Here’s the Deal - Tons of Tournaments and New Hope for Legal US Online Poker

Here’s the Deal presents a week’s worth of poker news - the good, bad, and sometimes ugly - in one place. Between the poker tournaments, player happenings, and political updates, there is a little something for every poker enthusiast.

Poker Events

It was another ultra-busy week in the world of poker tournaments, mostly in the area of live events from Europe to Uruguay to several places in the United States. Players had to pick and choose their locations over the past few weeks, though those who chose the U.S. could easily go between Las Vegas and Los Angeles to catch big buy-in events and vie for some of the most coveted titles in poker.

One of the big ones of the week was the L.A. Poker Classic, which was finally coming to an end after more than a month of preliminary events that led to two big World Poker Tour tournaments. And as the prelims wrapped, the following tournaments found their champions, including Al Barbieri who grabbed a third title and became the absolute top winner of the L.A.P.C.:

Event 43 - $2100 NLHE - Al Barbieri ($59,030)
Event 44 - $335 NLHE - David Burrows ($60,080)
Event 45 - $3085 LHE 6-handed - Matt Brady ($115,430)
Event 47 - $10,000 Heads-Up Championship - Chris Moore ($147,200)
Event 48 - $545 NLHE Shootout - Farrell Hinkle ($33,040)
Event 49 - $5100 NLHE - Jason Potter ($201,730)
Event 51 - $25,100 NLHE High Roller - Scott Seiver ($425,330)

Some of the missing numbers above belong to the bigger WPT-affiliated events. One of those was the WPT Celebrity Invitational. The first two days of the tournament took place in mid-February, but the final table was postponed until the stage and camera crews were ready to film it along with the WPT Main Event final table. The Invitational then played its last day on March 3 with $200K in freeroll money offered up by the World Poker Tour, and the short final table resulted in a ClubWPT.com qualifier winning the tournament. Leron Washington dominated much of the final table that saw Thor Hansen exit in fifth place and Trishelle Cannatella leave in third, and he took down the tough heads-up match to win the event and take home $100K.

As for the L.A.P.C. $10K buy-in NLHE Main Event, the final table was set on March 2 after a very late session that took until nearly 3am to find the last six players to return on March 4. Those players and their chip counts were:

Seat 1:    Jean-Claude Moussa        1,360,000
Seat 2:    Gevork Kasabyan        2,000,000
Seat 3:    Tri Huynh            2,565,000
Seat 4:    Raymond Dolan            3,300,000
Seat 5:    Michael Kamran           680,000
Seat 6:    Andras Koroknai        4,995,000

The results of said final table, which will end with two millionaires being crowned as a result of the 745-player field and $7.1 million prize pool, will be recounted in next week’s wrap.

Across the desert in Las Vegas, the first PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour to be held on U.S. soil went down in Sin City, as 872 players bought in for $5K each and made for a prize pool of more than $4 million. The very successful tournament brought many named players to the tournament, and the most well-known and seasoned pro at the final table was “Miami” John Cernuto. He ended up finishing in seventh place, and the tough final table ended with Tom Marchese beating Sam Stein to take home more than $827K and the most prestigious and sizable win of Marchese’s career (insert article link). 

The PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour played out in the resort town of Punta del Este, Uruguay, and a solid crowd of 307 players turned out for the tournament. On the fourth day of action, the final table played out to find Jose “Nacho” Ignacio Barbero, a Team PokerStars Pro, able to defeat Nicolas Cardyn and take home the $279K prize money for the LAPT victory.

Still another PokerStars-sponsored tournament was going on halfway around the world, as the European Poker Tour prepared for its first stop in Berlin, Germany. Organizers anticipated a sizable turnout and weren’t disappointed when 945 players showed up and created a prize pool of €4,725,000, out of which an even €1 million was reserved for the ultimate winner. There are still several days remaining in the event before a final table is determined or a winner is found, but live updates can be found here.

The NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship was prepared to get underway on March 5 with the release of the majority of the list of players expected to participate, which left room for seven qualifiers to take to the tables with celebrities like Orel Hershiser and Don Cheadle as well as poker pros like Doyle Brunson and reigning champion Huck Seed. Annette Obrestad is scheduled to make her debut on American soil as well. The match-ups will be determined at a draw party in Las Vegas on March 4, with tournaments running from the 5th through 7th to determine the 2010 champion.

And lastly, in big tournament news, PokerStars announced its Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) tournament series that is set to begin on May 2 and run through May 16. There will be 38 different events, but each will have three buy-in levels to accommodate players at all different bankrolls. Even the Main Event will have three tournaments - $109 buy-in, $1,050 buy-in, and $10,300 buy-in - to allow players to compete at all levels. With over $45 million guaranteed in the series, it looks to be one of the most successful online poker endeavors of the year.

Poker Players:

PartyPoker continued the extension of its roster of players over the past week by announcing two more additions. One was pro poker player Dragan Galic of Germany who has experienced much success since turning pro in 2008, and the other was Italian football legend Francesco Totti, who will play on the Italian version of PartyPoker.com and represent the site at live events on Italian soil. After other recent additions of Kara Scott and Tony G, the list of sponsored players is becoming more diverse and representative of the global poker scene.

More and more poker players are making it to television these days, as evidenced by an appearance by Phil Hellmuth and Yevgeniy Timoshenko on a recent episode of Millionaire Matchmaker on the Bravo network. They were involved in a high-stakes poker game with one of the show’s featured singles, Jimmy D. But other poker players aren’t in such a good spot with their network, as the four players from the G4 television show Two Months Two Million found that their show would not be renewed for a second season. One may recall that the first season for Jay Rosenkrantz, Dani Stern, Emil Patel, and Brian Roberts saw them on a quest to make $2 million in the two WSOP-filled summer months in Las Vegas, but they barely reached the $200K mark. More information can be found here.

And straight from the rumor department, the big gossip-style news of the week came from those on scene at the L.A. Poker Classic who noticed a certain closeness between Erick Lindgren and Erica Schoenberg. The latter’s relationship with David Benyamine ended sometime in 2009 and is reportedly close with Lindgren now.

Poker in Politics:

It was a big week in political news as it related to online poker, as a new bill was introduced to Congress that could change the face of online gaming legislation. The bill came in the form of a bipartisan proposal from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Senator Judd Gregg. The Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010 contains a great deal of tax relief and code simplification, but amongst the many aspects of the proposals was a provision to regulate and tax online gaming in the United States and reaping the benefits of the revenue. It seems that the bill will look to incorporate Barney Frank’s 2009 legislative proposal, and the two Senators are looking to pass the new bill with bipartisan support quickly to produce relief for American citizens and small businesses.

News about the ever-growingly popular topic of intrastate online poker came from Iowa over the past week, as legislators are prepared to consider legislation to allow the game as regulated by the state and funneled through land-based casinos in the state. Though restrictions on the process are many and opposition is great, there is an even greater need for states like Iowa to overcome massive budget deficits through the addition of supplemental revenue. Online poker may be the way to make that happen, and a bipartisan proposal is currently being drafted to be introduced into the state legislature in the coming weeks.