Matt Savage returns home to Las Vegas tomorrow to take the TD helm for the MGM Grand Challenge Series, which began on Friday anr runs through May 6.

At first glance, this series resembles most “tourist stakes” festivals in Las Vegas — two-and-a-half weeks of two tourneys a day, with buy-ins ranging from $150 to $550 and a $1,600 main event (starting May 1). But a closer look at the schedule reveals that 9 of the 30 events are something other than no-limit Texas hold’em. There are five Omaha events, two HORSE events, a stud event and a hi-lo variant of Chinese Poker. Even the WSOP doesn’t have that.

Matt Savage opted not to include any limit hold’em or pot-limit Words with Friends in the current MGM series line-up, but did include just about everything else.

And six of the hold’em events veer from standard full-ring multi-table freezeout structure — to include turbos, a double-stack event, bounties, an “all-in or fold” tournament (where those are your only two choices on every hand), and a mix-max, where the number of players at each table progressively shrinks (from 10 to 8 to 6 to 4…).

Savage says he  expects a healthy turnout of pros for the Chinese Poker ½ High, ½ 2-7 event.

The idea for this series, he said, was “to provide a variety of games that other series’ in Vegas don’t generally have. No-limit hold’em, while it’s popular, isn’t the only game.”

The Grand Challenge series is taking place in a temporary location on the casino floor,  next to the old lion habitat, while construction on the adjacent bar is underway.

For the first event, a $230 NLHE tournament with 3 day ones, there were more than 300 entrants. The top three finishers chopped for a $10k, $9k, and $9k payout.

Dan played the $150 Pot Limit Omaha with $100 rebuys last night. The Sunday evening event drew 37 players and saw 98 rebuys, for a first prize around $5k. Dan got knocked out just short of the money, with 32 players remaining. I wonder how many hands he played before realizing the odds can actually change when you don’t run it twice.

I’m personally interested in Wednesday’s 6-max NL Hold’em event — something I’ve played before online but never live. We’ll see if my online experience short-handed combined with my looser live cash-game style gives me the edge I anticipate. And if I make the money there, I may just take a shot at the all-in or fold event on Friday. Ever since I heard about it, I’ve been hashing out strategy with friends.

Sounds like it could be really fun or really quick.

It’s hard to play anywhere in Vegas as a non-tourist without hearing noise about the room you’re in or one down The Strip. No wonder so many regs wear headphones. But I keep my ears unplugged to filter through it all for Pokerati — and so Dan has at least half a clue about what’s real, what’s bullshit and what’s a live tell.

Some of what I’ve picked up lately:

Karina Jett is the MGM’s new poker room ambassador, meaning she will promote the room and host the weekly $120 HORSE event at 7:15pm every Tuesday. Jett has hosted the HORSEament previously at the Palms and then M Resort before settling into her new gig at MGM. The inaugural running at MGM featured a drinks-flowing pre-party that saw Cyndy Violette, Gavin Smith, Layne Flack, Allen Kessler, and Erik Seidel.

DonkDown Radio founder Bryan Micon won the tournament last week, beating a pro-filled field of about 80 for a $2k score, along with besting several others in a last-longer bet that paid an added $4k. The next running, earlier this week, attracted a field of about 60 players.

Meanwhile, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage is also on board with MGM, serving as tournament director for the upcoming Grand Challenge Tournament series. Savage apparently was looking for something else to do in Vegas now that the Epic events are off his calendar.

Occupy Aria?
Players take Ivey Room mixed game back to Bellagio

This hasn’t been confirmed yet, but according to at least one regular player in one of the bigger regular games in Vegas:

For everyone that plans on playing mixgames in Las Vegas…We are no longer playing at Aria… Come join us everyday at @BellagioPoker

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

Politics don’t allow us to be able to play at Aria now…Aria is a great place and has great staff and I love it and prefer Aria overall.

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

I Hate politics… So easier to move to Bellagio…Come join us everyday @BellagioPoker and get your picture for “playing with this guy”

— Mike Thorpe (@RealCrazyMike) March 21, 2012

FWIW I saw Jean Robert Belande (@BrokeLivingJRB) still playing in Ivey’s room with David Williams (@DWPoker) just last night, so there could be more to this schism. If it’s all political, as Crazy Mike says, that could explain why Barack Obama was in town yesterday.

