Anna Chapman, Russian Spy, Bets On New iPhone Poker App

Anna Chapman knows when to hold ‘em, fold ‘em, walk away and when to run with a new business venture.

ABCNews.com is reporting that the alleged Russian spy is coming out with an iPhone app so that you can play poker against her.

The application, Poker With Anna Chapman, at $1.99, allows players to take on the Russian sex symbol in either Texas Hold’em or Five Card Draw. There are prizes offered if the player is able to vanquish the virtual Chapman in the hand, says Poker News Daily.

Winners be able to access to a special photo gallery of the sexy flame-haired spook, which are reported to be similar to those she took for the latest issue of Russian version of Maxim, where she posed dressed in lingerie and leather and holding a cocked revolver. They will also be able to become her Facebook friend–a real-time ticker of her relationship status and various musings and goings-on–plus a peek into a private blog.

It’s a window, according to ads for the app, for the playing (and paying) public to see “her secrets and private life details firsthand” and get “a glance at her social life with parties, shopping, and more.”

“The app appeared because Anna is a huge fan of Apple products,” ABCNews quoted Angela Waters, marketing manager for Zeda Inc., the manufacturer. “She has been using an iPhone and Mac for quite a while and has recently got an iPad too.”

Since her July arrest and deportation from the U.S. for being part of a Russian sleeper cell, Chapman, who in Cold War days would likely have set up housekeeping in Siberia, has been a busy girl. Along with the racy Maxim shoot, she was recently lavishly feted with vodka and medals from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, attended a space rocket launch in Kazakhstan, is an advisor to a Moscow-based bank and is selling action figures in her femme fatale likeness. She’s also, of course, writing a book.

In a late July post titled, “Anna Chapman: Sexy Russian Spy or Real Estate Whiz,” Forbes’ Meghan Casserly wonders: “Who is Anna Chapman? A Bond babe-esque femme fatale who ‘flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan’ or a hard-working entrepreneur?”

All my chips go on former into the latter. She’s learned much from her time in the U.S., ripping her playbook straight from the likes of Kim Kardashian. As Jenna Goudreau recently wrote about the reality star and entrepreneur on Forbes: “Known for her beauty and sex appeal, she realized she could leverage her fans’ interest…And she just keeps on leveraging it.”

It’s worth noting the context Chapman has been deported into: The number of poor Russians stands 19.7 million, or 15% of the country’s population, according to Bloomberg, with a subsistence level of $174 a month. The number billionaires in Russia has doubled over the last year, from 32 up to 62, according to the Russian edition of Forbes.

That’s where Chapman fits in. She is a lesson in brand-building. It’s not necessarily an ugly word. If she didn’t do it herself, as Kelly Watson points out in “Who You Callin’ A Brand?” someone else would. Clearly Chapman is being proactive about her image, one with international notoriety and, dare I point out, of real value in some quarters. She’s looking to up what she’s worth, and is thinking far (action doll) and wide (online poker).

Tacky? Check. Entrepreneurial? You bet. Cheap? Hardly.

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