Online Poker

One of the participants in the NBC heads up tournament, reigning woman's WSOP champ Jennifer Tilley has declared that she would rather play poker than go to the Oscars.

For the first time in more than a decade, she's skipped the red carpet of the Oscars for the green felt of the poker table.

"This is the first time in 15 years I haven't attended the Oscar parties or gotten swept up in Oscar fever," Tilly told The Associated Press on Sunday from her suite at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip.

"I haven't even seen 'Brokeback Mountain.' I don't even know who's nominated," she said.

Tilly forewent Oscar glitz and joined 63 other poker stars, including boyfriend, poker professional Phil "Unabomber" Laak, for the 2006 National Heads Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas on the weekend.

Tilly was knocked out Saturday in the first round of the single-elimination, one-on-one tournament, which has $1.5 million in prize money up for grabs and will be televised on NBC over six Sundays starting April 16. The winner is to be crowned Monday.

The Oscar nominee, for the 1994 Woody Allen film "Bullets Over Broadway," said she's now getting better treatment as a poker celebrity than as an actress, and making more money, too.

Last year, Tilly beat 600 other women, including several poker pros, to win the World Series of Poker Ladies event.

"In this (tournament), I have the prospect of winning half a million dollars," she said. "In movies, I have the prospect of the film going straight to video."

I'd rather see her at a poker table than in a movie too!

Shane @ Poker.com