For those Pokerati readers who missed out on what’s going on, here’s some stuff that’s happened over the past few days:

The first PokerStars.net NAPT event in the US got off to a roaring start on Saturday, with 872 players putting up $5,000 at the Venetian as part of their Deep Stack Extravaganza. 149 players started day 3 a few minutes ago, with 128 making the money. Hand for hand play has just begun, and the tournament staff is hoping to play down to 24. You can follow the action over at PokerNews, PokerStarsblog.com, or PokerListings. The winner when play ends on Thursday will collect $827,648.

Reality show star Trishelle Canatella made the final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational, part of the LA Poker Classic currently running at the Commerce Casino. The final table will resume on March 3rd with this lineup:

Seat 1: Steve Elliott – 1,520,000
Seat 2: Thor Hansen – 1,480,000
Seat 3: Trishelle Cannatella – 1,540,000
Seat 4: Sean Urban – 2,090,000
Seat 5: Neev Baram – 1,900,000
Seat 6: LeRon Washington – 1,790,000

In other LAPC news, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri took down his 3rd preliminary event of this year’s LAPC, winning the $2,100 Ironman event, a tournament with no scheduled breaks. Barbieri pocketed almost $60,000 for the win, plus a seat to the $10,000 Main Event, which starts February 26th.

The NBC National Heads-Up Championship is just a few days away, with the draw party on March 4th at Pure at Caesars’ Palace, followed by the tournament from March 5-7. The full list of 64 participants hasn’t been announced yet, but over 20 players already received their invite through a series of criteria, including last year’s winner, Huck Seed. Other automatic invites include: Phil Ivey, Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso, Darvin Moon, Jason Mercier, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Barry Shulman. One invitee who had to decline: Jeff Lisandro, who has a prior commitment in Australia which prevents him from attending.

The EPT Copenhagen event, which drew 423 entries, concluded Sunday evening with Sweden’s Anton Wigg outlasting Italy’s Francesco de Vivo in a four-hour heads-up duel to win 3,675,000 Danish kroner ($6782,918). Other notables who cashed: Roberto Romanello, Peter Eastgate, Juha Helppi, and Bertrand Grospellier.

Don’t call it a comeback … Vinnie Vinh, from Houston, had done little on the tournament scene since his chair finished 3rd in a limit hold’em event at the ‘08 WSOP. But he did book a 14th place finish in a $970 No-Limit tourney at the LA Poker Classic in February … and check out results of Event #10 — a $335 NLH — at the Commerce Hold’em Series:

EVENT #10 $335 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
ENTRIES 152 PRIZE POOL $43,776

PLACE NAME/HOMETOWN PRIZE
1 Vinnie Vinh, Houston, TX $14,006 plus $2,580 Seat
2 David Lopez, Tucson, AZ $7,486
3 Pho Tran, West Covina, CA $4,772
4 Glenn Forster, Los Angeles, CA $3,502
5 Huy Quach, West Covina, CA $2,845
6 Derwin Lowery, Los Angeles, CA $2,145
7 David Liau, Los Angeles, CA $1,707
8 Dono Terranova, Los Angeles, CA $1,270
9 Patrick Karschamroon, Los Angeles, CA $919
10 Adam Weinraub, Orange, CA $657
11 Nhut Tran, Norwalk, CA $657
12 Panayotis Kalessis, Los Angeles, CA $657
13 Impounh Vongvone, Los Angeles, CA $569
14 Sami Banizuraij, Salt Lake City, UT $569
15 Rocky Eniso, Glendale, CA $569
16 Gideon Cross, Los Angeles, CA $482
17 Bobby Binsky, Miami, FL $482
18 Yarom Limor, Beverly Hills, CA $482

I’m keeping tabs on these big-little tourneys via Steve Hall.

UPDATE: Steve tells me that Vinnie is playing these minor league Commerce tournaments for Men the Master.

The WPT L.A. Poker Classic main event is in full swing at the Commerce Casino in cloudy-but-mid-70’s SoCal, and the turnout for the $10K main is spectacular. It started on Saturday with 696 entrants according to PokerNews and 695 according to WPT Live Updates, but either way, it’s the largest turnout second only to the 791 number in 2007. With TD Matt Savage at the helm, players are excited about the structure and anxious to get into the money today or tomorrow.

As noted previously, more media outlets made the trek to L.A. with the understanding that the Savage-run tournament would offer a lifting of the usual WPT media restrictions, the ones that typically keep non-official media out of the tournament area with the exception of 15 minutes per level. Turns out that Savage’s wishes on behalf of Commerce weren’t enough to override WPT contracts, so companies like PokerNews have been very limited in their ability to cover the tournament or provide chip counts. (F-Train is one of many frustrated reporters on scene.)

It was interesting to note, however, that a WPT executive commented on the beauty of the media-filled stage at the back of the room. But when he realized that it was not the norm, that WPT restrictions usually prevent much of the poker media from coming to WPT events anymore, he seemed to understand the problem. Whether he can or will do anything about it going forward remains to be seen.

For now, catch the official tournament reports from the WPT Live Updates team.

Karridy outlasted and out-intimidated “Century 21 Rocks!” and every other student-player at WinStar.

