It was a slightly less crazy week on the tournament trail, but there was still plenty of poker played throughout the world. Two different $1,500 events attracted strong crowds in Atlantic City, while a couple of prominent tournaments that were in no way whatsoever affiliated with PokerStars went down in LA, and that wasn’t all.

Victor Ramdin Does Not Pass Sugar, Does Collect $500k at The Big Event
The Bicycle Casino, Bell Gardens, California
The Not-NAPT tournament at the Bike last week still managed to mysteriously draw in numerous amounts of qualifiers and Team PokerStars players, with over 400 players ponying up $5,000 for a $2 million prize pool and a half-million dollar first prize. N-NAPT LA was nearly canceled by state gaming officials over its ties to the online poker site, who withdrew its sponsorship and left the tournament to simply be called “The Big Event”.

While a number of Team PokerStars pros populated the field, only two of them made the final table. To the delight of poker fans, Victor Ramdin and Joe Hachem were also the last two players left standing. On the final hand, Ramdin got it in as a big dog with ace-jack to Hachem’s ace-king, but a jack sealed the title for Ramdin, who went over $3 million in lifetime earnings with the $500K win.

Later in the week, the Bike hosted a $10,000 Bounty Shootout that will air later this year on ESPN. Once again Victor Ramdin found himself at the final table, winning one of nine first-round tables. He was joined by Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, 2010 NAPT LA champion Joe Tehan, new Team PokerStars Online addition Shane Schleger and Michael J. Fox Alex P. Keating, amongst others. Pat Walsh triumphed over them all, and took home $241,700 for his efforts.

Ali Triumphs in “Thrilla on the Riva” Over Frazier (and others)
Caesers, Atlantic City, NJ
In a sport where names like Moneymaker and Fish seem more apropos, the WSOPC stop at Caesers Atlantic City had names that fit better with boxing’s golden age. Jeff Frazier stood in the way of Brian Ali, as did defending WSOPC champion Rolan Israelashvili. But Ali was a bad, bad man on this day, utilizing his poker skills and a few chance cards to thoroughly dominate the final table. It took less than four hours for Ali to be crowned “the greatest” and his purse was $139,284, a golden ring, and a valuable seat in the million dollar final.

Every Tom, Mateusz, and Harry Won a Tournament This Week
Casino at Portomaso, Malta & UKIPT Manchester, England

293 players put up €1,650 to play poker on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. The Unibet Open stop there drew players from all over Europe, but for the second consecutive time dating back to its London stop, a Dutchman took home the crown. Mateusz Moolhuizen of Holland was crowned the champion of this event, taking home €117,000.

Another Mateusz, Mateusz Warowiec of Poland, is the chip leader heads-up at the UKIPT Manchester stop. He currently holds a nearly 2.5-1 chip lead at dinner break, and stands to be both the second Mateusz to win a title in a week and the second person I’ve ever heard of by the name of Mateusz.

DeepStacks U Instructor Wade Wins DeepStacks Challenge; No Money Back Guarantee
Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, NV
Training site DeepStacks University sponsored a series of tournaments in Reno, including a $2,500 Main Event in which several of its instructors, including Michael Mizrachi, Mike Matusow and Tristan “cre8ive” Wade took part. Instead of teaching them proper strategy, Wade took advantage of a field filled mostly with his students and won the tournament outright for $57,288. I am, of course, kidding, but I do imagine a funny pre-tournament training session in which he suggests giving off specific “fake” tells and riding that onto the easy victory, but that’s just me.

Borgata $500,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack
Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ
The WSOPC was not the only show in town this week in Atlantic City, as the Borgata hosted a $1,500 event with a $500K guaranteed prize pool. Vegas native and worldwide tournament grinder Chris Tryba was the big winner in that one, taking home $131,257 for the win. Other interesting notes on this field include Will “the thrill” Failla cashing and WSOPC champion Brian Ali cashing just days before his own win.

NAPT Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)

The big story heading into the Main Event of NAPT LA was how the turnout would be for the first non-televised event of the tour. In a not-too-surprising outcome, the power of PokerStars’ satellites helped build a field of 701 for the $5K event, and from that came an impressive final nine. Once that nine was reached, the NAPT was able to circumvent the no-compete clause of its host, the Bike, and move the final table action to the Crystal Casino to shoot the action for future airing on ESPN2.

