Leinart, poker champ, celebs take in parties and more

                    

	Jamie Kennedy, Tara Reid, Matt Leinart partied at Sundance. Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com
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SI.com's Arash Markazi traveled to Park City, Utah to chronicle the slate of never-ending parties and events surrounding the Sundance Film Festival. Here's his diary of the scene.

As I attempt to figure out my travel plans on the day most people are leaving Park City, Utah, Matt Leinart doesn't have those worries as he kicks up his feet and lies back on a plush couch on the top floor of a club overlooking Main Street to watch the NFC Championship Game. If all goes as planned, he's supposed to hop on a private jet later tonight and head back to California. Right now, though, he's hosting ESPN's GameDay viewing party and enjoying the action along with Roger Clemens, Leinart's brother Ryan and some friends.

Leinart has been in Park City the past couple days, hob-knobbing with celebrities and taking in the nightlife as Park City's Main Street has been converted into a mix of Sunset Boulevard  and South Beach, sans the amazing weather as temperatures dipped down to 1 degree on Saturday night. That's right. No need pluralize the temperature here. But this is the party Leinart's been waiting for. Not so much for the athletes and celebrities that begin to roll upstairs including Christian Slater, Josh Hartnett, Brian Westbrook, Ahman Green and Dante Stallworth or even for celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis who is preparing some tasty dishes downstairs including panini sandwiches and beer-infused chili, but because he wants to see how his old teammate Reggie Bush and the Saints do.

"They're using Reggie the same way we did," says Leinart, who gets up and starts paying more attention the game whenever the Saints are on offense. "He's going to break one pretty soon."

At the moment, the Bears are holding Bush and the Saints in check as well as the doormen are keeping the crowd in check at the club, a three-story brick-laced building that ESPN has converted into a club called "The Game" during Sundance. The list is so airtight that even celebrities are being chastised for bringing guests with them. "What's the big deal?" asks Jaime Kennedy, who brought four people with him, including actor Chris McDonald. "There's plenty of room."

House Party

Not wanting to take up too much room at the club, you know, in case Kennedy wanted to bring Bob Saget, I decide to head to another party with World Series of Poker Champion Jaime Gold and runner-up Paul Wasicka. The two of them have been invited to a private party and invitation-only celebrity poker tournament thrown by poker legend Doyle Brunson at a Deer Valley mansion 

We get to the house and settle down in front of the big-screen TV behind the poker tables sprawled around the living room.

Before the start of the tournament, however, a couple slots open up and I'm asked if I want to join the action. Considering the cause, Operation Smile, and the field, which includes Stephen Stills, Danny Masterson, Nick Cannon, Lance Bass, Reichen Lehmkuhl, Jeremy Sisto, David Moscow, Eve, Bijou Philips, Richard Roeper and Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg, it was an easy decision.

I'm placed at Table 2 along with Wasicka and Masterson among others. While I am not the best poker player, thanks to getting lessons from Gold and Wasicka over the past couple days, I win the first few hands and quickly take the chip lead to the surprise of the announcer and cameraman taping the tournament. Soon the announcer, who was camping around Bass and Cannon to start the show, comes up to me and asks, "Who the hell are you and how did you end up with so many chips?"