Coming up on Wednesday at Hogs and Heifers, located at 201 North Third Street in Las Vegas, is the third annual Brunson Beer Pong Invitational. The event, which is sponsored by Doyle Brunson’s online poker site DoylesRoom, will see some of the top names in our industry try their hand at an old frat party favorite.
Beer pong involves tossing ping pong balls into plastic cups filled partway with the tasty alcoholic brew. For every cup your opponent hits on your side of the table, you have to drink its contents. The first team to land a ping pong ball in every cup wins. The game can be found throughout college campuses in the United States and casinos like O’Sheas on the Las Vegas Strip even offer beer pong to patrons.
UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth and Absolute Poker diva Trishelle Cannatella will serve as the emcees of the Brunson Beer Pong Invitational and use a bullhorn to provide commentary. The staff at Pokerati has been tasked with creating a bracket and the field is invite-only, although anyone interested in watching their favorite poker pros drink beer can come out and watch. Up for grabs are a BBQ and trophies, among other prizes.
Brunson will team with fellow DoylesRoom pro Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, the nephew of the late Chip Reese. Brunson’s son Todd will also be in attendance and pair with one of the online poker world’s legends, Brett “gank” Jungblut. Also representing DoylesRoom is Brunson 10 member Steve “gboro780” Gross, who sits atop the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and will team with Hoyt Corkins on Wednesday in the beer pong extravaganza.
Two of the first couples of poker will compete, Erica Schoenberg and Erick Lindgren as well as Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso. Schoenberg, formerly the better half of David Benyamine, and Rousso are two of only a handful of women that will take part in the Beer Pong Invitational. Other ladies scheduled to toss ping pong balls include Full Tilt Poker pro Mandy Baker, Melanie Weisner, Vanessa Peng, former “Amazing Race” contestant Tiffany Michelle, and Lisa Parsons.
On the event’s Facebook page, a bevy of poker personalities have indicated they’ll be on-hand, including Nat Arem, Pam Brunson, Lee Watkinson, Poker News Daily’s Brett Collson, GreasieWheels’ Lisa Wheeler, and poker PR guru Lara Miller, who is handling media for the Brunson 10 throughout the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Last year, Dan “Wretchy” Martin and Peter “#1PEN” Neff bested Todd Brunson and Jungblut in the finals. Here’s a look at several of the teams that will take to the beer pong tables on Wednesday, according to the event’s Facebook page:
Doyle Brunson and Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark
Todd Brunson and Brett “gank” Jungblut
Hoyt Corkins and Steve “gboro780” Gross
Erica Schoenberg and Erick Lindgren
Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso
Ty Stewart and partner
Allie Prescott and Shaun Deeb (or Liv Boeree)
Dan “Wretchy” Martin and partner Dan “USCwimmer” White
Melanie Weisner and Vanessa Peng
Drew Crawford and Nick Davies
Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger and Dan “Kingdan” Smith
Mandy Baker and Shawn Patrick Green
Rick Fuller and Jim Shipley
Jason “JaspudUF” Lee and Dave Walker
Tony “Bond18” Dunst and Randal “RandALLin” Flowers
Marc Seif and partner
Scott Seiver and Greg Dyer
Dan Michalski and Jon Katkin
Bob Lauria and Dan Suied
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar and Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dywer
Eric Ramsey and Dave Behr
Matt “All In At 420” Stout and Al Rasah
Tiffany Michelle and Lisa Parsons
Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp and partner
The third annual Brunson Beer Pong Invitational serves as a lead-in to the 2010 WSOP, which kicks off on Friday with the first two of 57 bracelet events. Accordingly, the beer pong festivities will be filmed by ESPN and air as part of the network’s WSOP coverage.