Jason Mercier lost a flip for possibly the first time in his poker career to exit in 7th place, followed soon after by Mike Binger in 6th. Ray Henson went out in 5th, and PokerStars lost its last sponsored pro with the exit of Anh Van Nguyen in 4th. The story of this final table ha to be the total domination by Joe Tehan. After winning the coin flip with Mercier to bust him, Tehan cruised to victory and pocketed $725,000 for his efforts. [PokerStars Blog]

That wasn’t the only action going on at the Crystal Casino, as they ran a $5K bounty shootout that was also filmed by the 441 crew. The final table included the likes of Michael Mizrachi, David Williams, Eric Baldwin, Tom Marchese, Pat Pezzin, Justin Young, Mohsin Charania, Clint Coffee and Kevin MacPhee. Each earned $20,000 for winning their initial table, as well as $1,000 for each player they eliminated. When it got down to heads-up play, it was Justin Young who locked up the most bounties, thus locking up a free seat in the upcoming PCA version of this event, but he would ultimately fall short as Eric Baldwin won a marathon heads-up battle at almost 4am local time and took home $134,800. Which might make for a pretty awkward trip home, as they drove out to LA from Las Vegas together for the NAPT. [PokerStars Blog]

LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, California)

Just down the block at the Commerce, the LA Poker Open is winding down towards the end of its Main Event. In the lead-up to the big tournament, Sorel Mizzi topped a short field to win a $1,500 bounty event, while Will “the Thrill” Failla added an LA Poker Open final table to one he made earlier in the week at the Bike, at a final table that also featured Bryan Devonshire and Matt Affleck. Affleck continued running well deep into the Main Event of the LA Poker Open before losing a tough coin flip late and being eliminated in 13th place.

11 players remain heading into the final day of play, with Kwinsee Khoa Tran leading the way with 1,075,000. First place in this one is $178,830. [Commerce]

HPT Championship Open (Mount Pleasant, Michigan)

Even with the elimination of Tiffany Michelle on the “TV Bubble”, this HPT final table managed to have a few recognizable names, despite the events in LA and Florida. Bernard Lee continued an impressive month of November by making this final table, and was joined by Dean Hamrick, who won his first WSOP bracelet this year. Ahmed Haraji was victorious, taking home $176,865 for his win. Check out the work that Scarlet did all week live from this event. [Heartland Poker Tour]

WPT Regional Series: Seminole Hard Rock Fall Open Poker Tournament (Hollywood, Florida)

The World Poker Tour dipped its toe in the water for the first time in Florida with a regional event that got underway Friday. Entering Day 3, Raj Vorha holds the chip lead with 1.34 million. The two biggest notables among the 23 still in contention are Shannon Shorr (182K) and Allie Prescott (126K).

EPT Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)

The tournament is just getting underway with only a couple of levels in the books.Daniel Negreanu wrote a blog entry detailing his struggle to make it to this event and the hoops he had to jump through to do so that’s definitely worth a read.

WSOP Circuit Event: Harvey’s Lake Tahoe (Lake Tahoe, NV)

246 players showed up for this event, which has to be a fairly good sign considering how spread out players are around the country (and the world). After one day of play, the chip leader is Dan Black of Cloverdale, California with 329,500. [WSOP]

Elsewhere…

With just a few weeks left in the year, there’s only a couple more chances for players to crack the Player of the Year standings. In CardPlayer, Tom Marchese holds a solid lead over Dwyte Pilgrim, Vanessa Selbst, and Sorel Mizzi, while in the BLUFF race Mizzi holds a commanding lead of Marchese, David Peters and Selbst.

Online

Soi Nguyen missed out on any additional money when he was eliminated in 9th place at the WSOP Main Event, but he certainly cashed in during the FTOPS. In his first hosting duties as a member of the FullTilt team, he managed to win his own tournament. Somehow he didn’t use up all of his luck in making his run to the November Nine, as his event was a Super Turbo Rush Poker tournament that started players with just 300 chips, but Nguyen came through in the end and banked nearly $80,000.

The big winner of the FTOPS was “JHoWn”, who took down the Main Event of the series on Monday for a cool $412K.

Some of the best players in the world converged on Southeast Asia and Los Angeles, with multiple events in each locale, but that wasn’t all that happened this week.

APPT Macau (Macau)

18-year-old Zhang Dan Peng, playing in his first ever live tournament, defeated a field of 161 that included the likes of Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and John Juanda, amongst others. Peng took home HK$1.67 million, about $215,000, for his victory. He is the first Chinese player to win the APT Macau. [PokerListings]

The biggest story to come out of Macau was what Ivey and Dwan were doing after they exited the tournament. They sat down at the cash tables with some wealthy Chinese businessmen, and according to Matt Savage there was at least $5 million on the table at the game’s peak. [BetFair]

WSOP Circuit Biloxi (Biloxi, Mississippi)

The newly reimagined WSOP Circuit continues to bounce around the country at a blistering pace. The latest stop saw the Circuit head to Biloxi, with the $1,500 Main Event pulling in an impressive 270 runners. Travis Lutes was the last man standing, taking home $95,000 and a coveted seat in the upcoming WSOPC $1 million freeroll at Caesers. [PokerNews]

Isle Open Poker Championship (Pompano Beach, Florida)

