Carbon Poker’s blog tells us the story of Dusty Schmidt, aka “Leatherass,” who’s already my second-best friend but doesn’t know it yet. He’s an online poker pro, internet entepreneur, and competitive amateur golfer. At least he was…before he put the feelers out for the greatest prop bet ever.

Schmidt offered up a cool $1 Million prop bet to anyone that could beat him in 10 Heads Up matches and 72 holes of golf. Although no one took the action, it generated a lot of press for Schmidt and unfortunately grabbed the attention of the USGA.

The USGA pulled his amateur status, citing the Puritan’s catch-all “spirit of the game” provision. Schmidt is now suing to get his “A” back in US District Court–citing that no one answered his challenge. Oh, and he’s representing himself. From the monolith:

“I consider myself a golfer that more or less stumbled into this poker thing, and along the way picked up what I believe are these misconceptions about who I am and what I do,” he said. “I think that doesn’t sit well with the USGA.”

Obviously, I’m siding withe the guy named Leatherass. Schmidt actually regained his “A” after petitioning the USGA after a pro career shortened by a heart attack. At 23. Even this guy’s brushes with death are awesome. It’s a scary day for me if I even leave the apartment.

There have been an assortment of recent complaints surrounding what’s commonly regarded as poker’s world championship–the $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em tournament that has served as the World Series of Poker’s Main Event since 1972. Most of those complaints squarely targeted Harrah’s Entertainment, who has run the WSOP since 2005, and they’ve done it again, this time having locked out 500 would-be players from participating on poker’s biggest stage. From WSBTV.com:

Hundreds of hopefuls waited in the hallways at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to see if they could get into the tournament, which had plenty of seats available during its first three opening days. Roughly 2,700 players entered the tournament on Monday.

Had the rejected players been accommodated, the tournament likely would have eclipsed its total entries from last year, when Peter Eastgate won $9.15 million for beating 6,843 others in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

Tournament officials warned on Sunday that they expected the event to sell out on Monday, but many players complained anyway that their trips — and chances to win millions of dollars — had been ruined.

Poker might be the only sport–along with maybe golf’s US Open–where fans can compete right along with their favorite stars. Sure, the seats are a little more expensive than even Yankee Stadium, but that access to the tournament should be considered sacred, and it’s irritating that a tournament that accommodated 8,773 players in 2006 finds itself unable to let in more than 6,494 for this year’s main event. Five million dollars of tournament prize money… and they just turned it away. It’s amazing that anyone today could let that kinda cash just walk out the door.