Though I’m sure plenty will disagree with the above analysis, I’ll take the upward Super Bowl trend for Nevada sports books as a win.

Meanwhile, semi-related but not really, Delaware is looking into how the new DOJ Wire Act interpretation (heralded by online poker types) could actually help the state offer more-better sports betting options to the masses via the internet.

Hard to tell if this game in Northeast Harris County was truly a family poker night in a residential neighborhood or underground poker room … but either way, sad as it is in the face of death and painful injury, you gotta believe there is more to this story:

In a story that ran on April 15, 2010, Johnny Hughes told a San Antonio newspaper that the violence in Texas poker rooms was reaching a fever pitch — quite different (and potentially more deadly) than the fights and robberies he had witnessed over the previous 50 years of playing un-legalized Texas poker.

I think we’re up to at least five deaths by gunfire in Texas poker games now, over the past few years.

But what stands out most to me is a line from one of the opponents of any measures for California to finally get serious about regulating online games within their own borders:

“We don’t want to see any of it,” said pastor James Butler from the California Coalition Against Gambling Expansion. “Pretty soon they’ll have an app that will allow you to connect instantly to a casino or a gambling site. Want to lose your home? We have an app for that,” Butler said.

Emphasis added. Not sure if we should tell the fine pastor that they already do have such an app — all over the UK to be sure, and in Nevada you can bet sports for real money anywhere you want using your Droid or iPhone with Leroy’s App. (It just turns off when you get to the California border — amazing that crazy technology these days!)

OK, I shouldn’t mock … because we all remember the saying from the days leading up to the UIGEA: “click a mouse, lose your house.” That language stuck in the anti-gambling forces rhetoric for years, pretty much until Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) tried to take it to a new level by claiming 1/3 of all college students who tried online gambling attempted suicide. That, of course, didn’t stick … and since then pro-online gambling forces have made tremendous inroads, with a message that has been quite refined since online poker’s post UIGEA starting point, which pretty much was: WTF?

But don’t expect the opposition to remain stagnant. The closer we get, the more you can expect them to up their game, if not simply because mainstream media often call various sources to get more than one side of a story … and because election years generally tend to be good fundraising periods for people in the morality business.

You can tell Mr. Butler is currently workshopping the opposing message:

“Is there going to be a guarantee that anyone in California who receives social assistance will be banned from those sites? Or will basically the California citizens be subsidizing somebody else’s gambling behavior?” said Butler.

Fascinating point, actually. We are talking more than 2 million people in California, mind you, receiving some sort of government aid. So should we strengthen online gambling bans (against all) to make sure those on the public dole can only play games meeting standards of appropriate bankroll management?

PokerStars did not comment on plans for what could’ve been had the US government allowed them to make food stamps redeemable for T$ and/or VIP swag.

I haven’t quite yet figured out if and how this is different from an IPO. But I do know these sorta things don’t happen in a vacuum. And considering the last time Caesars — soon to be better known on NASDAQ as CZR — looked serious about going public was the last time they had reason to believe passage of online poker legalization was imminent (Dec 2010) … uh, um, gahhh! So much going on, so many old docs to look at, so much for Kevmath to hopefully fact-check … my head is spinning with the possibilities! (And I can only wonder who Barack Obama met with on the side when he visited Las Vegas long enough to stay the night in the suburbs a couple weeks ago,)

Probably not a bad time to remember that Caesars was a public corporation (called Harrah’s) that went private almost immediately after passage of the UIGEA, controversial legislation that leveled the impact of the biggest online poker sites in the world (at the time).

Read below for an official press release.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation Publicly Lists Its Shares

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars” or the “Company”) announced today that its common stock was approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “CZR” and its offering of 1,811,313 shares of its common stock was priced at $9.00. Gross proceeds from this offering will be approximately $16 million before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and expenses.

Caesars also granted to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 271,697 additional shares of its common stock at the initial price less underwriting discounts and commissions.

In addition to the shares to be sold by Caesars in this offering, shares held by certain existing investors representing approximately 27.8 percent of the Company’s issued and outstanding capital stock have also been registered for resale, of which approximately 18.8 percent are now freely tradable, with the remainder becoming freely tradable 180 days after completion of the offering described above.