The latest poker gold rush in the United States has to be going down in Florida, where recent changes to the law have allowed games to explode at dog tracks and casinos throughout the state. They didn’t even need the name power of a major tour to draw 198 players to their $2,000 main event. Ayaz Mahmood, who won a bracelet at this year’s WSOP, made the final table and finished 7th, and Matt Ezrol found himself $100,000 richer following his win. [Cardplayer]

APPT Cebu (Cebu, Philippines)

232 players who started action less than a week ago are now down to just nine. Kim Gap Young of Korea is the chip leader heading into this final table, where they’ll be vying for PHP 5,810,000 for first place money. Action should be resuming shortly, so follow all of the action via the link just to the right of this sentence. [PokerStars Blog]

LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, California)

It’s often said that you can’t get something for nothing, but in this case you can come pretty close. The Commerce Casino has developed a tournament system with small buy-ins and several opportunities to re-enter that have generated massive prize pools. The LA Poker Open is no exception, as a $220 and a $125 event each crowned $100,00 winners, Vinh Duong and Peter Hengsakul respectively. The two tournaments had a combined prize pool of over $825,000. [Commerce Casino]

NAPT Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)

81 players are still standing in this one. Check out Mark Gahagan’s update for chip counts and notables that are still in contention.

There was some big news from the side events at this event, as early this morning Jess Welman chopped the Ladies’ event for $3,000. This continues an incredible run in live events this year, including a cash in the WSOP Women’s event and a final table appearance in Event #1 of the Detox Poker Series, which was a freeroll following a win in a media freeroll. She also finished second in the recent Foxwoods media freeroll.

Perhaps spending all of her time covering the poker circuit has rubbed off on her, and it is clearly time for her to consider going pro. In fact, just working for her at the WSOP this summer seems to have rubbed off on yours truly, as this past Friday night I won $3,700 in a $2 Rush rebuy tournament on FullTilt.

In Other News…

Recent Hall of Fame inductee Dan Harrington finished fifth in the appropriately named $1,000 Poker Hall of Fame event at the Caesers Classic… Check out this fantastic piece by Short-Stacked Shamus following up on the Cannes cheating scandal that gives some insight into the presence of poker media at live events.

In the Online World…

The biggest news in the online world is centered around FullTilt, as they finally followed the lead of PokerStars and headed out of Washington. It’s not all bad though as the latest round of FTOPS is well underway, with over $19 million in prize guarantees.

NAPT :: Day 1a is in the books of the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event, taking place at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, CA, which is a stones throw from Compton beautiful place to put a Casino. 330 players entered the first of two day 1s, and 162 players emerged after 10 levels of play with a day off and, in most cases, more chips. Nick Grippo leads the way so far with 235k, but there are plenty of notables still in the field:

• Scott Fischman – 224, 600
• John Phan – 101,400
• Jason Mercier – 95,000
• William Reynolds (or, that blond guy that was on The Big Game recently) – 93,000
• Issac Haxton – 75,000
• Justin Bonomo – 65,000

For every big stacked pro, there seemed to be a busted pro, and a lot of them were from the LA area: Adam Levy, Antonio Esfandiari, Soi Nguyen (yea he’s an amateur but he was in the November Nine so he’s a familiar name), and even Barry Greenstein found themselves felted by the end of the day. There is another day 1 to play though, so we’ll see who shows up and either scores big or goes home early.

I think that … a Tournament at Palm Beach Kennel Club on February 17 – March 1 would be a great Idea. Maybe its not a rumor?!! I would gamble and book a room.

Ah yes, it all makes so much sense now, doesn’t it? (That is, of course, assuming Sommerfeld doesn’t get canned before WSOP-Choctaw, in January 2011, for running his yap ahead of any official press release.

Not only would a WSOP-Florida series further support America’s favorite citrus-bearing peninsula as the juiciest destination in poker since France, but also, it would confirm Harrah’s willingness to take unprecedented steps in an effort to keep up with the new-and-improved WPT/Party/Bwin.

The above dates, if true, would run it right up against the WPT-LAPC, btw.

Florida, as we know, is in the early stages of a mini-boom thanks to sensible new poker laws (allowing higher stakes play) that emerged after five years of legislative tweaking. On a recent episode of The Poker Beat, we were discussing the new Florida market … and specifically the WPT’s deal with the Seminoles to put their brand in casinos and card rooms throughout the state.

I suggested (flippantly?) that we’d obviously be seeing a WSOP-Circuit event there soon … but BJ brought up a good point (lol): Harrah’s owned no property in Florida, and all other Circuit events had been at Harrah’s locales. Hmmm, I was not aware … off-air we had a good chortle about whether or not we might see Harrah’s buy up old rundown jai alai frontons.

But lo and behold our self-inflated windbaggery would turn out to be all for naught. (BJ was wrong, I was right, what’s new?) … with Harrah’s making their plans to venture into new territory plenty clear in a subsequent press release announcing WSOP-Choctaw. Check it out … 5th graf down:

The Choctaw Casino Resort stop also marks the first time the WSOP has stepped outside the Harrah’s-affiliated properties to offer a WSOP-branded event.

