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

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

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

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

From CardPlayer updates:

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

Really? Damn.

Dutch is having a good December. Not only did he win one of the preliminary events at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio – the $2K NLHE event – but he found out this morning that he won his case against PokerHost.com.

The battle with PokerHost ensued in October when he received notice from an attorney that there was a UDRP complaint against him for holding the PokerHost.net domain. Dutch then turned the PokerHost.net site into one about the case and stood his ground on the issue, since he had tried to negotiate with them for quite some time before the complaint to no avail. But this morning, he received notice that the World Intellectual Property Organization decided the case for him, as he documented on his blog:

The Pokerhost.net WIPO decision came today. Not only did I win, but the WIPO panelist found in favor of my reverse domain name hijacking claim, which hardly ever happens. Unfortunately, the UDRP doesn’t actually give any punitive relief to respondents who win on this claim, but it’s nice to get anyway. It definitely put me in a better mood and was a nice thing to wake up to.

In other Dutch news, as it relates to his purchase of Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio domain, the misunderstanding has been settled. According to the text message from Dutch today:

“Just FYI, I did end up giving Steve Hall back Pokerfolio.com for free… Wish him the best.”

Ahhh, the holiday season!

Back in October, Dan blogged about Dutch Boyd purchasing Steve Hall’s domain (www.pokerfolio.com) that had expired while Hall took a hiatus after the WSOP, relegating him to a new domain with much smaller traffic. I commented that Dutch Boyd on NWP Radio, when questioned about the “takeover”, that he would give the domain back to Hall for the price he paid for it ($60).

Fast forward to earlier today, when Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler posted on 2+2 that Hall still has not gotten his domain name back from Boyd. So is Dutch Boyd playing hardball, or is he so wrapped up in his battle with Pokerhost that he’s forgotten all about the photographer and his humble web home? A poker community is watching…

Here’s the clip from the Neverwin guys talking with Dutch about the domain:

Just got back on the grid and playing electronic catch-up … here are some of the things that are making good browser viewing, but not quite stimulating a full-fledged post:

Jay Busbee (from Bluff) has a good State of the Poker Union address on ESPN.com, where he officially declares the poker boom dead. Also interesting to see ESPN, for the first time I remember in a long-long while, running (non-affiliate) PokerStars ads. [ESPN.com]

Poker Shrink Cranky Olde Coot has a good post wondering why FIDPA still hasn’t made the “new rules” they’ve long ballyhooed public. [PokerBlog.com]

Full Disclosure: FIDPA is one of my MySpace friends. [MySpace.com]

Liberal columnist Michael Kinsley shares a story about John McCain going on some extremely unpresidential tilt at the craps table. (The TJ Cloutier of Politics? Tons of success, a sometimes dangerous love of craps, and never quite able to win the Big One?) [The Daily Beast, via Huffington Post, via Short-Stacked Shamus]

Beyond the Table has a new home online. [Podcast.com]

I think Dr. Pauly’s starting to get a little miffed at me for not working out some production kinks and posting our re-constituted incarnation of Tao of Pokerati, but I think I can make him feel better by simply reading his blog. [Tao of Poker]

With all the talk of what really goes into a world-record endurance poker session, I forgot to send y’all to live-forum coverage of The Poker Den 3 — PartyPoker’s 36-hour high-stakes televised cash game. [MatchroomPoker.com]

Dutch Boyd apparently bought Steve Hall’s Pokerfolio in a semi-hostile takeover. Poor Steve … but he has found a new home for his poker updates/pictures of attractive Asian female dealers. [Pokerfolio.Spruz.com]

Also, the X-10 electronic table — a knock-off of the PokerTek PokerPro popping up in so many places — sharing the same name as a hidden camera used by so many pervy peeping toms before a few lawsuits encouraged them to re-market themselves as a security device. [SlipperyBrick.com]

And long overdue, here’s a great tale of a totally degenerate poker blogger/gambler rescuing his bankroll by poetically chasing/hitting the Station Casinos bad-beat jackpot. [TheTrooper97, via Up for Poker]

There’s more, too, coagulating in my bookmarks and inbox. News stories, forum threads, tourney results … Who knows … maybe I’ll get to them for your reading pleasure, but as is always the case from Head Slacker at this Little-Ole Poker Blog, no promises. It’s good to be back with you all.

LATE ADDITIONS:

Lacey Jones is getting ready for her co-hosting duties of Real Deal, the pokery interactive musical at The Venetian, which kicks off next week. [PokerListings.com via LasVegasAdvisor.com]

She also hosted an interesting event at Cathouse (as simply Lacey J) where women showed up for a seductive-attire contest where the winner got a boob job. [Photobucket.com]

Meanwhile, there was a hardcore SWAT-team poker raid in Fayetteville, NC. A firsthand account as well as some non-poker media coverage here and here. [Triangle Poker Journal]

I’m about to head over to the Rio — I think I might actually play a bit today — but before I shut my computer lid (about as difficult for me as stepping away from a table when I’m still up) I wanted to share with you some blogs other than Pauly, LVV, and Wicked Chops that make for good reading during the WSOP. Most of these folks have real jobs here in the poker media, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t have interesting things to say:

Poker Shrink — he runs the show now at my old PokerBlog stomping grounds, and though I haven’t yet seen his shiny orb around these parts, he always has something informative to say, and a cutting way to say it.

Change100 — A friend with weed is a friend indeed … and this PokerNews reporter always has the good Hollywood insight to share.

Benjo — aka the Angry Frenchman; I have no idea what his blog says, but it’s often fun to read the Google translation of it.

Gary Wise — Gary knows everything about poker (just ask him) … but really, the Bluff/ESPN correspondo does know a lot, and has better player connections than anyone else in media row.

Snoopy — This limey mate has a great take on the game, and new hair to boot — capable of fourth-level thinking and comes up with hedlines like “Throw Juanda down the Well.”

Michele Lewis — Wicked Chops probably got the best of it in our trade of Fresh Princess and a blogger to be named later for, um, nothing … but that doesn’t mean we don’t still love her sassy-mom takes on the game.

Pokerfolio — Steve Hall doesn’t need a big camera to scope out the WSOP hotties, but he may need a new webhost.

Spaceman — Jason Kirk can’t seem to leave the poker world no matter how hard he tries, and while he’s not blogging for PokerListings this year, he occasionally keeps us posted on real life.

Hardboiled Poker — Short-stacked Shamus is an absolute must-read; he’s a rookie on the PokerNews WSOP reporting scene, but as he’s proved with his own blog since getting on the blogging train late in the game, sometimes new=fresh, and he gives more to really think about per word than just about anyone else out there.

Haley — The managing editrix of PokerNews is 0-and-1 on prop bets with Dan this year, but that doesn’t mean she’s still not a smartaholic; heck, she even knows who The Batfaces are.

Mean Gene — The most celebrated poker blogger in all of Pittsburgh makes the annual pilgrimage to the WSOP again, and nobody knows how to have more All-American fun while doing a top-quality job than this PokerNews tourney reporter.

I’m sure I’m missing a few — apologize for that — so send me an email and I will update accordingly. But these are the ones I have been checking out with the most semi-regularity, and often giving thought to.

And for a list of players who are also blogging their experiences, check out Up for Poker’s WSOP blog-guide.

That’s all for now. I’ll be back eventually. But this should keep you informed/entertained/busy for at least a little while.