More…

Some familiar faces and players worth looking up in the charity NLH mix … er … mixed martial arts.

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.

More…

Day 2 of the $20,000 Epic Poker League Main Event concluded with Sam Trickett leading the remaining 18 players, all guaranteed $43,190. Trickett is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack as the field will now be playing for a $1,000,000 first prize as the players agreed to move money from 2nd place to the winner.

Day 2 started with 63 players as Eugene Katchalov, Ben Lamb and Brian Rast held the top three spots. Only Katchalov survived the day with chips as the early action was dominated with several eliminations as Vanessa Selbst, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Phil Laak were among the familiar faces hitting the felt.

Some players complained about the fast structure; leading Commissioner Annie Duke and Tournament Director Matt Savage agreeing to review the structure, among other aspects of the EPL, before their second tournament in September.

The remaining 29 players reached the dinner break with an average stack of about 80 big blinds, with the objective of finishing the day after bursting the money bubble. Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Cantu, Nam Le, Tom Marchese and Frank Kassela all fell short of earning their first EPL cash when 19 players remained, one from the money. A prolonged bubble period gave Trickett the opportunity to add to his stack, becoming the first EPL player to hold over 1,000,000 in chips.

Two hours into hand-for-hand play, Matt Graham added his name to the long list of EPL firsts as his pocket jacks were cracked by Chino Rheem when he turned a flush to become the EPL’s first bubble boy.

The remaining 18 players return Thursday at 12pm to play down to the final table of six. The field consists of 20 WSOP bracelets, 3 WPT titles and almost $80,000,000 in tournament winnings. Two players who qualified through the Pro/Am over the weekend, Brandon Meyers and Dan Fleyshman, become EPL-eligible for the rest of the season if either player wins the tournament on Friday. Here’s how the Day 3 field will be seated with play resuming with blinds at 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante (the average stack having ~76 big blinds):

Table 1:

Seat 1: Adam Levy – 587,000
Seat 2: Dan Fleyshman – 82,500
Seat 3: Hafiz Khan – 144,000
Seat 4: Hoyt Corkins – 252,500
Seat 5: Brandon Meyers – 109,500
Seat 6: Isaac Baron – 637,500

Table 2:

Seat 1: Noah Schwartz – 259,500
Seat 2: Matt Glantz – 453,000
Seat 3: Ted Lawson – 210,000
Seat 4: Huck Seed – 93,500
Seat 5: Chino Rheem – 408,000
Seat 6: Gavin Smith – 357,500

Table 3:

Seat 1: Hasan Habib – 646,000
Seat 2: Eugene Katchalov – 418,000
Seat 3: Sam Trickett – 1,032,000
Seat 4: Jason Mercier – 535,500
Seat 5: Justin Bonomo – 42,000
Seat 6: Erik Seidel – 609,000

Live updates and more available at www.epicpoker.com

Matt Savage

---

OP-ED

My dedication to poker tournaments and the game itself is two decades old. Starting with my first foray into the role of tournament director in 1997 and through my founding of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb in 2001, I have worked tirelessly to standardize tournament rules and to make poker a better game for everyone involved.

This is the reason that we host the website www.PokerTDA.com, open the TDA to all interested parties, and make myself available on Twitter and other social media outlets. My passion for poker only grows when I share it with others.

The rule is not new, and does not ban table talk by any means … A recreational player may not understand, nor even care to know all the rules, but professionals who make a living at the game should.

During the 2011 World Series of Poker “nearly live” telecast from the Rio, I became aware of comments from Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) through my own Twitter feed (@SavagePoker). He said that the TDA created a “new” rule that banned table talk. This certainly is not the case and in hindsight, it was learned that he had received an incorrect ruling at the table that had nothing to do with TDA rules. Since social media has limited words with which to sufficiently explain the rule and its longtime existence, this clarification seems necessary.

The TDA board, in conjunction with tournament directors and card room managers, has donated thousands of hours to standardize rules in the best interest of the game.  When well-known poker players like Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth choose to say on national television that “the TDA has it wrong” and “does not care about what the players want,” it becomes personal.

More…

As the first ever live event for the world’s biggest online poker site (Stars wanna challenge the assertion?) gets underway … we are seeing the super-hyper-turbo nature of free poker play translated to a two-flight weekend at Zynga PokerCon.