Karridy’s in Oklahoma this weekend, attending the WSOP Academy at WinStar … (note to Texas legislators) … and, sure enough, after a day of schooling, he won their big tournament last night. I don’t know the details — I think it was like 40something players, two of whom may or may not have included instructors Greg Raymer and Mike Gracz … and the prize is something like a fancied-up trip to Vegas and seat in WSOP-A’s tournament of champions. Anyhow, nice job K-man! That’s 2-for-2 for him when representing Team Pokerati.

ALT HED: Karridy Don’t Need No … Edu-ca-tion

Oh, wait, I’m forgetting about the two WSOP 1500’s where he busted out early on Day 1. But regardless, in what is something of a rarity, the entire Beyond the Table hosting crew (SitNGo Steve excused) was playing poker Saturday night. While Karridy was winning his tourney, I was kicking a little ass playing 1/2 online, booking my second $1,000 win in two sessions (might I actually have learned something at cash games college?), and Tom was playing the main event of the LAPC, where he won his seat via satellite but would soon be busting out not too far into Day 1, thereby making him happy for his amateur BTT cohorts, but not so happy about being the biggest loser of the bunch.

It’s that time of year again… Poker players descend upon SoCal for the L.A. Poker Classic, and the Commerce Casino buzzes with tournaments and cash games of all shapes and sizes. I finally made my first jaunt over there on Monday to check out the $10K HORSE event, the first of its kind at the LAPC, and was taken aback by the masses in the tournament room – 1,362 to be exact – for the $335 NLHE rebuy. Word was that the $100K guarantee was the draw, but the final prize pool was nearly $400K. The line of alternates wound through the hallways, and it took so long to thin the field that the $10K HORSE start-time was pushed back.

With Tournament Director Matt Savage running the LAPC show for the entirety of the series, all poker media was invited to cover it. Steve Hall has been there for the majority of it, providing some updates and gossip as only he can. (Personal fave: report of Nelly’s random appearance to play high-limit cash.) With the Monday HORSE event and subsequent $10K heads-up, PokerRoad settled in for their live shows, Life’s a Bluff came to pick up some interviews, and CardPlayer got comfortable for the duration to provide live updates of the major preliminaries and the main event. Word is that PokerNews will even be showing up for the main, as Savage welcomes the coverage, overruling (in most areas of coverage) the usual WPT media restrictions.

The pros have been all over the 2009 LAPC, starting with David Plastik winning Event 2, Fabrice Soulier taking Event 16, Jason Mercier Event 19, Frankie O’Dell Event 22, Jeff Madsen Event 24, and Scotty Nguyen grabbing another HORSE title in Event 29 (the aforementioned $10K event). The $10K heads-up will find its winner today, and the $10K WPT main event begins on Saturday.

Side note: Scotty Nguyen is evidently unable to win a HORSE event without controversy. CardPlayer reported that he taunted another player and began to show signs of his 2008 WSOP behavior, though he calmed down after a warning from Savage.

From CardPlayer updates:

As his chip stack has grown at this final table so has the level of Nguyen’s voice. He specifically taunted Matt Graham after he busted him in fifth place in a manner that definitely crossed the line.

Really? Damn.

It seems that the United States economic depression recession has stayed out of the Los Angeles card clubs, at least that was the case in 2008.

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports that 2008 earnings were actually up 1.2% from the previous year. Those numbers come from a former executive of the California Gaming Association and include figures from the seven largest card clubs in the L.A. metro area, including Commerce Casino and the Bicycle Casino.

Speaking of Commerce, the L.A. Poker Classic is in full swing, and that ever-popular tournament has seen no sign of the depression recession either. The first event alone – $335 NLHE – drew a field of 1,592, which is a 401-player increase from the 2008 series. Maybe the U.S. government should host a $1000 NLHE event for the entire country, take a few hundred dollars in juice on each buy-in, and clear up that nasty zillion dollar debt.

… is literally out the door. I’m guessing 1000+ entries.

Pardon the groaner title, but hear me out.

Men “The Master” Nguyen is on a roll of sorts. In the event mentioned below, Men took first place and the $65,700 top prize. He cashed in Event #2 of the Legends of Poker series on July 31st, then took down Event #13 on August 10th. Keep in mind that the year is but a little more than half over, and he already has $767,949 in 2008 tournament winnings thus far. A few other accomplishments earlier this year include:

• Two cashes at the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica, including a prelim event win
• Three WPT cashes, including a final table that resulted in a 3rd place cash for $241,193
• Six cashes at the L.A. Poker Classic, including three victories in prelim events
• Five WSOP cashes

He is seriously dominating local L.A. poker in 2008 and doing well in general, and he still has time to add more accomplishments to the list. And consider this: His brother and wife are becoming forces to be reckoned with on the tournament circuit. Ut Nguyen won an L.A. Poker Classic prelim earlier this year, along with other cashes. Van Nguyen has had even more success, as she became the first woman to win a WPT mixed event at the WPT Celebrity Invitational in March. She took $125,500 for that victory, then went on to final table the WPT Ladies Championship the next month. And her WSOP included four cashes, netting more than her husband overall and finishing much better than him in the main event. In total, she has made $226,083 in 2008 so far.

