WSOP 2008 has begun and for a month and a half the poker world will be talking of little else.

The tournament consists of 55 events, the last of which will commence on the 7th of July.

Unfortunately the proceedings will end without there being a winner for the main event, the World Championship No Limit Texas hold’em. The contestants for the final table will be decided, but the final table will be played only in November. But there will be plenty of action, both on the tables and off it, and the poker fans will be having their plates full. In fact the action has already begun.

The venue is Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. Each of the 2,500 rooms is a suite, the smallest being 600 square feet, which offer a spectacular view of Las Vegas. The casino has more than 100,000 square feet of gaming space, which includes over 80 tables and about 1,200 state-of-the-art slots. 

However the event unofficially kicked off with a party thrown by Bluff Magazine on the 29th of May at the Tao Nightclub. The party had one of the hottest hosts in Jennifer Tilly. There is probably no one else who has won both an Oscar nomination and a WSOP bracelet. Her co-hosts were boy friend Phil Laak and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari. The Tao is not new to poker parties. The Bodog Party held there two years ago has won notoriety as the most riotous poker party ever. 

Real time blogging from WSOP is going to be the latest in news coverage. Most of the reputed poker reporting sites have announced their bloggers, who come from the who’s who of the poker world. Blogging is now not restricted to putting up written posts on the Internet. Patrick Antonius will be videoblogging for RawVegas TV. However the catch of the bloggers is Michele “Cougar” Lewis who will be writing for Wicked Chops Poker (WCP). Reacting to the invite Michele said, “It was no surprise when WCP asked “a woman” to write on their site but it was quite the shocker when they chose “a woman” who hadn’t undressed for money.” Blogging is not all that Michele will be doing at the WSOP this year. She is a member of the Queen of Hearts Team and will be playing in the $1,000 buy-in Ladies No Limit Hold’em World Championship, which starts on the 8th of June.

Shannon Elizabeth has bombed yet again. Within half an hour of the cards being dealt in the opening event she was seen leaving in her car. Though she held pocket aces on two occasions the flop was so unfavorable that she lost out both times. Earlier this year she was eliminated from the show Dancing with the Stars along with choreographer and supposed boyfriend Derek Hough; her movie Deal bombed as no poker based movie has bombed before and she lost out to Carrie Underwood as PETA’s world’s sexiest vegetarian woman. The sliver lining for Shannon, if rumors are to be believed, is that she will be soon be featuring in one of PETA’s characteristic nude posters.