There were 45 players left (from the first flight of 250) with blinds at 1,000/2,000. They started with 2,000 chips each, so that translates to … bear with me, doing math here … 18 percent of the field left, 5.5 big blinds for the average stack.

UPDATE (12 minutes later): Blinds just went up. Average stack is now 2.75 BB.
UPDATE (3 minutes later): We are in the money. 27 players remain.
UPDATE (1 minute later): Blinds are up to 3,000/6,000. 3.2 BB for the average.

Though I can hear Matt Savage and Allen Kessler cringing on the inside from wherever they are, the one guarantee with such a faster-than-charity structure is lots of exciting all-in hands. So in some ways reminds me of a WPT broadcast from a few years ago.

CORRECTION: See what happens when you assume? Turns out Matt Savage created this blind structure!

Click the image above to enlarge the blind and payout structures … they play each flight down to 3 … and then sit four others who qualified for ITM seats on Zynga Poker.

February is not a huge month for tournaments, but that doesn’t mean there was a shortage of news. In fact, a very large part of the news this month was of the drama bomb variety, which provides easy cannon fodder for people such as myself and helps greatly in determining who came out ahead and who fell far, far behind. Given the sheer volume of stuff that happened, I have been forced agreed to do two of these a month, one for the first half and one for the second. If you want a weekly version of this, well, there is always my podcast, Rabbit Hunt (it’s a shameless plug but it was my excuse for not doing this every week…for the moment anyway). But enough rambling, let’s get going:

Winners

• Jared Huggins (1) and Pokerstars (1): Thanks for the bait-and-switch Pokerstars! We thought you were a mean, faceless corporation that turned down a homeless poker player just cause and then you say “just kidding!” and he ends up on the show anyway. Jared Huggins is a huge hit over on 2+2, and he is scheduled to appear in the Big Game in the near future. Here’s hoping he not only wins, but wins big. That NAPT Passport (or whatever it is they are going to offer this year) is gonna be huge.

• Matt Savage (1): Another LAPC, another huge Savage-tournament success. Sure the LAPC numbers aren’t where they were yesterday but it’s still pretty good considering there were a number of poker players that essentially said they wouldn’t give the Commerce business until they changed their stance on i-gambling. Although…I’m sure an exception was made for a $10k WPT tournament.

• Donkdown Radio (1): They won this month for getting someone whom we are 99.44% certain is Travis Makar. These guys definitely are at the forefront of the “UB Sucks” crowd, and so getting someone that could blow a new hole in the current UB leadership is bound to be the best thing to happen to the show since…well…the last time something happened that was bad for UB I suppose. Of course, swords like this can be double-edged…and I would have simultaneously made these guys losers of the month too. Their saving grace is that it’s too early to tell what is going on in Makar’s head, and we have gotten a few nuggets out of the deal so far, so we will see what develops in the coming weeks. Certainly a good get though.

• @pkrgssp (1): It’s not too often that someone comes out of nowhere, has a simple mission of just reviewing other people’s work, and gets a ton of attention in a short span of time. His blog is 100% worth adding to your list of things to read in a given day, and he has received props from various folks within the industry, so I think I will add my props by making him one of the winners of the month. Did he actually win anything poker-wise? No, but it might be a twitter/blog that many people will follow in the future (and quite possibly could become the critic version of Kevmath).

Losers

• Sorel Mizzi (-1): SHOCKING NEWS ALERT! Sorel has been accused of cheating, this time in a live poker setting, and not because he managed to copy himself, though I think he would have made headlines sooner if he did. No, he loses out this time for being accused of dealing from the bottom of the deck by John Racener (as relayed through Shaun Deeb onto 2+2) which set off a firestorm of angry posts in Sorel’s general direction. Still, it’s he-said…he-said, and who would you believe more, the man perma-banned recently unbanned from Full Tilt for cheating or the 3-time Florida DUI champion?

• The Bellagio Robber (-1: Plus -1 for every year served in prison): You pull off an Oceans 11 style robbery, then completely screw up everything after that. Oh, and he’s the son of a judge. Oh, and he tried selling chips that the Bellagio had changed out months ago. Genius!

