You’d fold pocket aces to keep the World Poker Tour’s Courtney Friel at the table

When the stars of a show are fat men in shades and Unabomber lookalikes, that show owes it to viewers to lessen the pain. Which is why the producers of the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour call on a tried and true means of distraction: hot ladies.

Following in the footsteps of the show’s former hostess and FHM alumna Shana Hiatt comes 25-year-old Courtney Friel. In the show’s fourth season, the Philadelphia-born beauty travels the felt-topped tables of the world in her role as chief consoler to the broke and angry. “I interview people after they bust out,” Courtney says. “I remind people that even when they finish sixth, they’ve still won $250,000.”

Losing a stack of chips never sounded so good.

Women are mischievous. Does that make them better poker players?
I think so. Men want to protect women, so they’re less likely to be harsh. Women use their looks and seductive ways to their advantage. It’s fun to flirt, but it always comes down to the cards.

What are your poker tells?
The first time I got double aces, I could feel myself getting red in the face. Now I’m paranoid, so I’ve started wearing a hat. The best advice I’ve gotten from the guys on the tour is not to look at your cards until you’ve seen everyone else looking at theirs.

Is making eye contact more difficult during strip poker?
It’s easier to blush in the buff. I’ve played only once. It’s something that everyone should try.

Are you a cheater?
I’m a really bad liar, so I’ve never cheated. I have good morals.

Do you at least get vengeful?
No, but having certain people see this magazine will be my own revenge. Girls in high school were so mean to me because they were jealous that guys liked me. Someone once keyed my car and wrote “Slut” on my windshield in black magic marker. I bawled my eyes out trying to get it off. The funny thing was I was a virgin by choice when I graduated, so they couldn’t even call me a slut. Success is the best revenge.

You hail from Philadelphia. Why aren’t you fat?
Philly gets a bad rap about being fat, but I could eat pasta marinara three times a day. Guys have taken me to nice restaurants and said to me, “We could have made that at home for 50 cents. Why don’t you try something more exciting?” The never-ending pasta bowl at the Olive Garden is my favorite thing ever. That’s my favorite restaurant.

Growing up, what sort of mischief would you get into with your two younger sisters?
I took them drinking in Tijuana when they were underage. That’s an experience every older sister should give their younger siblings. I got a Tijuana lap dance, but it wasn’t much fun. The girls giving lap dances in America are way hotter. Tijuana girls are skanky.

With the World Poker Tour, you get to travel to Aruba, Paris and the Bahamas. Are rich gadflys always bothering you to marry them?
No. The players who are winning this year call me Lady Luck, though. The thing is, I’m replacing Shana, who also appeared in FHM. The players all talk about which one of us is hotter. I’m glad to be stepping in for someone who was so well-liked but I like to say, “I’m the Kelly Ripa. Kathie Lee who?”