That was the real hedline in that WSOPress Release. With maybe a snarky subhed about challenging claims to NAPT sovereignity.

So again, no official confirmation about the a WSOP-Circuit event in Florida at the Palm Beach Kennel Club February 17-March 1 to be TD’d by Jimmy Sommerfeld … but we do know for certain now that Harrah’s is willing to take unprecedented steps — whether it be with Indian tribes or brick-and-mortar non-Harrah’s card rooms — to take the battle for tour dominance to new places.

The Choctaw announcement — surely not coincidentally, right? — came in the middle of the big annual River series at Winstar, an event hosted by PokerStars patch-wearing pro-dot-net Greg Raymer. PokerStars also established a small presence in the northern part of OK with the Heartland Poker Tour event at the Downstream Casino in Quahpah.

In the Heartland event, Stars (dot net) only sponsors the TV show, not the tournament. Likewise at WinStar, Raymer is just a player who happens to wear PokerStars gear.

But think Harrah’s isn’t essentially saying in Oklahoma and probably Florida to the NAPT/PokerStars, nuh-uh, don’t even think about it!?!

We can see now that the WPT and the WSOP have a new heads-up battle on their hands, and with both ops showing up in two different states with the bulk of their poker in Indian-controlled territories, you gotta think both have a strong corporate interest in doing whatever possible to keep PokerStars from establishing a foothold on American soil … even if they were thinking they could just change the N in NAPT from North to Native.

Though we have no proof of actual collusion, the similar interest of both Harrah’s/WSOP and WPT/Party/Bwin suggests the fight to keep out the NAPT — even in non-Harrah’s locales now — is pretty much two against one.

Word was leaking to interested parties that it would indeed be at the Bike in California, with the Gold-Strike Tunica all but ready to be locked down, too. But now we know the plans for sure — the Bike it is, November 12-17, right after the November Nine — as does any else who might have an extreme stake in the future success and expansion of the North American Poker Tour presented by PokerStars.net.

THE POKERSTARS.NET NAPT ANNOUNCES AN EXCITING NEW STOP FOR SEASON 1

The PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour (NAPT) today announced the addition of a new stop to its Season 1 schedule. The NAPT will visit beautiful sunny Southern California for NAPT Los Angeles, a festival scheduled for November 12 – 17, 2010 at one of the largest poker rooms in the world, the incredible Bicycle Casino, aka ‘The Bike’.

“I’ve played at The Bike in the past and there is a strong local presence in LA,” comments poker legend and Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreaunu. “It’s always really important for a tournament’s success to have a strong core of local players as it gives even more incentive to travel to the events when you know there will be big money on the line. I’m looking forward to playing.”

Others scheduled to be on hand for the new stop include highly renowned Team PokerStars.net Pros such as Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, 2004 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Raymer, plus returning WSOP champion; 2009 Main Event winner Joe Cada.

The festival will feature a five-day Main Event with a US$5,000 buy-in. There will also be a broad range of fun and exciting side events catering to players of all bankroll levels. Up-to-date information on the events and schedules will be posted on www.napt.com

Haig Kelegian, Managing Partner of The Bike, states, “We are very enthusiastic to secure the West Coast Tour stop. We clearly recognize the NAPT as the next major happening in the evolution of poker, and we have no doubt this Tour will entice and attract players from all over the world.”

Season 1 of the PokerStars.net NAPT has proven to be a resounding success. The NAPT’s first three festivals of Season 1 enjoyed tremendous support from players. Sixty different countries were represented in fields that numbered from 700 to 1,500.

The NAPT PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure drew in a record-breaking 1,529 players with US based player Harrison Gimbel taking home $2.2 million for first prize. The NAPT Venetian title was won by 22-year-old online player Tom Marchese for $827,648 and the NAPT Mohegan Sun saw local Vanessa Selbst beat 716 players to win her biggest live tournament pay day to date of $750,000.

Players at all three events were treated to luxurious accommodation, amazing parties, and well-designed, professionally-run poker tournaments.

The easiest path to NAPT Los Angeles is by winning a free tournament package on PokerStars.net. Packages for the festival will include the US$5,000 entry fee for the Main Event, accommodation for the duration of the festival and a stipend for travel expenses.

About PokerStars.net:

PokerStars.net is the world’s largest online poker school with over 36 million members. It’s the premier destination for the world’s top players – with numerous tournaments running every day. PokerStars.net is renowned for offering the best software and security in the online poker world.

