I am finally back in the office, and it is great to say that I am home. My wife and I went to London for 10 days for work and pleasure. I had a chance to meet with some advertisers, see a few shows at the theater, and finally go to the Victoria Club in London. The "Vic" is so much different than the average U.S. casino. First, I had to become a member; it was free, and took only a few minutes. Then, I went upstairs and played in a low-limit game in which I actually had to deal. Afterward, I got into a bigger game, and, luckily, it had a dealer, but unfortunately, the players were tougher. Of course, the pound is so much stronger than the dollar now that it seemed like I was playing in a small game and losing twice as much.
We then flew to L.A. to play in the Commerce Casino's
L.A. Poker Classic championship event. With almost 800 players putting up $10,000 and first place paying more than $2.4 million, it was impossible for me to miss the event. The first few hours were great for the rest of the players at my table, as I was evenly distributing my chips (hopefully, due to the jet lag) to each of them. Once I woke up, I realized that I was sitting next to Paul Wasicka, who took second place in the 2006 World Series of Poker championship event. Let's just say that I was impressed with his play and knowledge of the game, to say the least. When I busted out close to the money, it looked like J.C. Tran was going to win the event, but he ended up finishing second to Eric Hershler, a tournament rookie from Los Angeles. J.C. has to be the hottest player on tour right now. As we go to press, he leads the 2007
Card Player Player of the Year race, and, amazingly, has now made back-to-back final tables at the
L.A. Poker Classic.
After L.A., I flew back to Las Vegas to play in the
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. I busted out in the first round, but the event was great. Heads up is a totally different game than a standard ring or shorthanded game, because there is a decision to be made at every step in every hand. That is why some of the best players love it. Some highlights from the event were Don Cheadle beating Phil Ivey in the first round, and Shannon Elizabeth getting to the final four. I won't release who won the event, since many of you will be tuning in to NBC on April 8 for the show's kick off, but if you want to know in advance, CardPlayer.com was reporting live from the event, and full results can be found on the site.
At the same time, Commerce Casino hosted the
World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational. Adam Weinrab beat "Miami" John Cernuto when it got down to two players, but the real story was Commerce's own David Mosikian, who finished fourth. That's not bad, considering that he gets to play in one freeroll per year.
Finally,
Card Player has been a leading source of all the latest news that's related to poker legislation, and in this issue, we are pleased to present an up-close-and-personal interview with former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. D'Amato was recently hired as the chairman of the board of the Poker Players Alliance and will fight to get Congress to regulate and not ban online poker. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman,
Card Player's legal expert, sits on the PPA's board and was granted the first official interview with D'Amato after he took the position. Check it out on Page 66.
In conjunction with D'Amato's hiring, PokerStars began offering freerolls as an easy way to join the PPA. PokerStars is running three $5,000 freerolls a night. Players who live in the United States and are not already members of the PPA are welcome to enter one freeroll. The tournaments run daily at 8:05 p.m., 9:55 p.m., and 11:05 p.m. ET. They are located under the "special" tab in the tournament listings.
