dasha-astafieva1.jpgFor five decades plus five years Playboy has been the planet’s foremost authority on beautiful women. To become our 55th Anniversary Playmate, our selection would have to not only continue that tradition but set a standard that could be upheld for 55 years to come. To locate that extraordinary beauty, our scouts scoured the United States and Europe. We test-shot dozens of stunning models (see last month’s Hunt for the 55th Anniversary Playmate), narrowing down the field. Now, as you see our pick here (’I'm the girl in the dream having a rest after good sex,’ she says), you will no doubt agree that Playmate Dasha Astafieva is a perfect choice for our 55th Anniversary Playmate.

Watch Dasha Astafieva naked in the pool

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Every hand is a winner when your cards are dealt by a woman with a perfect pair. Meet Jessica Burciaga, a 25-year-old southern Californian who had been studying sports broadcasting in college before she hopped to the Mansion and auditioned to be a Bunny blackjack dealer. Out of hundreds of hopefuls, Jessica was chosen to work at the then new Playboy Club at the Palms in Las Vegas. (This was 2006.)

‘We were all young and didn’t have a lot of experience,’ she says. ‘They literally trained us in eight weeks, and we were nervous because we were dealing with a lot of money. The pit boss and security were looking over our shoulders at all times.’ Jessica caught on in a snap. ‘One time,’ she says, ‘I got a $5,000 chip as a tip.’ Jessica grew homesick and returned to the L.A. area after a few months, though she still loves to visit Sin City.

See Jessica Burciaga posing naked

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The infamous Sunset Strip in West Hollywood still rocks, and we’re not just talking about the scene at places like Whisky a Go Go, the Viper Room and Rainbow. At Key Club one night we spotted Jennifer Pershing, a 28-year-old platinum goddess, dancing onstage.

‘I go there every week to see a band called Steel Panther,’ says Jennifer. ‘I grew up loving Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses and Poison, and this is my outlet because these guys are so good at recreating that vibe. Maybe I’m attracted to guys in spandex who wear makeup. It’s just my thing.’ Jenn’s idea of a good time is to hit the Strip with her gal posse and party like it’s 1989.

‘My friends are superhot. We put on little shiny pants and rock knee-high boots and all that fun stuff,’ she says. ‘One night a Playboy scout approached me and asked if I would pose for the magazine, which had been my dream since I was 18. What’s funny is that just before he asked me, I had watched the movie The Secret. The idea in the film is ‘If you want something, ask the universe for it.’ So I would do this little meditation and imagine how I would feel when my dreams came true. It seemed so stupid when I was doing it, but literally a month later I was at a Playboy test shoot.’

Watch Jennifer Pershing full frontal nude

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Remember back in high school there was that one girl who stood out for all the right reasons? She was smart, dressed a cut above the rest and was stunningly beautiful. She was funny and confident. She wore high heels. She had it all.

At Hope High School in tiny Port Lavaca, Texas in the late 1990s, that girl was future Playmate Hope Dworaczyk. That the school’s name matched her own was a coincidence, though it really did seem as if it had been named for this one student. Hope’s grandma was the principal, to boot. People looked at the statuesque teenager and said, ‘Hey, she could be a model.’ You always wonder what becomes of the It girl. Does she end up with her own episode of Intervention? Does she fill her trunk with junk and become a leg breaker for the Mob? You never know.

For Hope, happily, things went just as planned. She won a Texas beauty pageant. She aced her accelerated-studies program and graduated early, at the age of 16, then got an agent and started modeling professionally. She had the balls — let’s rephrase that, the poise — to blossom into a successful überbeauty. Today the 24-year-old is a fashion model and a host of the Canadian television series Inside Fashion. She’s also Miss April 2009.

See Hope Dworaczyks fine tits and ass

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The farm-girl fantasy holds a special place in Americana. She is wholesome and natural yet wise beyond her years. She is decent, churchgoing and sexy as all goddamn hell. Tough, independent, loyal, suntanned from living out her days beneath the big sky…. If you’re a true Playboy fan, you know farmer’s daughter Candice Cassidy made her first appearance with us as a Cyber Girl in 2006, re-creating old Centerfolds from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Now that she’s Miss June, we wanted to photograph her in all her glory down home on the farm, naturally.

The 23-year-old Ohio native lives on her family’s 60-acre homestead, where her mother breeds Tennessee walking horses. Growing up, Candice tended the stalls and rode often. But as a kid, she found she was as interested in dance as she was in horsing around.’My mom put me in classes when I was three because I was a little shy,’ she says.

The plan worked: Candice isn’t shy anymore. She owns one of the biggest dance studios in her area. She teaches tap, ballet, jazz and lyrical dance four nights a week, in addition to studying psychology at a local college. (She just graduated.) She plans to get her master’s degree and will use her Playmate earnings to leave the family farm and buy some property nearby.

See blonde Candice Cassidy taking off her top

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It’s a different kind of Darwin Award: the Playmate gene, passed from mother to daughter, ensuring survival of the fittest and constant attention from males of the species. Examine the evidence before you in the curvy form of Crystal McCahill, the 25-year-old daughter of Miss August 1968 Gale Olson.

‘I think every girl who has the figure for it wishes she could be a Playmate, and I’m no exception,’ said Gale in her Playmate interview. ‘All I can say is, I am lucky!’ Yet when luck strikes twice, it seems less like luck than destiny. (It has happened just once before, when Miss December 1960 Carol Eden saw her daughter Simone grace the Centerfold in February 1989.) ‘I always knew my mother was in Playboy,’ says the Illinois-born Crystal. ‘I remember telling my brothers and sisters, ‘I’m going to do that one day. I’m going to do the exact same pose.’ I mentioned it to my mom when I was about 15, and she said, ‘Wait a few years and then decide.’

Now she’s totally for it and so excited for me.’Gale said she wanted to have a large family when she spoke to Playboy back in 1968, and she got her wish: Crystal has two brothers and four sisters, ranging in age from 14 to 39. ‘I really can’t imagine life without them,’ says Crystal. ‘I think it makes everything that much better when you are able to rely on your family and have someone there whenever you need them.’

Watch Crystal Mc Cahill naked under a waterfall