PokerStars.net is the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour, PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour and The World Cup of Poker. For more information please visit www.pokerstars.net

On May 28, the same day we ran the first part of NAPT, Venetian Part Ways over Row in Carson City, the Nevada Gaming Control Board officially responded to a formal inquiry about the Stars-sponsored event at the Venetian from attorneys representing one of its other licensees. They then posted this letter on Nevada Gaming’s website on June 2. Though this correspondence in and of itself doesn’t constitute enforceable policy, it does serve as effective notice to all Nevada casinos about how the GCB, the “prosecutors” of Gaming violations, will be seeing relationships with the likes of PokerStars … dot-com or dot-net.

Click here to read this important letter.

(In a nutshell, they say don’t mess with Stars … too much trouble from the Feds with these guys, not to mention the Czechs, and getting into bed with any site doing biz with American players could violate other GCB policies about working with international thugs. Oh, and dot-net doesn’t make it OK.)

Meanwhile, longtime poker politico and legal consultant Wendeen Eolis writes a bit more about how February’s NAPT-Venetian led to the Board’s current stronger-than-ever opposition to the idea of its Nevada casinos partnering with American-friendly online poker sites.

Check out her story in the new Poker Player Newspaper:

By all accounts, throughout the tournament, both Venetian and Poker Stars honchos were aglow over the initial collaboration. Word around town was that they were rarin’ to do an encore this summer.

Yep, sounds familiar. But one important new piece of info she reveals is where the NAPT is supposedly headed next, after having been effectively deported from Nevada.

California. Specifically the Bike.

A well-informed gaming official asserts (on the condition of no attribution) that “Poker Stars has embraced the Bicycle Casino and Card Club for its next NAPT Festival.” He says it is slated for “wheels up” on or about August 1st.

The Poker Beat
6/3/10
TPB (and skilled technician John V) won’t let interstate technical snafus get in the way of award-winning deliverables. With BJ at the helm and Huff watching from the booth in LA, Jess and Wolfman discuss what may or may not be going on as the WSOP and the post-hardened UIGEA era get underway almost simultaneously … all while Michael Mizrachi takes down the first big bracelet of the Series, the Nevada Gaming Control Board clamps down on dot-net poker relationships, a thieving player tries to palm a stack of chips, and Joran van der Sloot allegedly kills again while hitting the Latin American poker circuit.

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5/27/10
Jess, BJ, and I arrive at the Rio, and kick it a little more freeform to trade notes on what we’re hearing, what we’re seeing, and WTF the masses were thinking on American Idol, which is obviously rigged.

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5/20/10
Gary, BJ, and Jess Welman preview what to expect at and from the 2010 WSOP. A week in, were they right?

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5/13/10
A political shit-storm is brewing … and though Wolfman was supposed to do the “ranting”, Gary and Huff went hardcore nuts while addressing the most recent Cereus security issues, and Gary (at about 28 min in) gives what might be the best explanation of why all in poker should be angry at all things Ultimate Bet and Absolute, including those who still play on either site.

(The February event, and others from the fledgling North American Poker Tour, are currently airing on ESPN-2 and TSN, the leading sports television channel in Canada.)

But it wasn’t the field size, TV cameras, or $4.1 million prize pool that made the NAPT-Venetian special … it was that the Las Vegas tournament was “presented by PokerStars”. Dot net.

Perhaps surprisingly, because we see so much PokerStars on TV … this was the first time since the UIGEA that a licensed Nevada casino partnered with PokerStars (or any site like it) for a major open tournament.

Its success didn’t go unnoticed. And that may prove to be the problem for PokerStars and the North American Poker Tour, as the inaugural NAPT-Venetian will probably — almost certainly — be the last.

Hosting the event was a bold move by PokerStars, particularly considering how much scrutiny the world’s largest online poker site would come under as the June 1 UIGEA enforcement deadline nears … and structures for fully legal, regulated American online poker begin to take shape.

Few are speaking publicly about heated communications between Nevada casinos, the state Gaming Control Board, attorneys, and the Department of Justice and other federal agencies. But chatter from Las Vegas to London, and decisions in Carson City, reveal a story with multibillion-dollar implications that could’ve changed the face of poker as we know it — with PokerStars setting up shop on American soil to directly challenge the supremacy of the WSOP.

There were even discussions about a possible series of NAPT events scheduled to start in just a couple weeks. However, investigations sparked by NAPT-Venetian have intensified, and now threaten the viability of the expansion tour itself.

Even with an announcement about the NAPT’s next stop expected within days, decisions in Nevada will likely change PokerStars’ future in America … while providing a glimpse of what’s really at stake (and how ferocious the battles are becoming) as corporate US casinos take on off-shore online poker rooms.

With the bona fide arrival of the North American Poker Tour in February, the US got a taste of tournaments by the masterminds behind the EPT, duly credited with transforming the European pokerscape.

Getting approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board wasn’t as difficult as some might have thought. All they had to do — they being the Venetian, the licensed entity under the Board’s authority — was ask.

“There’s been a passive acceptance of dot-net advertising with Nevada casinos,” says Randall Sayre, a member of the Gaming Control Board who has become the state’s primary regulatory authority on online poker issues, particularly as they relate to live events and the difference between dot-coms and dot-nets.