Credit Suisse and Citigroup are acting as joint book-running managers and representatives for the offering, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering and KeyBanc Capital Markets, Lebenthal & Co., LLC, and Ramirez & Co.,Inc. are acting as co-managers for the offering. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from: Credit Suisse, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10010, or by telephone at 1-800-221-1037, or by email at newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com; or Citigroup, Attention: Prospectus Department, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, New York 11220, or by telephone at 800 831-9146 , or by email at batprospectusdept@citi.com.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). A copy of the registration statement can be accessed through the SEC’s website. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Caesars Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment provider and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, more than 73 years ago, Caesars has grown through development of new resorts, expansions and acquisitions and now operates casinos on four continents. The company’s resorts operate primarily under the Caesars(R), Harrah’s(R) and Horseshoe(R) brand names. Caesars also owns the World Series of Poker(R) and the London Clubs International family of casinos. Caesars is focused on building loyalty and value with its guests through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership. Caesars is committed to environmental sustainability and energy conservation and recognizes the importance of being a responsible steward of the environment. For more information, please visit www.caesars.com.

This release includes “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements contain words such as “may,” “will,” “project,” “might,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “estimate,” “continue” or “pursue,” or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. In particular, they include statements relating to, among other things, future actions, new projects, strategies, future performance, the outcomes of contingencies and future financial results of Caesars. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, the actual performance of Caesars may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following factors, as well as other factors described from time to time in the Company’s reports filed with the SEC (including the sections entitled “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained therein):

the impact of the Company’s significant indebtedness;
the impact, if any, of unfunded pension benefits under multi-employer pension plans;
the effects of local and national economic, credit and capital market conditions on the economy in general, and on the gaming industry in particular;
construction factors, including delays, increased costs of labor and materials, availability of labor and materials, zoning issues, environmental restrictions, soil and water conditions, weather and other hazards, site access matters and building permit issues;
the effects of environmental and structural building conditions relating to the Company’s properties;
the ability to timely and cost-effectively integrate companies that the Company acquires into its operations;
the ability to realize the expense reductions from the Company’s cost savings programs;
access to available and reasonable financing on a timely basis;
changes in laws, including increased tax rates, smoking bans, regulations or accounting standards, third-party relations and approvals, and decisions, disciplines and fines of courts, regulators and governmental bodies;
litigation outcomes and judicial and governmental body actions, including gaming legislative action, referenda, regulatory disciplinary actions and fines and taxation;
the ability of the Company’s customer-tracking, customer loyalty and yield-management programs to continue to increase customer loyalty and same store sales or hotel sales;
the Company’s ability to recoup costs of capital investments through higher revenues;
acts of war or terrorist incidents, severe weather conditions, political uprisings or natural disasters;
access to insurance on reasonable terms for the Company’s assets;
abnormal gaming holds;
the potential difficulties in employee retention and recruitment as a result of the Company’s substantial indebtedness, the ongoing downturn in the gaming industry, or any other factor; and
the effects of competition, including locations of competitors and operating and market competition.
Any forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and, as such, speak only as of the date made. Caesars disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date stated, or if no date is stated, as of the date of this press release.

But what about the rest of ‘em?

You can currently find Jerry Yang, the 2007 WSOP’s biggest winner and #20 on the all-time poker tournament money list, bussing tables while commanding an otherwise lackadaisical staff (according to Yelp) at Pocket 8s Sushi & Grill in central California. Um, pass the yum-yum sauce?

Via Pokerati’s resident Vegas grinder-thug @AndrewNeeme:

Poker Fish: You wouldn’t believe how many of Jerry Yang’s relatives are always hitting him up for free sushi.

And we have a bonus late episode — the Micros’ pitch for people to vote for them in the 2011 Bluff Readers Choice Awards, where Rose, Chase, and Tommy somehow got lumped in with all the podcast/video/live radio newsy shows (in the category The Poker Beat always dominated) and cleaned up.

Enjoy, if you haven’t already.

And if online poker isn’t gonna be at least a bullet point to the national conversation now … well then, really, perhaps poker players will be getting exactly what we deserve?

This Saturday, February 4, 2012, the Nevada Republican Presidential Caucuses will be held throughout the Battle Born State. These caucuses will elevate Nevada into the national political spotlight, with all four candidates making appearances in the state in the next few days.

Governor Mitt Romney

It is important that Governor Mitt Romney, who has a commanding lead in electoral votes, hears from you today that he should support your right to play on safe, U.S. regulated online poker websites.

