A regular high-stakes Southern Cali cash game player, Kang Choi, was arrested at the Commerce (playing $200/$400 limit, I believe):

http://www.wnbc.com/news/16321153/detail.html

[via ThinkingPoker]

2+2 convo about the topic and his loose-aggressive play.

My poker pal Jim Killeen first parlayed his poker winnings into a successful chair massage business at the Commerce Casino and now has gone big time and made a movie. Always breaking the mold, Jim’s movie is available to watch for free on YouTube. Tom and I watched it recently on the drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas and both enjoyed it. Angry Julie, not so much. If you happen to watch it, let me know what you think.

The $10k buy-in World Poker Tour main event of the L.A. Poker Classic got underway today at Commerce Casino. The final number of entrants was 665 - less than last year but impressive nonetheless. First prize will be over $1.6 million.

Walking around the tournament tables at the beginning of the day, it was obvious that it was a stacked field with pros everywhere - Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Freddy Deeb, Phil Hellmuth, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, David Benyamine, Tom Schneider, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Gavin Griffin, Bill Edler, John Juanda… etc. Also in the field were the WPT’s own Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, both of whom are obviously now (WPT change of contract terms?) allowed to play. And the celebrity quotient was filled by Montel Williams and Rick Salomon, if the latter is considered a celeb by anyone other than the tabloids.

Side note: Daniel Negreanu was sporting an Obama ‘08 shirt. That Barack guy is all the rage these days, eh?

Official live updates reveal that David Singer led the pack at the end of Day 1.

PokerListings and PokerPages are also in the media hizzouse (excuse the lame attempt at hipness - it’s late) providing updates as allowed.

It seems that the California Bureau of Gaming Control doesn’t take too kindly to discrimination.

On January 18, the Bureau released a statement that rejected “ladies only” poker tournaments because they violate the state’s anti-discrimination laws. Not only will such events not be allowed to discriminate in admittance prices or services offered, but they can no longer advertise tournaments as ladies only, since men must be admitted.

PokerNews ran an article about it, noting that the Bicycle Casino and Commerce Casino do allow men to enter the events and will change their advertisements to remove the word “only” when referring to the ladies tournaments.

The WPT, which recently launched its Ladies League, said, “The intention of WPT Ladies is not to prohibit or promote against male players from joining, playing or receiving equal prizing in WPTL tournaments, but rather to encourage the growth of women in poker and provide opportunities to test their skills in the tournament environment.”

Curious to see how this all plays out – if men will start entering these ladies events to make a point or if they will leave the ladies alone.

See the entire Bureau of Gambling Control press release by clicking below:

More…

The L.A. Poker Classic begins its month of preliminary tournaments tomorrow (January 24) at Commerce Casino. In fact, it is actualy in Commerce, California, but L.A. - City of Dreams, Hollywood, City of Angels, LaLa Land - sounds so much more appealing.

Prelim events range from $300 buy-ins to the $10k main event, and there are tournaments in limit & no-limit hold’em, stud, Omaha, six-handed and tag team hold’em, and shootouts, so there’s something for every donkey sucker player.

It all wraps up with the WPT $10k championship event that begins on February 23 with the final table on February 28. And the star-studded Celebrity Invitational runs from March 1 - 3.

Click here for a complete schedule.

Since Dan everybody calls me Cali Jen, I will be there when I can to get the inside scoop on who’s in the house, who’s winning and losing, any drama that ensues (did someone mention Brandi?), and which players and celebrities I have crushes on respect and admire.

While playing in a tournament at the LAPC, a woman sat down on my right in seat two along with a new dealer in the box. Within minutes she began hitting every flop with any two cards, even as low at 2-4o. I finally said to her, “Wow, you are running hot.”

The man in seat one said, “I think she brought her own dealer” along with seat four nodding in agreement. I immediately looked at the dealer who was making steady eye contact with her. Looking down she embarked on a frantic text message craze then began folding every hand. I was unwilling to believe cheaters would exist in a casino such as The Commerce but there was a vibe going on at that moment that was very uncomfortable. Not to mention the dealer making determined eye contact with her and no one else at the table. Eventually, I brushed it off. But you can’t help but wonder what some people are capable of.

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(LOS ANGELES)–First off, only compliments to the Commerce Casino for the way they run a poker game. The tournament structure is excellent and the dealers are outstanding. Even though the Commerce lacks the luxuries and energy of the Bellagio, their staff is personable and professional. It’s almost like a large professional home game. Everyone seems to know everyone there.

I had fun catching up with Amir Vahedi, who busted out early in the limit event. Chatted with Cyndy Violette (correction: she does not have black streaks). Caught up with fellow mom Karina Jett (she says “hello,” Dan). And the Asian guy with black hair that hit his three outs, knocking me out of the satellite was MINH NGUYEN not Men “the master” Nguyen. It is easy to confuse the two since Men Nguyen translates into John Smith. Did I mention Minh’s guilt? Before finishing the satellite he came over to me with a piece of cake. And by the way…no, I am not a whining player. I take it like a man professional. As for the bust in the limit event…I played with CAMPBELL DAVIS from Dallas.

It looks like I won’t be winning a seat into the WPT main event. My stack was crippled after my A7 was crushed by Mary Jones’ A3. (She won the 2006 WSOP Ladies event.) But our table broke and I quickly grew my 400 into 3200 in three hands. Thanks to a new table where I was no longer receiving 72 (hence the beautiful but dangerously stupid A7 play).

I picked up AK of hearts under the gun and made a standard 3x raise. It folded to the big blind who decided to raise me all in with her AQ offsuit. I flopped a king, she turned and rivered queens. Goodbye Commerce. I busted from the LA Poker Classic Ladies tourney at 10 pm and was back in Houston by 11 am this morning. Whew!

LOS ANGELES–I stepped into the Commerce Casino last night for the first time, and I don’t think I have ever seen so many poker tables in one place (not counting The Rio Convention Center). It looked as though every seat were taken … and to top it off, my new friend Selma said the games were “very loose.”

While David Williams, JC Tran, and Steve Wong will not arrive until the main event later this month, Cyndy Violette and Freddie Deeb were both there — playing back to back at cash tables. (Cyndy was looking very sexy with her new black streaks.) And Young Phan was upstairs playing satellites. “I will be playing everyday,” he said. “Everyday!”

Some pro busted me out of a satellite, but I don’t know who he was. Asian guy, short, black hair, with a WPT final table jacket. I know I have seen him somewhere before.

It’s different from the normal Vegas routine of high noon here, as tournaments start at 3:30 pm. Maybe they think this creates an edge for The West Coast defeating The East Coast, not to mention us wayward Texans stuck in the middle with our Third Coast.