It's a yearly tradition on the World Poker Tour. Invite as many random celebrities as possible to the Commerce Casino, ply them with liquor, chocolate and 30-minute blind levels, and let the madness begin.

In previous years, the WPT Celebrity Invitational has featured such icons of the silver/small screens as Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Shannon Elizabeth, Ray Romano and Jason Alexander as well as poker-famous celebs like James Woods and Jennifer Tilly and head-scratching celebutantes like Paris Hilton.

This year, however, the focus seemed to shift from A-list to, well, C-list, with fully eight reality show stars and numerous character actors joining the likes of Tia Carrere (schwing!), Ron Livingston (mkay?) and Don ****ing Cheadle (****!) at the tables.

Loved ya on...uh...next question.

Action was slated to begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening, after a red-carpet gala and two hours of generous bartenders, loud music and crowded conditions on the patio outside the Commerce. Celebrities being a notoriously recalcitrant breed, however, the action didn't fully begin until closer to 8 p.m. as celebrities and media alike returned to the wet bars for just one more vodka cran.

Along with the movie stars, poker professionals like Evelyn Ng, Gavin Smith, Gavin Griffin, Eugene Todd bro, Nam Le, Mark Newhouse, Chip Jett, Karina Jett, Ryan Daut, Adam Levy, Bob Stupak, Matt Savage, Jason Marsh, Justin Bonomo, Tim Phan, Marsha Waggoner, Kenna James, Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, Chad Brown, Padraig Parkinson and the 2002 WSOP No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball champ showed up to play, all with their eyes on a share of the $200,000 prize pool that would pay out only the top six of over 400 entrants.

Fully welcome in our, uh, office space.

Since you asked, here's a list of the denizens of Hollywood PokerListings.com recognized on the floor of the Commerce ballroom. Be warned, though; we don't watch Dancing with the Stars, so half the people at the tables were just plain old blank faces to us:

Donnie Wahlberg, Mekhi Phifer, Tia Carrere, Ron Livingston, Montel Williams, Don Cheadle, Coolio, Daniel Baldwin, Dick Van Patten, Eric Palladino, Jason Alexander, James Woods, Joe Reitman, Khary Payton, Kirk Acevedo, Matthew Lillard, Meat Loaf, Michael Ian Black, Mimi Rogers, Nick Cassavetes, Norm McDonald, Ricki Lake, Shannon Elizabeth, Jerry Buss, Sam Simon, Vince Van Patten and Wil Wheaton were all present and accounted for at the Invitational, as well as a whole host of people you would recognize from minor roles on, like, Desperate Housewives.

The real Don.

With the tournament's 40 tables self-destructing at extreme speeds, table assignments were often fleeting, but one of the most interesting draws in the room saw Montel Williams pitted against Dick Van Patten, Don Cheadle, Gavin Smith and Donnie Wahlberg.

Wahlberg would bow out early, but Williams would soldier on, eliminating Gavin Smith with pocket aces over queens and then finding himself face to face with one Jean-Robert Bellande. Bellande would suck out against the talk-show host and then have the gall to crow about his victory, claiming "That's why we're professional poker players and you're on TV," forgetting, one suspects, that his own most impressive accomplishment to date is his brief appearance on TV's Survivor.

She's no Bobby Bellande.

Williams, ironically, would be forced out of contention a few hours later at the hands of fellow daytime TV maven Ricki Lake, who rivered trip aces against Williams with the latter all-in with pocket queens against Lake's A-10. Meanwhile, Bellande would complete his circuit of annoyance by replacing the beautiful Samantha Mathis (Punisher) at Mathis' apparent new BFF Kenna James' left at the table break.

Later on in the evening, the poker media was confounded by the sight of Gavin Smith having joined James' table (thankfully, Bellande had been eliminated and was replaced by Hoyt Corkins, whose taciturn demeanor must have been like gold-plated silence to James). Smith, you will recall, had been eliminated by Williams a few hours previous, but had somehow found more chips and played tight-passive until he'd surrendered the last of them.

Took J.C.'s chips.

As it turned out, the chips were no-show Scotty Nguyen's, and Smith had simply got it into his head to act as caretaker and post the requisite blinds. Or so he told the tournament director, who was none too amused.

While the Prince of Poker was too cool for the Invitational, J.C. Tran was not, despite having a match with Phil Ivey at the NBC Heads-Up Championship in Las Vegas that began at roughly the same time as the cards hit the air in Los Angeles.

Tran succumbed to the most recent LAPC champ in Vegas and then hopped a plane or teleporter and arrived at the Commerce just before midnight, although he'd see his Cinderella Celebrity Invitational dreams turn into a pumpkin shortly after when he surrendered his short stack to a random actress in the early hours of March 2.

Better-looking than Shaniac.

Also eliminated on the first day of play were such celebrity icons as Mr. Cheadle, Mr. Livingston and Mr. Phifer, as well as semi-famous poker pro Joe Sebok. At the other end of the spectrum was Shane "Shaniac" Schleger, who seemed to be sending players packing two at a time like some sort of antisocial Noah pretty much every time PokerListings was in the vicinity. Schleger would end the day as the chip leader with an impressive $191,000 to his name.

All told, approximately 112 players survived to see the morrow, led by the aforementioned Schleger and including in their numbers such poker/Hollywood luminaries as Max Pescatori, Hoyt Corkins, WPT hostess Kimberly Lansing, Nenad Medic, WPT big cheese Steve Lipscomb, David "The Dragon" Pham, tournament director to the Canadians Jason March, Kathy Liebert, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, David Singer, Zak Penn, Tara Summers, Sean Sheikhan, Jeff Madsen, Tim Phan, Linda Johnson and Eugene Todd bro.

We gonna take it step by step, baby.

Action will resume at 2 p.m. (PST) on Sunday and continue until only six players remain. With half-hour blind levels and celebrities intent on open-shoving with any ace-rag (although given the supersonic blind structure, that might be optimal play), we shouldn't have to play too far into the evening to determine that final table. Rest assured that PokerListings.com will be on-site for as long as it takes, bringing you comprehensive live updatery as well as the snarkiest celebrity chirpage this side of Perez Hilton (btw, Perez, we're hiring...).