• Joe Sebok/Paul Leggett/UB (-1): No matter what the motives are, however, UB is again in the crosshairs, and whenever that happens, Joe Sebok is forced to pick up his cross and defend the site…again. Seriously I hope they are paying him Phil Hellmuth-levels of money, because otherwise Joe has got to be wondering wtf he’s still doing there. As for Paul Leggett, one cannot say “I never offered a bribe” and then have a leaked email that says “I’m offering a bribe.” Yea…context is probably important, but it certain doesnt look good.

• Mer “PeachyMer” Brit (-1) and Pokerstars (0): Speaking of 2+2 controversies, the sleuths over at 2+2 felt like Mer Brit’s Team Pokerstars Pro deal was a little too good to be true…and well it probably was. Even Pokerstars admits that there are occasions that her account was used when she was not in the one operating it, including one where she took 2nd in a WCOOP event. There are enough holes and inconsistencies to make most people wonder what vetting process Pokerstars seems to have. Because I personally think I need to get a pro to take over my account if that’s what it takes to get a deal signed these days.

Coinflips

• Federated Sports + Gaming League (0): Until I see a list of players, I’m not willing to give this league the chance some may say it deserves. They’ve inked a deal with CBS and have a schedule out, but as of right now no one is invited to play and the pro-am idea, while great, is not likely designed to actually get amateurs into their big events (honestly, how many amateurs would/should take their temporary tour cards and drop $20k of their own money into a shark tank?)

• Peter Eastgate’s Retirement (0): On the one hand, I’m not particularly surprised that a young poker player that “retired” from the game has come back. On the other, Peter seemed like one of those people that would have stuck through it.

• Haseeb Qurashi/Ashton Griffin/70-mile runs (0): Personally, I hated the amount of coverage this story got…which is why I spent over 10 minutes out of a 45 minute podcast talking about it, because I’m a hypocrite. Still, I think that while we got a fairly uncensored and in-depth look at some of the insane prop-betting that goes on these days in the poker world, I can’t help but thing we simultaneously saw some darker elements that just gives some ammunition to those that would like to see talk of online poker go away, and quickly.

• Travis Makar (0): Jury is still out on this guy…or at least my jury is. If he has the information he is claiming, this completely longer than necessary leaking of incriminating evidence just feels like a squeeze. Who is he squeezing? No idea, but really if I would in Travis’ shoes, and I was broke, accused of cheating people of millions, and knew of people that had up to this point gotta away with it, maybe I’d do this too. OK…maybe not, but there is something deeper here that we might, as the media, be overlooking for the sake of the initial “ZOMG UB SCANDAL 3.0!” story.

The “Eff You, Sir/Madam” Award

Obviously there were enough stories to go around this month, but there is one particular entity that wins special mention, even if, at the moment, we don’t have a confirmation of additional shenanigans:

• UB (-3…because fortunately for them my rules allow for a maximum penalty of -3): I joined the poker media unofficially in early 2010, and have been forced to repeatedly cover the UB scandal in all its various forms, from minute amounts of new evidence to the prior scandal to the encryption  bullshit to Donkdown Radio’s repeated calls for the sites demolition to this. And honestly, I’m sick of it. I’m sick of talking about UB in the present tense, and I’m sick of constantly having to listen to people preach that “THIS IS ONLY THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG! THE AVALANCHE IS COMING!” Personally, I hope they do find something huge, and that they find it fast. I hope they find that every non-poker pro employee of UB is guilty of being involved, and that they owe $100 million more to players, or whatever number it will take for the site to go under. Not third-tier site under, under-under. And it’s not even because of any personal hatred toward UB (though I have plenty of that), but because it’s because of their continued existence that we keep having to bring up a shining example of what’s wrong with the poker industry not as a historical lesson, but as a current issue. That said, if all this Makar stuff turns into smoke and mirrors, then UB will be able to continue it’s existence….at least until the next minor change in evidence brings all of this up again. (Writer Note: I’m just tired of covering this, so until UB folds or is found innocent, or whatever, I will likely continue to have this vitriol. If they do go under eventually though, maybe this can be called the “UB-Memorial Eff You, Sir/Madam” award.)

Entity of the Month

A bit short on players this month, so the trophy has been changed to the “Entity of the Month” trophy (you’ll note it looks the same). I’ve done a fair job of limiting myself with those in the winner’s box this month, but I think if you have to have a negative for the story you have to show the positive.

