The World Poker Store announced the expansion of its Bar Poker League into Mexico with plans to host 40 free tournaments per week in or around Mexico City, beginning in February of 2009. Liga Mexicana de Poker is set to become the licensee of the Bar Poker League and manage the tournaments.

Other Bar Poker Leagues are set to begin in 2009 – China and Germany in January, The Netherlands in February. Those ideas sound great…but Mexico? Has someone missed the news recently about the LAPT’s rather serious problems with hosting a tournament in that country? Like when Mexican officials shut down the event without warning, refused to let the tournament resume despite talks between attorneys, and supposedly seized all of the production equipment that the government still holds nearly a week later… Sure hope someone lets the World Poker Store know about that little poker snafu south of the border.

LOS ANGELES–So the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Ca., really was an interesting place … and according to my research, I have concluded that, indeed, poker rooms would be good in Texas. (So there you have it, Texas legislators … you can now feel comfortable supporting legal poker in our state.)

The first joy was running into two people I know at the tables — one was a guy named “Paradox” … who had dyed his hair purple since I last played with him in Lake Tahoe. The other was Kaelaine (from PokerPages). Seriously, very cool how poker can bring people together from all over. Can’t wait ’til Texas becomes such a place. Beyond that, here is some of the other stuff that might interest you about The Bike:

• Strangest buy-ins ever. As mentioned before, the max buy-in to the $2/$3 game was $100 (w/$150 rebuys). The max for $1/$2 was … get this … $40! For the $5/$10 it was $300-$500, which is at least tenable to start, but really, not sure on the rationale here for limiting the amount of money put on the table.
• Amazing food. It’s all free of course, and it seemed a reason a lot of people went there. We’re not talking burgers and dogs … we’re talking Sushi, Italian, Teriyaki noodle stuff, quarter watermelons … fancy set-ups, and every table had at least one player chowing down.
• Holy juice. The tournament I played cost $335. Of that, $291 went to the prize pool. $35 was the “entry fee” and $9 was a “service charge,” whatever that meant. In total, it comes out to a greater than 13 percent vig.
• Mexican Poker. They had a whole little section — with four active tables — of something called Mexican poker. There was soccer being shown on the TVs near these tables (Go Chivas!), and most of the players, interestingly enough, were Hispanic. A few black guys and whiteys to boot, but they were clearly the donkeys in this game … which consisted of each player having three exposed cards in his/her hand. Lots of cowboy hats at these tables, too.
• Not-so-great tourney blind structures. Half-hour levels were cool. But an average stack should never be a short stack! Especially halfway through the event. Just my $.02, though I kinda understand — West Coast offense required — when the tournament starts at 7:15 pm and finishes around 4:30 in the morning.

Oh, the other interesting observation — and this would be important for any on-the-fence Texas legislator to see — though The Bike was clearly hopping, it does so without changing the landscape of the surrounding community. It’s like just another building — albeit a big one — that happens to be nearby. But the super-super majority of citizens seem like they could care less about what’s going on inside. And really, that’s kinda a good thing, I would think.

Go California poker!