I used the Commerce bus during poker tournaments but found the staff rude and unwilling. The Bike monitored the situation before buying their own vehicle,a brand new 40 seater.

Nothing exciting happened until the smaller Los Angeles casinos joined in.First Normandie and then a dying Crystal casino dipped their toes in the water.To attract customers to the small casinos they had to be a little more generous than the big two. Normandie offered a buffet.To begin the buffet included suckling pig and lobster. Soon it was replaced by fried noodles and rice.

So we had four casinos offering nothing of monetary significance.Basically you went to the casino where you felt the luckiest or liked the staff.(Crystal have the friendliest dealers but I couldn’t win a dime there for some reason).Normandie was by far the worst casino I have ever visited.Rude overworked staff and floorpeople better suited to the County jail.The Bicycle is always nice to visit so clean and usually I will bump into a player I can call a friend.

This week a casino war erupted.First Normandie offered an extra $25 chip.Then Crystal made their chips live meaning if you win the chip stays in action.Out of nowhere the Bicycle suddenly offered $60 in chips up from $10.

I have used the term Chinese senior flash mob as the grinders move from casino to casino.

Somehow the Commerce has been completely left out of the action.I suspect that this giant elephant is run like a city hall with monthly meetings. So the Commerce bus drives around all day with zero passengers when the arrival of the other shuttles is greeted with something that sounds like “Layla” to my ears.Maybe it is Mandarin for Moolah.

The casino that has most impressed me is Crystal casino.It really was in a poor state two months ago and I am pleased to see the turnaround.I would even recommend the hotel to L.A. visitors when it reopens as the location next to a blue line train station,freeway exits and with a Ross,McDonalds,Target and Best Buy  sharing the same parking cannot be beat.

1) Anon 12.9m 2) Yun Fan 12.8m 3) Victor Morange 10.5m 4) Sarkis Keshishian 6.8m 5) Andy Miramontes 6m 6) Nika Futterman 5.7m 7) Rick Martinez 5.3m 8) Peter Hengsakul 3.99m 9) Turbo Nguyen 2.7m

Andrew Miramontes emerged victorius with an impressive FT from Phong Nguyen,def one to watch out for during the $1500 WSOP events.

Sure it was a multi re entry giving the MenArmy 22 bullets to fire at a target of a seat in Day2. However, the MenArmy is MIA. Even Bruce Buffer was out of town on UFC business.

The structure goes from crapshoot to a more Kessler approved one hour levels at the FT.Somehow, I feel round one chip leader Christian Jung may not be there.Some experienced players lurk like Chris Grigorian,the Armenian Express, Barbara Enright, Tony Nasr, Avner Levy and John Phan.

@MoTheBikeTD offered a seat in the monthly freeroll to the twitter follower who could guesstimate the total prize pool. Although proud of my $1.21m entry the correct answer was $1.26m.

Updates to follow…..

s

Bay 101 owners son Chris Trapani edged out German Joris Springael for the honour of being Day1 chip leader. This is traditionally worth $10k. Vanna Tea won the honour last year.

The results are now in:

1) Alan Sternberg $1m
2) Steve Kelly $595k
3) Mike Matusow $370k
4) Vivek Rajkumar $296k
5) Casey McCarrel $222k
6) Mike Sexton $148k

The move comes as the Indian casinos, particularly San Manuel, continue to attract large numbers of Asian gamblers by offering daily shuttles from the same area.

A spokesperson for the Bicycle casino told me they were closely monitoring the situation.

I used the shuttle to the Commerce during the LAPC and I cannot find anything negative to write about it.

The Commerce has closed the buffet to the public, staff still eat there though. Blizzberry has also closed as has Stakes. The latter has been replaced with a franchise restaurant the Manhattan bakery. The desserts are so huge that only scam artist Robert Turner has managed to eat a whole one by himself.

 

After all the euphoria of Matt Savage becoming TD last year this year seemed to be a little flat. One reason was the Commerce openly opposing online poker which has been debated on poker forums elsewhere. The other problem, which is where the Commerce management should direct their attention, is the deduction from winnings of non CA residents of 9%. The day I was there Canadian Owen Crowe had over $13k deducted from his $37k winnings. The Europeans didn’t bother to deplane on their return from the Crown in Melbourne.

I played the Media Event and was shocked that Matt + Sam took the evening off and nobody welcomed the players. No LAPC shirts or caps were offered to final table players as has been the norm in past years. Shirley Rosario and Max Shapiro won seats into the WPT invitational in the event.

Reservations

Surely, all the other media would be attending the NBC Heads Up at Caesars? So as service to my friend Scott Diamond, who has left for a weekend in the hills here I am.

Media row is surprisingly  busy. The lovely Kristy Arnett is here for Pokernews and Ryan L is representing Card Player.

Today is Day1a. Former WSOP champ Tom McEvoy is playing and I have been informed Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu are signed up. Other notables Shannon Shorr, Chris McCormack,Joseph Cheong,Adam Levy, Brett Richey,Yellowsub, Chino Rheem, Ted Lawson and Dan Heimiller.266 in total. First place will pay $500k.

Those with the longest to travel home are Masaki Kagawa and Alex Kravchenko from Japan and Russia.

