Because I play in so many Multi-table poker tournaments (MTTs) I have a good sense of the luck and skill required to go deep in a field with thousands of contestants. Funnily enough, the day prior to the shortlist announcement I made the money at a NL Hold Em World Championship of Online Poker event (WCOOP) on pokerstars. I grinded the Sunday away, sadly missing a South Philly street fair outside my house, with drinks, dancing, sausage sandwiches and lemonade and carnival games. But when the bubble burst, I was happy to be indoors on a gorgeous day. Out of almost 10,000 players I ended in 514th place for a decent cash. Still, the 280K first prize was many dreams and coinflips away.

If only the Guggenheim gallery morphed into a cardroom to determine the YouTube Play finalists! I could I face my artist, musician and game designer opponents in either six max Sit and Gos (the winner of each six person poker tournament would advance to the top 20), a regular Multi-Table satellite or even a Heads-up Knockout. To be honest, I don’t think the Guggenheim jury intends to decide it heads-up, since they only picked 125 videos, and the round one heads-up brackets would need 128 artists. Well… a few videos, such as hulachess, could be seeded into round two

See a few of my other favorites below. In other words, I hope these aren’t seated to my left.

Congrats also to co-creator Daniel Meirom, dancer & choreographer Gabrielle Revlock and Director of Photography Blake Eichenseer. For more press on the 1st Guggenheim YouTube Play Biennial, see mashable, flavorwire, the Huffington Post, and Alexandra Kosteniuk’s chessblog.com. Also thanks to Samara O’Shea for letting me and Daniel know about the contest, and for a nice post about hulachess on letterlover.net.

The final cut included footage both from the original video art (often left out of hula chess press) and my hulachess stint on ESPN2′s First Take.

Additionally, at the two-year anniversary of the CCSCSL, Iryna Zenyuk and I hulachessed, which Suzy Gorman captured beautifully in photographs. I also added additional photographs to my hulachess gallery.

Also see the chess series on my Chess Life Online blog, and the video art project that started my love affair with hooping. Coincidentally, wind is the soundtrack of hula-chess.

At the gallery opening, I was also honored to get a chance to play against Grandmaster Lev Alburt on Yoko Ono’s famous chess set, "Play it By Trust." Read more about that and see more photos on Chess Life Online.

I’m also excited about the events scheduled for the U.S. Women’s Championship in Saint Louis from October 3-14. I’m the chair of the organizing committee and will be giving live commentary that will be aired on both the official website and the Internet Chess Club.  To sign up to watch rounds live or for the events below, go to the U.S. Women’s Championship schedule on the CCSCSL website.

Some of the highlights include a jazz concert on Friday night and a FREE Bounty Blitz tournament on October 3, Saturday afternoon, 2 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum. Bounty tournaments are very popular in poker-a bunch of stars play in a tournament that’s open to all, and anyone who knocks out one of the stars gets a special prize. In this case, prizes will include books, free memberships to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and chessboards signed by all the participants of the U.S. Women’s Championships. Sign up directly for any events at this link.

Finally A Game of Chance, will take place on October 14 at the Kemper Museum at Washington University.  The game features a merging of roulette and chess that I created with curator Larry List. The idea was inspired by roulette and chess crazed Duchamp’s wish that somehow chess and gambling could meet in the middle. The reigning U.S. Women’s champion, crowned just a day before, will face off against a special guest, and apparently, I will spin the wheel (which will not look at all like the one below). Email me to place sidebets on the knight. 

I also updated this post with my fox news hula chess TV appearance.

Hulachess excerpt from DIM mak films on Vimeo.