• Donkdown Radio (3): Sorry, this is easily the potentially biggest story of the month at a time where poker pros didn’t even manage to grace the winner’s circle. It’s certainly a case of “right place, right time”, but this could change the face of a scandal that has up to this point just seen a couple people come up with vague suggestions about what “really” happened. If things happen in the exact why the folks at Donkdown hope to see happen, there could be some very hard choices for the pros that are sponsored by the beleaguered site. Not really the site itself…I can’t see them making any “hard” choices necessarily. Either way, you can bet that they will get to the bottom of…whatever bottom they will get to with this.

I know that I didn’t talk about Norm McDonald’s premiere episode of High Stakes Poker, but I feel like everyone needs to see more than one episode of a new host before passing judgment. Come March 15th though…I should definitely have something to say…if there is anything worth saying anyway. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to prep for another UB scandal related interview (no joke, unfortunately).

Women’s Poker Hour:

Host Amy Zupko and Jennifer Shahade are joined by Donna Houle to start off this weeks show. Donna is one of the founders of the Pink Ladies Poker Tour. They then move on to discuss the Women’s Poker League on PokerStars before briefly discussing the PCA women’s event. If you want to keep up with some women in poker or ladies only events then check this podcast out. You can listen to the show on WomanPokerPlayer.com or download it directly on iTunes to listen on your iPod later.

Wicked Chops:

With no This Week In Poker this week the entities come together for a TWIP style podcast this week. Just like with TWIP Jess Welman comes on to do “Poker Headlines” before getting into the feature of the show. That feature this week is Erik Siedel who comes on to discuss his recent success, his appearance on “The Micros”, and Rounders 2. Listen to the show on the Wicked Chops site or download it on iTunes.

The Poker Edge:

Eric Siedel is making his rounds this week joining Phil Gordon on The Poker Edge. Before Siedel makes his appearance Andrew Feldman gives this weeks headlines, he is followed by Matt Savage who comes on to discuss the LA Poker Classic and the future of poker. Siedel comes on to close out the show to discuss the high roller cashes that he has enjoyed since the first of the year. The guys finish off the show by handicapping most of the top players chances at winning a WSOP bracelet in 2011. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

I’m at the Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge still, which is down to the main event final table. Pretty cool that you can see and hear what’s going on at the final table right now. The details on the players and what they’r fighting for is below.

Click “Watch LIVE Video” on the foxwoodslive.com website.  There is optional new-and-improved HD video, live chat with the mods, chip counts/etc from @WhoJedi, and some occasional yammering from the guy responsible for recent hardware/software upgrades – @veeRob, Rob Perelman.

The cam is hooked up to a beam above the table, with a microphone duct-taped onto the felt next to the dealer’s right hand.  This is streamed to their justin.tv/foxwoodspoker site. Slickest part?  You can download the justin.tv app to your Android or iPhone and watch the table there, as well as chat.

Players do really seem to dig being on camera, finding ways to sneak in front of it and streak wave to mom, and stress about the fact that they might be shifted out of the limelight when the tables are rebalanced.

The overall effect is very good.  The audio is clear enough that you can hear the table talk and under-the breath comments (and unfortunately so the chip clatter) quite distinctly. The video in HD mode almost gives enough resolution to zoom into the board cards. Players in the chat log frequently express that they want to know what the board reads.. but improvements for the much-requested “flop cam”, while possible, would potentially cause the Gaming Commission a bit of angina.  @veeRob wrangled a scrolling caption bar to the streaming video, which displays the current blinds/antes.

Both Jay and Rob will be bringing their tech to the  LA Poker Classic with TD Matt Savage in February, where they first introduced the cams last year.

Streamit NOW-> justin.tv/foxwoodspoker
Checkit-> foxwoodslive.com
Follow -> @FoxwoodsPoker

Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge XVIII -> Final Table
$1000+$100 (2-day) Main Event
10 of 265 entrants remain

Level 23 -> Blinds/Antes: 4000/12,000-24,000
Ave Stack: 1,060,000

Prize Pool: $257,050 (guarantee was $100k)
1st: $61,692
2nd: $36,244
3rd: $23,392
4th: $18,765
5th: $14,394
6th: $11,696
7th: $9,768
8th: $7,969
9th: $6,699
10th: $4,883