Let’s welcome him to the Battle Born State with an overwhelming response in support of federal licensing and regulation of online poker in the U.S. There are two quick and easy ways to send your message to Governor Romney.

Facebook: You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Governor Romney please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate billions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter: you can reach him via Twitter by sending him the fully editable message below:

@mittromney Fed efforts to regulate online #poker is smart public policy. Stand with me in protecting consumers and personal freedoms!

Don’t forget, the other three candidates’ opinions matter too. You can send them a Facebook or Twitter message as well by following the links to their respected social networking pages.

Senator Rick Santorum

Senator Rick Santorum does NOT support your freedom to play online poker in the U.S. To watch his interview on Face to Face with Jon Ralston were he clearly states his opposition to federal regulation of online poker click here.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Senator Rick Santorum please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@RickSantorum your non-support of a reg U.S. online #poker market only hurts consumers and families & goes against principles of freedom.

Congressman Ron Paul

Congressman Ron Paul is a long time supporter of your rights to play online poker and currently is a co-sponsor of H.R. 2366, Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act, which is pending before congress.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Ron Paul, THANK YOU for supporting my right to play on a U.S. based regulated online #poker site!

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@RonPaul THANK YOU for supporting my right to play on a U.S. based regulated online #poker site!

Speaker Newt Gingrich

Speaker Newt Gingrich has yet to announce his policy on whether he supports regulation of Internet poker. The PPA has reached out to his campaign and will notify you when we learn of his opinion.

Facebook You can click here to go to his Facebook page and send him this fully editable message:

Speaker Newt Gingrich please support my rights to play online poker on U.S. regulated websites. Supporting U.S. regulated sites is the only way to protect consumers, prevent fraud and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenues without raising taxes! Supporting federal regulation of online poker is smart public policy.

Twitter Click here to send him a fully editable message below:

@newtgingrich Fed efforts to regulate online #poker is smart public policy. Stand with me in protecting consumers and personal freedoms! 

With the political spotlight shinning bright on Nevada for the next few days we, as dedicated poker players, need to make sure that the presidential candidates understand that our right to play poker should not be impeded upon. Together we can make a difference. Take action today!

Proud to play,

Lupe Soto
Nevada State Director

• Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign to stop gay teenagers from killing themselves
• Russia’s Wintertime Spring to prevent Vladimir Putin from regaining power
• The Occupy (New York) movement spreading worldwide

Though personally I see Occupy ultimately going the route of Woodstock ’99, overall it’s a good crowd for poker to be runnin’ with. And that sorta social climbing didn’t come because of a Guinness World Record, crazy prop bet, or even a celebrity charity tournament; being on the national radar (in the right way at the right time) comes because of consistent and steady efforts to awaken the right people to what really is total government bullshit! political injustice.

And you gotta think Obama probably got briefed as the DOJ officially changed its position on the Wire Act, September 23rd — the first day of Fall, and the same day the DOJ labeled Full Tilt Poker a Ponzi scheme and took all of Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Rafe Furst’s money. But why then did the ever-PR-conscious DOJ wait some 60 business days later until December 23rd — the quietest media day of the year — before telling the rest of America about the Executive Branch’s significant change of digital heart?

I suppose it might not even matter at this point; SOPA and PIPA have been tabled for now, Megaupload has been slapped hard with the same government quarantine the Feds beta-tested on online poker sites, and Kim Dotcom is in jail awaiting a fate that Full Tilt and PokerStars lawyers say he coulda avoided simply by changing his name to Kim Dotnet!

OK, maybe I get a little factually carried away sometimes jest … but John Pappas has a serious message for the President — essentially a 22-second synopsis of all those emails and tweets from the Poker Player Alliance’s 1.2 million members, and a plea for “common sense public policy” on the eve of what could be Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.

source: @RobertGoldfarb

Really … $1k an hour? I mean that’s not quite Carrot Top money, and supposedly Gold’s already had five students pony up … but jeesh … you’d think at that rate they could at least afford a nicer sign!

Additional Resources

• [video] Eliot Spitzer hooker money
• [video] Wall Street Journal on $1,000/hr attorneys
• Richest comedians/Carrot Top net worth

PokerStars may be without a CEO for the time being, as Gabi Campos, who assumed the chief executive position in 2010, reportedly is no longer big boss of the largest real-money online poker site in the world. While it’s not quite clear who told whom to eff off (and Stars has yet to put out a press release insisting all is hunky-dory) … if confirmed, Campos’ ouster/skeedaddling marks the fourth major executive departure at PokerStars since Black Friday.

