Reporting from the floor at the LAPC at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, we bring you the PND Weekly News Update. The Los Angeles Poker Classic is one of the biggest events for poker in Southern California each year, bringing out some of the biggest names for the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event tournament, which has a televised final table for the World Poker Tour.
The LAPC’s Main Event kickoff is the lead story this week in the world of poker. As this video is being published, we’re still in the first level of play and players are still registering with registration open for the better part of the entire day, with no Day 1B in this tournament. Right now there are 567 players entered making the price pool over $5.4 million. Some of the big name players have have rolled in to play include Daniel Negreanu, Prahlad Friedman, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari and Vanessa Selbst. The “table of death” currently consists of Erik Seidel, Justin Bonomo and November Niner Joseph Cheong, all sitting at the same table. The atmosphere here at the Commerce Casino is a good one as there are amazing cash games going on downstairs while a marquee televised poker event is taking place upstairs in the grand ballroom. Stay tuned here at Poker News Daily for interviews from the event with some of the best players in the world.
Other news in the world of poker include the story about the Rio Hotel & Casino getting robbed. Apparently a man came in to the casino floor and started taking chips at a table, and when confronted by a dealer, the thief flashed a gun. This comes on the heels of the apprehension of a man accused with the Bellagio robbery.
Another story is a bit of a bizarre one as Sorel Mizzi finds himself accused of cheating at Chinese Poker by John Racener, all through Racener’s friends, Shaun Deeb, who is himself no stranger to controversy.
The last major story of the week involved a big name poker pro making a deal at the final table of Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS XIX Main Event, as Blair Hinckle made a deal to take in $1.16 million dollars. The prize pool from the $600 buy-in main event swelled to $2.8 million thanks to Full Tilt Poker’s new multi-entry feature.