The WSOP and parent company Harrah’s compliance team first noted this distinction in 2006, before the UIGEA, but by 2007 decided they needed to go further and end all formal relationships with any foreign online poker companies still serving American customers. Though one company’s internal decisions by no means dictate state-authored policy, other Nevada casinos hosting live events followed suit.

Sayre explains why dot-nets used to be fine:

“Past indications from the Justice Department [and other federal agencies] are that if dot-nets were a company or a site that merely put entertainment play out there, not gambling play, and did not advertise their gambling site, and did not have direct access to a gambling site in what they called a 3-click rule, then no enforcement on the federal level would be taken.”

Nevada authorities thus determined they too could allow such relationships, Sayre says, “that are limited to the advertising, where you’ve got guys with dot-nets on their hats or dot-nets on the felts.”

With that in mind, the UK-based NAPT (presented by PokerStars.net) brought to Vegas not just big buy-in, real-money action, but also the economic stimulus that comes with attracting a couple thousand people to a specific casino … while encouraging further activity by promoting said venue on ESPN … and don’t forget the related media jobs and production-crew wages!

The Gaming Control Board can indeed consider such factors when one of its licensees wants to associate with foreign interests, as they did upon sending a letter giving the Venetian express permission to host the NAPT.

But approval for the Venetian to work with PokerStars apparently didn’t sit well with others who have been sitting on the sidelines in the online gaming marketplace for nearly four years.

Shortly after the announcement of the NAPT, Sayre’s office began receiving both informal and formal requests from specific casino companies, industry representatives, as well as federal and state authorities to reconsider that position … and at a minimum, clarify the state’s stance.

He says these requests have intensified since early March — making in-depth study of the relationships between licensed brick-and-mortar casinos with off-shore online gambling sites a top priority for the Board. “To be clear, We’re talking about poker specifically,” Sayre says. “That’s what’s being debated. A new policy is developing as we speak.”

One key component they are looking at, of course, is the connection between dot-coms and dot-nets, where Sayre believes co-mingling of funds may put licensees in a compromising position. “There’s a renewed emphasis on commercial relationships with companies doing business in America that are not in compliance with what DOJ has determined is an illegal activity. [The casinos] have to decide whether or not they want to accept the risk of diciplanary action because of an unsuitable association.”

Sayre won’t give specifics about who’s been complaining the loudest, nor confirm identities on any privileged correspondence between the Board, its licensees, their attorneys, and/or state and federal authorities. But it’s not hard to deduce who might have had the most pressing interest in what the Venetian may or may not have had taking shape long-term with the NAPT. Any party hosting live WSOP or WPT events — without the competitive advantage of seating online qualifiers — come to mind.

NAPT-Venetian was never intended to be just an experimental one-off undertaking. The tour headed next across the country to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where the thumbs-up comes from the Mohegan Gaming Authority … and from there, the NAPT looked poised to secure casino hosts in several different states, one gaming jurisdiction after another, allowing them to replicate the EPT model across North America. Sure, there would be obstacles along the way, but Global Poker Tours, Ltd., the Isle of Man-based provider of PokerStars’ live tournaments worldwide, had faced a far more complex legal landscape throughout Europe and Asia to successfully pull off events in more than a dozen countries.

Meanwhile, PokerStars has not acknowledged that they’ve actually been booted out of Nevada tournament operations by anyone, nor that they were preparing to challenge the World Series head-on in Las Vegas with another NAPT. Venetian Poker room management are not commenting on the matter either, other than to say they are looking forward to an exciting summer Deep Stacks … with poker-room spillover extending to 119 tables.

As regulatory paperwork continues to shuffle with increasing veracity, and the belief that a true alternative to the World Series was still a possibility, it’s probably no coincidence that PokerStars.com wasn’t offering any online WSOP satellites until less than a month prior to the 2010 start date, much later than in prior years.

And there are of course no satellites whatsoever for the WSOP on PokerStars.net.

Seat 1: Claudio Piceci – 4,460,000
Seat 2: Alexey Rybin – 1,890,000
Seat 3: Atanas Gueorguiev – 2,520,000
Seat 4: Jakob Carlsson – 13,525,000
Seat 5: Giuseppe Diep – 1,830,000
Seat 6: Liv Boeree – 3,440,000
Seat 7: Toni Pettersson – 5,035,000
Seat 8: Michael Piper – 4,600,000

Updates will be available over at PokerNews, along with live streaming video of the final table over at www.PokerStars.tv at 6am ET.