Seating/Chip Counts
1. Robert Perry 1,034,000
2. Shawn Maillet 433,000
3. Le-Ann Anderson 895,000
4. Carmelo Cambareri 277,000
5. David Espinola 2,023,000
6. Mustapha Mouttaouakil 1,026,000
7. Brian Lee 1,006,000
8. Brad McFarland 2,406,000
9. David Hickman 805,000
10. Michael Woods 685,000

This Week:

Ty Stewart — new WSOP stuff, Poker Hall of Fame, more WSOPE bracelet debate.
Matt Savage — WPT-Bellagio/Festa al Lago.
Matt Affleck — more WPT-Bellagio/Festa, Washington State, 15th place at WSOP.
Trishelle Canatella — beauty quiz + poker.

Watch the show, and readmore here.

EPT London :: A UK record field of 848 players took part in the £5,000 Main Event, with 128 players making the money, as the winner earns £900,000. The leader after the two day 1′s have been played is Claudio Cecchi with 237,500 in chips. Other notables returning for day 2 at 12pm London time Friday: Barry Shulman – 129,200, Daniel Negreanu – 122,000, Phil Ivey 117,900, Joe Hachem 108,400, Greg Raymer – 105,200, Boris Becker – 94,700, John Juanda – 71,400 and Ivan Demidov – 65,000. Full chip counts for both days are available at PokerNews and the PokerStars blog as well as live updates.

LA Poker Open, Commerce Casino :: The latest tournament series at the Commerce Casino runs Nov. 3-21, running against the NAPT at the Bike. The LAPO’s main event is a $2,085 NL event, w/ re-entry and a $500,000 guarantee LA Poker Open schedule

The Ryan Seacrest of Poker? Matt Savage joined us on This Week In Poker live from the WPT Borgata last Tuesday.

We never ever pick favorites. Never. Ever.

With that said, our interview with Matt Savage last Tuesday on This Week In Poker was our favorite so far. Lots of solid topics covered, and great questions submitted from our viewers, including one from Jay “WhoJedi” Newnum on whether WSOP bracelets should be awarded outside of Vegas.

“I don’t like it,” said Savage. “I don’t think it’s like a real bracelet.”

More…

The Tournament Trail

Partouche Poker Tour – Cannes – Vanessa Selbst, Fabrice Soulier, Soren Kongsgaard and Tobias Reinkemier among final tablists return November 6, first place prize €1,300,000 – Winamax.fr

Beau Rivage Gulf Coast Poker Championship, Biloxi, MS:: – Mark Rose wins $5,000 main event for $177,386, Chad Brown finishes 4th. – Results from the Hendon Mob

Commerce Holdem Series :: $120 NL w/ $100k to first, $300k prize pool starts today. More from Matt Savage:

PartyPoker World Poker Open – London :: Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Andrew Robl, and John Duthie among heat winners, final table on Friday. Party Poker Blog for updates

English Poker Open – London :: $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament starts Saturday at Palm Beach Casino, live streaming all weekend. English Poker Open

PokerStars UKIPT – Dublin :: Action gets underway Thursday afternoon – http://www.ukipt.com“PokerStars Blog

PokerStars WCOOP – First week of most successful online poker tournament series continues – WCOOP.com

Also …

Deliverance Poker sues Michael Mizrachi and Full Tilt for breach of contract – Cake Poker Blog

Intrastate online poker in California legislation reappears, passage by end of year? – EGR Magazine

Online poker coming to Indian casinos? – ATIG press release

Schedule finally announced for NAPT at the Bike in Los Angeles, will no TV coverage affect the field? – PokerStars Blog

WSOP Europe makes it’s appearance on crowded London poker calendar starting Tuesday – WSOPE Schedule

Finally, This Week in Poker w/ Scott Huff and Jess Welman:

There’s a lot going on going into this (American) Labor Day Weekend. Some happenings in poker you may want to follow, or follow up on:

On the tournament trail …

WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs, Iowa Blair Hinkle wins $1,500 Main Event, Robert Georato “Casino Champion”, qualifying for $1m National Championship at Caesars Palace in May. WSOP.com

PokerStars.net EPT Vilamoura, Portugal :: Toby Lewis takes down the title, football legend/MBE Terry Sherringham finishes 5th. PokerStars Blog.