First to be disappeared (amid some controversy) was veteran EPT Tournament Director Thomas Kremser in May; then last month, EPT founder John Duthie left. And now supposedly Jeffrey Haas, top dog at Global Poker Tours Limited (parent company for PokerStars live events) has been, er … moved on. (Haas’s LinkedIn page lists GPTL as “Past” … and “Director of New Platforms, Mobile & Social Gaming for Pokerstars.com” as current — sounds like “big-money suit demoted to glorified blogger” to me, but hey!)

UPDATE: Interestingly, Campos’ LinkedIn-from-Israel doesn’t list PokerStars as a past or present employer … says he his now working for 888-subsidiary Dragonfish, which we know, of course, in 2010 became an online partner to the WSOP.

What if anything might be behind this extended shakeup on the international live tournament poker scene is hard to say. Read Wendeen Eolis’ report in Poker Player Newspaper here.

Despite Black Friday, PokerStars has maintained its position as the world’s biggest, arguably most important, and possibly most highly regulated and therefore internationally legitimate online poker site. (And they set a Guinness World Record to boot!)

The US Department of Justice, meanwhile, maintains that PokerStars’ success was built on the ill-gotten gains of an illegal enterprise with ties to organized crime … and their founder is still, according to the DOJ, the #1 most wanted online poker criminal.

It’s a closed tournament open only to current MBA students and accredited MBA alumni (please show your proof of registration or diploma at the window?) … but with a few hundred chicks and dudes hoping to power-suit their way to the personal 1-percenthood coming to town for multiple days — and tourney instructions that say: “this event has traditionally attracted players who are familiar with Texas Hold-em (so we suggest you read up on the rules before you arrive)” — it might be worth checking out.

Competing with the cash games for their Business School interests are a bunch of “networking seminars” — which are supposedly what draw the MBAers here on this special (to them) pokery weekend.

Check out the vid of what the Caesars Empire currently has populating one poker corner of the Las Vegas Strip:

One of my favorite charity tourneys of the year is this Saturday — Operation All In … Randy Couture’s  poker tournament and charity auction benefitting his Xtreme Couture GI Foundation. Karina Jett hosts the event, so you can expect her usual brand of fun and merry band of Full Tilt Red Pros in exile. And because OAI is more MMAish than pokery … well, let’s just say you can be sure to see some rather douchetastic! unique table interaction. And with a reasonable buy-in ($220 w $100 rebuys), you stand to get a fair share of genuine downtown tourists, too — excited by their chance to play with the fighters more so than the poker pros.

The winner gets $10k in cold American cash this year, too … no fancy qualifiers for some future maybe-cool new event in some other country. And though I haven’t personally looked into how legit Randy Couture’s foundation is, I do get a sense he takes the effort kinda personally and isn’t going to let the funds raised here get squandered en route to the beneficiaries. For many soldiers, the war isn’t over just because they are starting to come home.

It’s been an interesting relationship in Vegas between mixed martial arts and poker over the past 12 or so years … the state of which will be on display in the form of tax-deductible feelgood poker … this weekend at the Golden Nugget.

Read below for official deets on what’s going down.

MMA Star Randy “The Natural” Couture Hosts 
Charity Poker Tournament at the Golden Nugget
“Operation All In” to raise money for Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation

LAS VEGAS – Mixed Martial Arts legend Randy “The Natural” Couture will host his fourth annual “Operation All In” poker tournament and charity auction benefiting the Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 14 starting at 2 p.m.

This event, held in The Grand events center, is open to the public and will feature a celebrity charity poker tournament, live and silent auctions, autograph sessions with photo opportunities and raffle prizes while giving back to injured troops.

“Operation All In” will welcome professional celebrity poker players and stars from the MMA world and Hollywood to play alongside the public in its charity poker tournament, where several great prizes will be awarded along with the grand prize of $10,000 cash. The buy-in for “Operation All In” at the Golden Nugget is $220 with $100 multi re-buys.

MMA fighters confirmed to attend include Randy Couture, Clay Guida, Cung Le, John Alessio, Martin Kampmann, Jay Hieron, John Gunderson, Brad Tavares, Tyson Griffin, Ryan Couture and Frank Trigg. Celebrities will also partake in the action, and those confirmed to attend include David Zayas, Shanna Moakler, JJ Lui, TJ Lavin and Lon Maccaren from ESPN. Other fighters and poker pros are expected to confirm attendance as the event nears.