The final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout concludes the NAPT series at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut this afternoon. If you knock out a player at your table, you collect your opponent’s $5,000 bounty. The last player standing earns $60,000, or $50,000 for Luis Vasquez, seated at the only five-player table. The six shootout winners returning at 12 noon today with live streaming available at www.napt.com/tv (with bounties won so far):

Shawn Buchanan – 4 bounties
Luis Vazquez - 4 bounties
Jason Mercier – 3 bounties
Sam Stein – 3 bounties
Matt Glantz – 2 bounties
Faraz Jaka - 2 bounties

The remaining prize pool, $350,000, will go to the winner, and whomever ends up with the most bounties earns a free entry to the next NAPT High Roller event. The date and location hasn’t been announced, but it will take place after the WSOP concludes in mid-July.

Here’s the full final table results, with the edited final table coverage on ESPN2 May 10th at 10pm ET:

1 – Vanessa Selbst, $750,000
2 – Mike Beasley, $428,000
3 – Mike Woods, $240,000
4 – Scott Seiver, $190,000
5 – Alistar Melville, $150,000
6 – Derek Raymond, $115,000
7 – Cliff Josephy, $85,000
8 – Jonathan Aguiar, $60,244

Seat 1: Scott Seiver (1,125,000)
Seat 2: Cliff Josephy (1,940,000)
Seat 3: Vanessa Selbst (4,545,000)
Seat 4: Derek Raymond (1,545,000)
Seat 5: Mike Beasley (4,985,000)
Seat 6: Michael Woods (2,950,000)
Seat 7: Jonathan Aguiar (1,535,000)
Seat 8: Alistar Melville (2,940,000)

Beasley took the chip lead on the final hand of play on Saturday when he eliminated Brandon Hall in 9th place. The four WSOP bracelet winners (Selbst, Josephy, Raymond and Seiver) will look to add a NAPT title to their results. When play resumes, there will be about 30 minutes left at level 26, 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante. The poker world will still be focused at the Mohegan Sun on Monday as the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout will get underway, with the shootout winners playing Tuesday to determine a winner. Full coverage will also be available at pokerstars.tv, with edited coverage to air in the coming months on ESPN2 of both the Main Event and Shootout.

To some extent, this was a proof-in-the-pudding tournament for the fledgling-but-promising North American Poker Tour. They pulled off a total hit a couple months ago in Las Vegas at the Venetian … but that was in Las Vegas, where most of the pros live and tourists love to travel to — this is Uncasville, Connecticut! But still … turned out Mohegan Sun has proved that NAPT events can indeed draw enough top-rank talent across the country for a $5k event worthy of televising on ESPN2.

Even Full Tilt showed up — and not just the red pros, but team pro, too, including Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan.

The event set Mohegan Sun records for both attendance and prizepool. They got 716 players … more than 100 of whom will chop up nearly $3.3 million … and top prize is a handsome $750k.

Follow the live updates and chip counts here.

Pauly’s there, too … holy fugk, the event even drew Tao coverage — surely it’s gonna stick!

Click below to see what really does look to be a great payout structure.

P.S. David Williams is winning.

1 $ 750,000 -
2 $ 428,000 -
3 $ 240,000 -
4 $ 190,000 -
5 $ 150,000 -
6 $ 115,000 -
7 $ 85,000 -
8 $ 60,244 -
9-10 $ 47,000 -
11-12 $ 38,000 -
13-14 $ 29,000 -
15-16 $ 23,000 -
17-24 $ 19,000 -
25-32 $ 16,000 -
33-40 $ 13,500 -
41-48 $ 11,500 -
49-56 $ 10,500 -
57-72 $ 9,500 -
73-88 $ 8,500 -
89-104 $ 7,500 -

The official word, via @PokerStarsBlog:

The PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) regrets to announce that the 2010 LAPT Viña del Mar, Chile poker festival has been cancelled. The festival was scheduled to be held at the Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino and Resort from March 19-23, 2010.

All players who have qualified or bought-in to the event will be fully refunded their buy-ins and any out-of-pocket expenses*.

This cancellation follows a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile approximately 175 miles south of Viña del Mar on February 27, 2010. The cancellation of the festival has been forced by the effects of the earthquake and in light of the rescue and recovery efforts now taking place throughout Chile.

Everyone at PokerStars.net and the LAPT offers their thoughts and condolences to all of those affected by this tragic natural disaster.

The LAPT sincerely apologizes for this cancellation to the players that had planned to attend the festival.

*Players should contact lapt@pokerstars.com with any queries

You gotta chalk natural disaster up to a bad beat, but man, the LAPT seems to really be having troubles getting off the ground (even with all the soccer stars they’ve got pimping). I could see LAPT dropping down from a projected #2 spot to a #4 in terms of prestige amongst the PokerStars tours … behind EPT (obv), NAPT, and APPT.