I have a feeling this is going to be a sick year for Men and his family of players. The Nguyens are players to watch…is all I’m sayin’.

Phil Ivey – Courtesy of the World Poker Tour

In the most exciting World Poker Tour final table in recent memory, Phil Ivey used everything in his power to win the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic.

Phil Hellmuth left in sixth place with only a minor indication of tilt, and it looked like the two relative newcomers – Scott Montgomery and Charles Moore – looked like they might be able to squash the pros. But Montgomery took a dive to get out in fifth place, then Nam Le in fourth, and Moore in third. Heads-up play only lasted two hands between Quinn Do and the overwhelming chip leader Phil Ivey.

Ivey won with a full house over Do. While it looked at the beginning of the final table that Ivey may lose it when he lost several big pots in the first round, he calmed down and used as much patience as he had to pick his spots more carefully throughout the remainder of the action. At his eight appearance at a WPT final table, he finally won and pocketed nearly $1.6 million to boot.

For all of the action as it happened, check out the WPT Live Updates summary.

Congrats to Phil!

Seriously, look at this line-up:

Seat 1 Quinn Do – 1,450,000
Seat 2 Nam Le – 1,180,000
Seat 3 Phil Hellmuth – 2,380,000
Seat 4 Phil Ivey – 4,100,000
Seat 5 Charles Moore – 1,510,000
Seat 6 Scott Montgomery – 2,680,000

Could the WPT have asked for a better final table?

Whether you love or hate Phil Hellmuth, he’s going to make for great poker and interesting television. Phil Ivey has been at multiple WPT final tables but never been able to take a title. Quinn Do and Nam Le are friends and both quite capable of pulling this off. The wild cards are Charles Moore and Scott Montgomery, but can they really compete under the lights and cameras against such experienced pros?

Enough with the questions. Check out WPT Live Updates for all of the action when it begins today at 5pm.

UPDATE: Phil Hellmuth was just eliminated in sixth place. Ouch. The upside is that he crossed the $10 million tournament earnings mark with this finish.

The final 18 players are set to begin play at 12:30 today to compete for the six seats at the WPT final table. Oh, and a little $1.6 mil is up for grabs, too.

Today’s action is going to be exciting. Seriously. Phil Ivey is the chip leader right now, though Blair Hinkle (who?) is a close second. Phil Hellmuth is third in chips, with Nam Le not far behind. On the lower end of the chip counts are Jennifer Tilly, Theo Tran, Quinn Do, and my personal fav David Singer. Any of these players have the capability of chipping up or doubling up quickly to get back into contention.

Note to the poker gods: Please, please make this a great final table! One unrecognizable guy is acceptable, but please give us some seasoned and well-deserving pros! *End of plea.*

Here are the official chip counts and seating assignments, courtesy of WPT Live Updates:

TABLE 1
1. Nam Le – 1,254,000
2. Theo Tran – 410,000
3. Mike “SirWatts” Watson – 987,000
4. Charles Moore – 921,000
5. Quinn Do – 285,000
6. Wei Kai Chang – 751,000
7. Jennifer Tilly – 417,000
8. Brian Taylor – 228,000
9. Yury Parad – 214,000

TABLE 2
1. Phil Ivey – 1,543,000
2. Mike Carson – 1,049,000
3. Pete de Best – 291,000
4. Matt Brady – 497,000
5. Jeff Schwimmer – 413,000
6. David Singer – 285,000
7. Scott Montgomery – 386,000
8. Phil Hellmuth – 1,399,000
9. Blair Hinkle – 1,541,000

UPDATE: Singer was eliminated in 18th place. Boo!

UPDATE: Tilly finished in 12th place for $61,610, courtesy of Phil Hellmuth. (Sorry, Ed!)

As the players on Day 3 of the L.A. Poker Classic approach the money bubble, there are still some very well-known players atop the leader board – Phil Ivey and David Singer. Jennifer Tilly doubled up through Humberto Brenes and is doing well. Alan Goehring, former LAPC champion, is hanging on to make a run at another title.

Sadly, however, Antonio Esfandiari seemed to be on a bad run this evening, then took a hit from Kyle Burnside, and just got eliminated. He’s had a great week with the announcement of his partnership with WPT, but a shot at a second WPT LAPC title would have been icing on the cake. It wasn’t meant to be, but there’s the NBC Heads-Up in a few days, along with the WPT Invitational next weekend. Momentum could take him far if he lets it.

Click below for some semi-gossip-y notes:

More…

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.

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.

More…

(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!

Just got word from Pokerati’s Houston correspondent Michele (aka “Fresh Princess,” aka “Michelf”) that she’s out of the $1,000 limit event at Commerce. There were 200 entries (a couple dozen more than last year) and she finished 50somethingth. (27 got paid.) Tomorrow she’ll try again, in the $1,000 Ladies NLH event.

Click here to follow. Can’t seem to find any live coverage …

Oh, she also reports that she figured out who that short Asian pro with the black hair was … some guy named Men the Master.

Awesome. Clearly Pokerati material!

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.