Ultimate Fighting Champion Couture, a veteran himself of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, started the Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation to raise money and awareness for troops wounded in action and their families. After visiting with amputees at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Couture was brought to tears seeing the young men and women who had given their all for freedom, young heroes who now have to go through life’s challenges with devastating physical and emotional injuries. The Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation goal is to help these brave men and women fulfill any of their unmet needs as they return back to civilian life.

A highlight of the event will be both the silent auction, with an amazing array of MMA memorabilia up for grabs, and the live auction which includes some items donated personally by Couture, such as dinner with the fighter and a one-hour personal MMA lesson. In addition to Couture, other MMA fighters will be on hand throughout the evening for photos and autographs with tournament players and fans.

“Operation All In” is sponsored by the contributions of its great supporters including Microtech, Oakley, Xtreme Couture MMA, Deepstacks, Lord Griffon, Clear Channel & Golden Nugget.

Seats are limited, so reserve your spot today by stopping by or calling the Golden Nugget Poker Room at (800) 777-4658, ext. 8164 or locally (702) 386-8383, or emailing poker@goldennugget.com to pre-register. Players will also be able to register for the tournament at the event. For more information visit www.xcgif.org.  or www.goldennugget.com.

# # #

ABOUT GOLDEN NUGGET LAS VEGAS

Winner of the AAA Four Diamond Award consecutively since 1977, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas is the most luxurious resort on the Fremont Street Experience, and consistently receives critical acclaim for exceeding customer expectations. The Golden Nugget now offers more than 2,400 deluxe guestrooms and suites; a high-energy casino featuring the most popular slot and video poker machines, table games, race and sports book, and poker room; nightly entertainment with master impressionist and comedian Gordie Brown; world-class restaurants such as Grotto Italian Ristorante and Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse; a luxury spa and salon; and The Tank, a year-round outdoor swimming pool complete with a 200,000-gallon, live shark aquarium and the new H20 poolside lounge. Since 2005, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas has made more than $180 million in upgrades, renovations and expansions under Landry’s Inc, introducing first-class accommodations, exquisite dining options and fun-filled entertainment venues. In late 2009, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas unveiled its newest addition, Rush Tower. This $150-million hotel tower added nearly 500 new guestrooms and suites to the property, brought Las Vegas it’s first Chart House Restaurant and introduced a beautiful new pool, the Hideout, as well as expanded the gaming. Hotel reservations and additional information are available by calling 800-634-3454 or by visiting online at www.goldennugget.com.

ABOUT XTREME COUTURE GI FOUNDATION
The Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation, was founded by Randy Couture to honor the veterans of America’s armed forces. The foundation was especially formed to raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families. To date, more than 24,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in the war against terrorism, which doesn’t include the many more suffering the mental effects. The Xtreme Couture GI Foundation goal is to help these brave men and women fulfill any of their unmet needs as they return back to civilian life. Visit http://www.xtremecouturegifoundation.org/ for more information.

Here’s how our friends at Palms Poker Room are doling out rebates in their $3500 Weekly Player Appreciation Giveaway … which I’m pretty sure is already under way:

Win your share of $3,500 every week. The more you play, the more you can earn. Palms Poker Room is awarding players $8 an hour for time logged at the table — 5 hour minimum, 74.87 hours max. That’s anywhere from $40 to $599 coming back to you!

We’re counting time each week from Sunday at midnight (12am) until Saturday at 11:59pm. We distribute Player Appreciation Money on Mondays at 11am — in order of most hours to least hours until $3,000 gets paid out.

We then hold five $100 drawings for everyone who played at least five hours but did not get a share. That drawing is at 2pm on Mondays. Players need not be present to win and have 24 hours to claim their cash prize. Any unclaimed monies get rolled over into the next week’s giveaway.

La Sengphet took down another one on the WSOP-circuit — winning a $345 NLH at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. for her fourth WSOP-C victory (third in a ring-bearing event) and a $25k payday. Her other half, David Clark, made a final table the day before, and won his second ring just a couple stops earlier at WSOP-Tahoe. Their story is becoming sickeningly charming … perhaps even inspirational … showing that true love and poker success can go hand-in-hand for a couple of old-fashioned rounders making their way across an ever-unpredictable poker landscape.

(That, or … Go Team Pokerati!)