Seat 1: Daniel Clemente (1,345,000)
Seat 2: Sam Stein (6,145,000)
Seat 3: Thomas Fuller (4,735,000)
Seat 4: “Miami” John Cernuto (1,300,000)
Seat 5: Yunus Jamal (3,940,000)
Seat 6: David Paredes (4,700,000)
Seat 7: Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese (2,370,000)
Seat 8: Eric Blair (1,690,000)

On Thursday, the final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Invitational Shootout will play out, also scheduled to start at 2pm PT. Here’s the final table, with the number of $5,000 bounties each collected:

Scott Seiver (6)
Hoyt Corkins (4)
Faraz Jaka (4)
Joe Cassidy (4)
Brett Richey (3)
Peter Eastgate (2)
Ashton Griffin (2)

Each player earned $75,000 for winning their table, with the last man standing on Thursday pocketing $455,000 in the winner-take-all format. All seven players are also eligible to win an additional $100,000 from PokerStars.net for having the most bounties.

For those looking to follow the action, check out www.pokerstarsblog.com w/ ShortStack Shamus, Jennifer Newell and Otis, or the live reporting over at PokerNews.

Even better is that you can watch the action live over the next three days on PokerStars.tv starting at 11am PT. To see who’s left in the 5k and the table lineups for the shootout, head to page 2:

56 1 Tom Marchese 1,795,000
56 2 Daniele Nestola 872,000
56 3 Jonathan Aguiar 567,000
56 4 Daniel Clemente 805,000
56 5 Christina Lindley 103,000
56 6 John Franciosi 286,000
56 7 Joseph Cutler 742,000
56 8 Mark Ketteringham 470,000

59 1 Andrew Chen 410,000
59 2 John Cernuto 473,000
59 3 Yunus Jamal 1,074,000
59 4 Kyle Zartman 1,483,000
59 5 Daniel Cossette 1,033,000
59 6 Blair Hinkle 614,000
59 7 Michael De Gilio 385,000
59 8 Steve Billirakis 2,372,000

60 1 Sam Stein 3,409,000
60 2 Jason Dewitt 622,000
60 3 Steve Stolzmann 363,000
60 4 Andy Lichtenberger 539,000
60 5 Eric Blair 3,700,000
60 6 Thomas Fuller 1,540,000
60 7 David Paredes 706,000
60 8 David Miscikowski 1,839,000

Table 1 (starting at 7pm PT)

1. Joe Sebok
2. Phil Laak
3. Justin Bonomo
4. David Williams
5. Joe Cassidy
6. Yevgeniy Timoshenko
7. Tommy Vedes

Table 2 (Starting at 7pm PT)

1. (Satellite winner)
2. Dario Minieri
3. Tony G.
4. Alec Torelli
5. Isaac Haxton
6. Daniel Alaei
7. Peter Eastgate

Table 3 (Starting at 7pm PT)

1. Chris Moneymaker
2. Keith Gibson
3. Joe Cada
4. Jason Mercier
5. Hasan Habib
6. Matt Glantz
7. Ashton Griffin

Table 4 (Starting at 7pm PT)

1. Andrew Robl
2. Lee Markholt
3. John Hennigan
4. Phil Galfond
5. Alex Kamberis
6. Brett Richey
7. Daniel Negreanu

Table 5 (Starting at 11am PT)

1. J.C Tran
2. Joe Hachem
3. Annie Duke
4. Jennifer Tilly
5. Vanessa Rousso
6. Di Dang
7. Faraz Jaka

Table 6 (Starting at 11am PT)

1. Scott Sevier
2. Brian Rast
3. Chau Giang
4. ElkY
5. Antonio Esfandiari
6. Sorel Mizzi
7. Barry Greenstein

Table 7 (Starting at 11am PT)

1. Phil Hellmuth
2. Adam Richardson
3. Hoyt Corkins
4. Greg Raymer
5. John Duthie
6. Hevad Khan
7. Steve Paul-Ambrose

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.

Supposedly, highly reliable sources are saying, Full Tilt brass in Ireland are telling Full Tilt-branded American (and non-American) pros that they are not allowed to play in the Venetian Deep Stacks main event … as it is part of the newly launched NAPT, presented by PokerStars.net. What, are you guys not buying their claim that Stars-dot-net is different than Stars-dot-com? Interesting …

We hinted that something was coming on The Poker Beat a couple weeks ago. Kudos to ESPN’s @GaryWise1 for digging up the confirmation on the above. Listen below to a 5-minute excerpt of the bubbling under.
TPB2510-excerpt

Apparently, Howard Lederer really has stepped away from calling the operational shots at Tilt, and it’s totally news to Bitar & Co. that Full Tilt pros were ever stepping foot in non-Tilt branded events, such as the PCA (PokerStars) and Aruba (UB). Sure enough, the Hollywood snub at the Sharon Osborne Trash Talk Championship of the World (at the Hard Rock) charity tournament was a sign of more serious fissures in the poker world to come.

Kinda funny … because these sites have been so worried how a new Harrah’s-branded online gaming presence would negatively affect other online sites branding opportunities at the World Series of Poker, and now their reaction to the threat seems on track to becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

UPDATE: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4921898&name=poker