Aussie Mel Judah talked to me about his “cash out poker” which is to have a trial at the Bike in the next few weeks.This allows tournament players to cash out during a tournament either in full or partial.It might be a little complicated for the locals but the online pros with maths degrees will love it.

I expect the road from Vegas will be busier than usual overnight with the HeadsUp bustouts heading over.The locals are priced out of this one but have plenty of opportunities as the NAPT runs all month.

Next week Spotlight 29 has the biggest poker tournament in Coachella when the Indian casino has a $500 buy in $100k guarantee tournament. No accomodation available so bring your RV!!!

The High Heels poker tour stops at the classy Agua Caliente (www.hotwatercasino.com) on April 2nd. An enclosed non smoking room just off the 10 freeway in Rancho Mirage.The casino will not disappoint you, it is very similar to Red Rock in Las Vegas.

The WSOP Circuit is in full swing and Nolan Dalla,Jimmy Somerfield and the crew will be in SoCal at Harrahs Rincon.The event starts today, Thursday 10th and the ME will be televised this year.

 

I decided the Bike would be busier today than tomorrow when just the final four tables of the ME merge.Also they always have FoxSoccer on in the coffee shop,Legends.

Today was the $60 2-11 game that is similar to Omaha high but with four communal cards rather than five. The prettiest dealer has taken well to the game .She was born lucky and replaces Sara Chau as the prettiest Viet in Long beach!(No Sara backlash she moved to Florida.)

The winner was,wearing a Morongo jersey, Mariano Forcadela.No  previous HendonMob entries for him so maybe the new game,exclusive to the Bike,is his saviour.Up and Coming Bike regular Raul Bravo was second.

As soon as the players reached the money they decided to chop.Not sure if they were mentally tired but the money wasn’t a factor with first place being paid $1100 and $100 for the first few ITM players.

So no final table for me to observe.Also someone must have requested a channel change in Legends.Then after tipping the cost of a meal the waitress said she had not wanted to disturb Mo in his office to sign the comp so I had to pay for it as he had left. So I am now out of pocket for working!

Some good news.The NAPT tour will return to the Bike in March. Not sure it will be great news for the Bike as the ME will be at the beginning which will be closest to the end of the WPT at the Commerce.

Day1b qualifiers include Kwinsee Twan,Huy Quach, Zuhair Ismael (600k) and Jose Mendosa.

The Day1a results are in. Arcadia’s Shan Jing is the chip leader with 771k. It is likely a challenge will emerge from todays pack of  330 .The first prize will be $70k

The final results.

1) Ron Jenkins $70k
2) Amir Ghazvinian $34k
3) Guy Rahamin $17k
4) Phong Nguyen $11k
5) Mike Quick $9k
6) Igor Zektser $6750
7) Marc Sousa $5.6k
8) Shan Jing $4.5k
9) Robert Durant $3.3k

 

1) Kevork Kozakjian $87k
2) Ben Nguyen $34k
3) Turbo Nguyen $17k
4) Xuan Nguyen $11k
5) Mak Uskolovsky $8.8k
6) James Pittman $6.6k

Todays event,both at Noon and 6pm is Omaha8..$100 buy in with a $50k guarantee.

Only six qualifiers from the Noon part of the guarantee,which had a pool of $11k, causing the TD to make some phone calls. The six were : Albertin Hernandez, Ying Tsai,Gyorg Kovak, Marc Robinson,Eugene Chun and A Mazmanian.

The evening has a pool of $39k so the ulcers were unnecessary.Not so in the Fontana room at the Bellagio as only thirteen played the PLO with rebuys. The event used to be a draw to the Europeans but they are all drawing on Moroccan cigs at the WPT in Marakkesh this year.The evening qualifiers were: Jeremy Yap, Brian Bumpas, Men Tu, Ken Mettox, Weng Zhang, Mostafa J, Robert Glass, Jacob Weiss, Kevork Kosakjian and Eddie Slacx.

Results:
1) Eddie Slack $16k
2) Ken Mattox $8k
3) Mark Robinson $4k
4) Brian Bumpas $3k
5) Albertin Hernandez $2.4k

One advantage the Bike has over the Bellagio is that you can buy a soup + sandwich for $2.50.One disadvantage is the sad sight of Eskimo Clark trying to find a backer in a $50 buy in.

The Omaha8 tournie here yesterday lost the casino $5.5k which was a great deal for the players who all left with a jacket and holding an entry into the 2-11 tournie.Lap Wan won the $8k first prize with Robert Durant fourth and Marshall Ragir 11th.

 

The shoeshiners are out in force tonight.Almost three tables of them. Maybe the end of the month,the cold weather or a soft touch at the final table.They seem to be targetting Steven Goldman.

Event #7
1) Alfonz Kela $6k
2) Nick Phoenix $3k
3) Jacky Lee $1380
4) Gene Willson $1k

The Quantum tournament with a first prize of $35k is still nine handed.

Tenth was Turbo Nguyen and other familiar names are Sirous B and Giou Luong

1) Mike Nia $30k
2) Steven Goldman $17k
3) Jason Looney $8.7k
4)Gioi Luong  $5.5k
5) Nick Banyas $4.4k
6) Tom Adler $3.3k
Monday is the Omaha8 for $120 which includes a $60 entry into the 2-11 tournie.This is a fun tournie game similar to Omaha high with a two card flop..