@WhoIsDavidClark? The #1 WSOP-circuit player right now, and boyfriend to a poker chick with skills of her own.

And while I’m a fan of these two Dallas players mostly because of La’s really cool hat, I couldn’t help but notice — in finally getting sucked in to the latest developments in poker’s minor leagues — that I was witnessing more than just entertaining poker. Her final table was an exciting up-and-down match complete with rough rivers in the face of amazing plays and questionable calls you might expect from minor-leaguers … or at a minimum, the kinda non-suckout against 7-high aggression that should make any Pokeratizen proud.

But thanks to the pocket-friendly live feed from Live at the Bike, I saw a future where I can closely follow a “small” $345 event just because I happen to have a friend at the final table, and where I can watch it live-enough (30-minute delay, I think) … complete with hole cards and a couple seasoned grinders analyzing her play.

My how times have changed …

It was almost exactly a year ago that the Dallas couple started their circuit tear with a second-place by La and a DC-win at the new WSOP-Choctaw. Back then, WSOP-LA didn’t even exist, and PokerStars still believed they had a future in the United States by heavily pimping their second foray into California with an NAPT stop at the Bike and plausible validation from a stronger relationship with ESPN. The WSOP had yet to show the poker world what was possible with new handheld technologies, and the Players Advisory Committee hadn’t even begun the debate over changing poker forever by revealing hole cards even before the next break.

As Seen on iPhone TV: La completes her three-barrel bluff by moving in with 7-high, opponent calls, she wins!

Meanwhile, both Sengphet and Clark were focused on qualifying for the inaugural Circuit National Championship, where La would place 4th to win $100k. So far this 2011/12 season, Clark has already secured his seat in the summer million-dollar freeroll with five cashes, 4 final tables (including a HORSE event), and his November win at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe; La so far has three cashes and a win this season.

Click here to see the latest standings on the WSOP-Circuit leaderboard; you can also follow La and DC on Twitter as they cruise the WSOP circuit (and other events?) leading up to the big ones in Vegas this summer. Of course now we can only hope Pokerati’s favorite rungood couple doesn’t suddenly hit the skids as circuit competition not only becomes more aware of who they are, but also has greater ability to actually study their play!

It feels like we’ve been talking about Caesars going public since before they were Caesars (we have) … but their latest S1/A filing with the SEC suggests not only that CZR really is might be ready to kick it Zynga-style with a big fat IPO … but also that any public offering from the worldwide gambling empire may be in preparation for imminent legalization of US online poker.

While such hefty levels of high finance are still probably a little beyond my ken … you can read the nearly 300 pages of Big Casino corporate speak and decide for yourself. Somewhere in here, I’m pretty sure, is a blueprint for the future of poker and/or online gambling.

At a minimum, I found this snippet on page 7 suggesting that Caesars is getting ready for something big related to online gambling poker:

We believe that additional jurisdictions will legalize online gaming due to consumer demand, a broader understanding of the need to regulate the industry and to generate income through taxes on gaming revenue. As such, we support efforts to regulate the online gaming industry to ensure that consumers are protected. We believe that the potential for online gaming is substantial and believe that we will command, at a minimum, our fair share in any legal jurisdiction. An H2 Gaming Capital study conducted in 2010 projects that the global online gaming market will grow to $36 billion in revenues by 2012. We believe that the largest opportunity in online gaming in the near term is the legalization of online poker in the United States. [emphasis added]

There’s tons more in this document worthy of perusal … some of which I’ve already skimmed. And it doesn’t take much to see how an actual Caesars IPO — not just talk of it — could-well coincide with legalized American online poker hubbub (finally!) reaching critical mass.

Caesars, after all, formerly known as Harrah’s, was a publicly traded company until going private shortly after passage of the UIGEA in 2006. Changed their name to Caesars in November 2010 — the last time they prepped seriously for an IPO (right after their boy Harry Reid won re-election and owed them a favor) only to withdraw plans for a public offering of stock shares right after someone told them the lame-duck online poker Reid bill was just a farce for other political purposes a couple weeks later.

DOJ prosecutors keep moving up their ladder of bad guys in the unlawful internet gambling case against Isai Scheinberg et al. Brent Beckley, the 31-year-old father of two and a co-owner of Absolute Poker, told a Manhattan judge he did indeed lead a company that deceived US banks to circumvent US law, and acknowledged conspiring with others to commit bank and wire fraud. Beckley will likely serve 12-18 months in prison as part of a plea agreement, Reuters and the New York Times report.