WPT London :: Final table set, Party qualifier eligible for $500,000 bonus with win, £15k High Rollers starts this afternoon PartyPoker Blog

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Over 750 players, prize pool nearly €6 million, live streaming w/ hole cards starting Monday at Partouchepokertour.com. Follow along en Francais w/ Benjo at Winamax.fr

The River – Winstar, OK :: Raymer, J. Mercier, Chainsaw, G. Smith, Flack among hundreds of North Texas locals fighting in the $2.5m guaranteed main event this weekend

Commerce Holdem Series :: – Encouraging numbers halfway through 500k guarantee opening event despite rumblings of a boycott. Commerce Tournaments

UPDATE:

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Biloxi, Mississippi :: $5,000 Main Event starts Saturday. BeauRivage.com

Elsewhere & Also …

PokerStars’ WCOOP gets underway Sunday.

WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond tournaments to add more than 40 $10k Regional Championship seats to their tournaments – WSOP.com

Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Billie Brown get inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame tonight. US Ladies Championship Saturday at the Golden Nugget. Women in Poker Hall of Fame

And Tatjana Pasalic spends three minutes with Phil Ivey

After a quiet period in the poker community, the tournament circuit has come back to life with a variety of tournaments spanning the world. Some highlights:

WPT Legends of Poker

Andrew Frankenberger defeated Kyle Wilson to take down the title at the Bike in LA, collecting $750,000 for the win. Notables who finished in the money: Former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little (12th), Allen Kessler (20th), Erica Schoenberg (30th), Joe Sebok (32nd), November Niner Soi Nguyen (34th) and Joe Hachem (43rd). Click here for results.

WPT London Poker Classic

Monday is day 1a of the first WPT event in the UK, with the £5,000 + £300 buy-in London Poker Classic at the Palm Beach Casino. Jack McLelland from the Bellagio is helping run the tournament, with registration remaining open until 1:30pm on Wednesday. Live updates available over at PartyPoker’s blog here.

EPT Villamoura

Day 2 of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour stop in Portugal starting with 384 players, creating a prize pool of €1,862,400, with the winner collecting €467,835. Currently, less than 130 players remain, with the current chip leader is Grzegorz Cichocki of Poland with 312,000 in chips. Other notables still in the field: 2008 EPT Grand Final winner Pieter de Korver, Brandon Cantu, Liv Boeree, Sorel Mizzi, Lex Veldhuis, David Williams among many others. Follow the live updates and pictures of players enjoying the sun (as photography is banned inside the casino) at PokerStarsblog.com

WSOP Circuit – Council Bluffs

The first $1,500 Main Event of the WSOP Circuit started on Sunday with a field of 251 entries, creating a prize pool of $361,440, with the winner cashing in for $88,555 and entry into the $1,000,000 National Championship in May. Day 2 resumes today with 75 players playing down to the final table. Another way to earn a seat is to be the “Casino Champion” at each tour stop, to the player who earns the most points in the 10 WSOP-C ring events. To view the “unofficial” leaderboard after 8 events, check it out here. WSOP Circuit legend Dwyte Pilgrim won one of the many non-ring events that support the WSOP-C for a mid-four figure sum. For results so far check out the WSOP site and PokerPages for the non-ring results.

The River @ Winstar Casino

As noted in an earlier post, the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, OK is in the midst of their River $3,000,000 Guaranteed tournament series. What passes as results for Winstar is to show the points earned for those that make the final table, without stating how much each player received.

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Beau Rivage

Another major series that got underway over the weekend is the Gulf Coast Poker Championship at Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi. Their main event takes place Sept. 4th with a $5,000 NL Holdem Main Event. Their schedule can be found on the beaurivage.com website here.

Commerce Holdem Series

Matt Savage returns Sept. 1st to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the Commerce Holdem Series, featuring several guaranteed prize pools events as well as the $1,100 Ironman tournament. More details available here.

Partouche Poker Tour – Cannes

One major tournament that starts later in the week when the French Partouche Group of casinos have their Main Event in Cannes Sept. 2nd. The 8,500 Euro buy-in event has a 3,000,000 Euro guaranteed prize pool with 1,000,000 Euros guaranteed for first. Like the WSOP Main Event, their final table will be delayed, taking place in late October and aired live across Europe on the EuroSport network. I believe there’s also live streaming available (in French) during the tournament. Further details available on the PPT site.