We hear a lot about Sheldon Adelson. Poker players love to hate on the cranky old billionaire because how dare the primary beneficiary of the Venetian’s awesome Deep Stack Extravaganza be against online poker! Wasn’t the Venetian its biggest supporter when they welcomed PokerStars and the NAPT into the USA to someday maybe challenge the supremacy of the WSOP? OK, I’m editorializing and asking you to connect dots here that we haven’t even connected yet on paper. But regardless, Adelson seems to have more problems these days than opposition to online gambling.

Here’s Rachel Maddow (the Vanessa Selbst of cable News?) laying out why the GOP’s big sugardaddy — originally a Newt Gingrich guy — is finding himself in some liberal (and government) crosshairs over the appearance of less than ethical behavior in Macau.

And here is NPR on that same story of Adelson possibly facing legal heat for criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Get the sense the liberal media elite ain’t gonna let this one go?

First off, I would like to take the time to thank those who commented on last week’s post. It was no surprise to me that I got a couple of details wrong, as that’s something that happens more often than not, but it was good to find out that there are actually people taking time to read this weekly piece, which can grow pretty long on a given week.

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.

The left coast featured prominently in this week’s tournament action, with two different series’ winding down, while the WPT made a stop in Florida and the WSOP Circuit found it’s way to Lake Tahoe.

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.

After crowning a new World Champion last week, it would be a bit difficult to generate as much excitement for this week. But once you’ve embraced young Mr. Duhamel and memorized the Canadian National Anthem, buck up because the tournament circuit never sleeps.

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.

Disclaimer: I will not be able to do this column justice, hence I have changed the title somewhat to reflect that. Well…that and I’m probably much closer to 90% of the tournaments than Kevmath was.

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.

If this is true, it would mark the second WSOP-Circuit addition not at a Harrah’s property. That’s the unofficial word from a Harrah’s suit, with firm-sounding dates attached. According to venerable Circuit TD Jimmy Sommerfeld on 2+2 …

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.

More…

There’s been a lot of speculation about where the regulatory-challenged NAPT would head next, as it looks to spread across the US and/or Canada after a too awesome for its own good spectacular made-for-TV debut on American soil in Nevada at the Venetian.

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’.

More…

Part 2 is coming … and parts 3 and 4 … and maybe even a Part 5 addendum. But damn, writing semi-investigative narrative non-fiction ain’t exactly easy, especially when the story doesn’t convert well continues to develop in the present tense.

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.)

More…

Have fallen behind on The (Award-Winning) Poker Beat … So to get you caught up, here are 4.5 hours of the latest in Poker Beat power — enough for any WSOP-wonk to step into Week 2 fully prepared to understand what they’ll really be getting into.

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.

[audio:http://www.pokerroad.com/download/the-poker-beat:66]

More…

The first in a four-part series about Nevada Gaming wrangling with a new era of poker regulation as Harrah’s and PokerStars fight …

The inaugural NAPT-Venetian was by most accounts a smashing success. PokerStars announced the tournament in January, and less than six weeks later — at a time when big-money players usually would be heading to California for the WPT-Commerce — 872 entrants made it to the Venetian for a televised $5k main event in Las Vegas.

(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.

More…

The PokerStars.it EPT San Remo reached their final table earlier and the most notable player remaining in the field when play resumes Wednesday afternoon (6am ET for those in the US) will be Liv Boeree. Following the wins of Annie Duke at the NBC Heads-Up and Vanessa Selbst at the PokerStars NAPT Mohegan Sun event so far this year, could Boeree follow in their footsteps tomorrow? The final table will be seated as follows:

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.

UPDATE: Jason Mercier FTW! [dm]

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.

The final table of the $5,000 PokerStars NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event came to a conclusion early Sunday evening, with Vanessa Selbst taking down the title in dominating fashion. In an interesting quirk, like her 2008 WSOP PLO bracelet win over Jamie Pickering, she defeated a strip club owner, Mike Beasley in heads-up play. Beasley held the chip lead at the final table, but within 30 minutes Selbst had regained the lead, and her aggressive style meant she never relinquished her hold on the lead. Her win brought up debate on Twitter inquiring if her win would help get more women into the game, a topic that has appeared at Pokerati here and here for two examples.

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

The final table of the $5,000 PokerStars NAPT Main Event at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut will be starting at noon Eastern time. Here’s how the final table will be situated, with live streaming available at www.pokerstars.tv:

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.

The big tournament going on right now is the Mohegan Sun $5k main event … make the the NAPT-Mohegan Sun main event … make that the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event.

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.

More…