This probably doesn’t bode well for other Black Friday defendants who face more severe charges and still haven’t stepped foot into US court. Though I haven’t seen actual documents on this one yet (readers please feel free to send a link or pdf), I’d be willing to bet (on this-here internet?) that the plea deal does not cut Beckley any slack because Absolute Poker patches said “dot net”.

Song: Full Tilt Poker Blues
Artist: The Donks
Genre: Blues
Release: Sep 2011

No spoiler intended … Just guessing at the plot-line from the Ace High trailer, which is fairly good-lookin’ for an indie movie still seeking funding to complete. Wonder how PokerStars got the product placement … and which online pros may or may not make any on-screen appearances … and whether or not players would have legal rights use of the likeness of their online poker avatars or even screen names:

First UIGEA Conviction in the Books The DOJ logged their first win on UIGEA charges — making the supposedly weak law thus far undefeated — against online sportsbook operator Todd Lyons. His arrest back in May 2010 shoulda been a big warning sign to American online poker operators (and players?) — and Full Tilt specifically — that the DOJ was coming to get them! [CalvinAyre.com]

First Black Friday Trial Date Set John Campos and Chad Elie, the Utah banker and PokerStars payment processor indicted for their role in online poker criminal activity, have a trial date in March … creating a tangible timeline for Black Friday cases and added pressure on the big fish the DOJ really wants — Isai Sheinberg, Ray Bitar, and Scott Tom. [Legal Poker Sites]

MGM Sues Poker Domain Squatters Just as Caesars sued (and won) to obtain the domain WSOP.com, MGM has filed suit to repossess the domains mgmpoker.com, bellagiopoker.com, luxorpoker.com, mandalaybaypoker.com, and ariapoker.com. Apparently the casino giant thinks they’ll have need for them soon. [VegasInc]

Barton Says Online Poker Bill Still Alive This Congress Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) gave a luncheon keynote at the DGLP, where he spelled out how his online poker bill is moving forward as a piece of stand-alone legislation and/or still could be absorbed into some omnibus bills. Pretty straight-forward, honest-sounding stuff as Barton even talks about his own live real-money play and admits to multi-accounting for play money on PokerStars. [Pokerati Soundcloud]

Adelson Balks at Readiness for Online Poker The poker masses got spun into a tizzy after Vegas politico Jon Ralston “reported” that Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson has been buzzing around DC that he is morally opposed to online gambling … and that age-verification technology isn’t ready yet. Ralston concludes that this could kill online poker’s chances in Congress as if Adelson alone is more powerful than the combined forces of Caesars, MGM, Steve Wynn, Station Casinos, Boyd Gaming, Michael Gaughan, et al. Quick to cry, some poker players have begun calling for a boycott of Venetian Poker. [Las Vegas Sun]

Nevada Regulations Almost Ready While so many chatter about complex details of future online poker, the Nevada Gaming Commission and State Gaming Control Board seem to be the only ones systematically moving forward with thorough, enforceable rules and regulations for online gaming. In one of the biggest overhauls to state gaming regs in history, they just released a whole bunch of revisions for licensure and suitable ownership that Big and Small casinos alike are paying close attention to. [gaming.NV.gov]

Fry Howie? Funny/sad, shortly after Black Friday I thought we might be seeing T-shirts that said “Free Howard!” not “Fry Howard!” But loyalty can be a fickle bitch when you eff up with someone else’s money. Hence this flash creation for players wishing to express their personal outrage against Full Tilt and Howard Lederer violently. [PokerListings]

UB Player Database Leaked Lots of offline debate over how and why nearly 3 million poker-player IDs leaked out. Work of a disgruntled employee or scuttling the ship before UB ultimately hits sea-floor? And will there be more such pressings of self-destruct? [Haley's Poker Blog]

Rest o’World: Cyprus on Crackdown, South Africa’s Open-Market Mind, German Pre-unification Some of the other key political moves from the rest of the world, as the future of legal online poker (and gambling) actively takes shape … the mediterranean island that isn’t Malta doesn’t have moral opposition, they just want their cut (kinda like Kentucky) … while South Africa continues its progressive-minded movement from staunch opposition to tolerance to active support of online gambling … all while the German province of Schleswig-Holstein’s acceptance of new online poker rules is so big it actually moved some major market needles. [Legal Poker Sites]