For my Poker friends I have only played a handful of tournaments this year. The twins are busy with Soccer and Basketball and this takes away many evenings for me. I have also been busy with the FallenHeroesUSA.org foundation and a car club I hang out with periodically.

So it’s no wonder this year has zoomed by and as we get ready to watch the Final Table, the November9 on ESPN this weekend I haven’t even been able to watch the pre-shows on Tuesday Nights leading up to this weekend due to my work schedule.

I have been playing cash games more so then ever and have enjoyed a little success, enough to keep me going back on a day off every now and then. However my passion for tournament Poker is beginning to fade with the lack of success I have had recently and the horrific beats I have taken in tournament play.

I have played for a full 5 years now and have won several small buy in events for a very good profit but a big major event here in LA has been hard to come by lately. I have been almost to the top of the mountain and would love to continue playing but my schedule and bankroll have for tournaments is a factor.

I have the next 6 days off and I am not even going to Vegas for the November9 and Commerce casino has the LA Open starting tomorrow November 3rd, but I doubt I’ll play until next week if at all.

My health is about 90% for those of you wondering I have been back to work since January 10th and I have only missed about 2 days due to illness since. We still have no overtime at work but we are very fortunate not to have lost any positions due to budget restraints for all businesses.

I have seen cycles like this before in our county and I am confident within the next few months our OT will return. This should help the bankroll a little …..

I work with a good group of deputies and we all get along which makes the days easier when you can depend on one another. We have been busy the past few months and short staffed but we have done the jobs we are asked to do.

I still have a rough time getting up at 3:15am every day I go to work and since the girls are in school it gives me a chance too get an hour nap in the afternoons when I get home which really helps.

As the holidays fast approach, please be aware of your surroundings a little more and make sure you do not leave anything visible in your car when you go out places. This only invites the thieves who are looking for easy pickings and are to lazy to find a job, so they need to steal from others who have worked hard for their money to buy things.

Be Safe Take Care

First and foremost let me say I feel terrible for all the reporters who have given their personal lives up to be a part of something they love.

Without the advertising dollars of these on line sites, many websites and magazines will be put on hold. There will be no money to pay those who travel the circuit and give us Poker addicts updates on our favorite players and the happenings at the events.

People who write articles for Poker magazines will not be paid and editors will have little money to publish.

I have had the privilege to be able to get to know many of these reporters at WPT events here in LA. The WPT who issued me a press credential allows me to sit and talk with these fine upstanding individuals and it’s amazing the hard work, long hours they put into satisfying us Poker enthusiasts.

I could go o about my friends who are players who will be affected by this and several websites I go to but all of you already know this.

I believe if this was such a heinous crime the United States Attorney General, Eric Holder would have filed this case himself.

A USA District Attorney in New York took it upon himself to use our tax dollars to spend countless hours piecing together enough circumstantial evidence to make a case.

Monies which could have been used for more severe incidents occurring in our country. I am sure he had to get permission from another higher up to open this case and spend THOUSANDS investigating and researching online sites to present enough facts to a Judge to obtain his court order but where does it say online Poker is illegal?

How many other Internet crimes that occur in the USA such as identity theft,Child pornography, phony charitable organizations could use the DOJ’s attention?

The UIGEA does not say online Poker is illegal, just the depositing methods. The 1961 wire act does not say online Poker is illegal.

The Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act, is a United States federal law prohibiting the operation of certain types of betting businesses in the United States. It begins with the text:

Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.^[1]

The law has been interpreted by some, including the Department of Justice, to mean that all forms of online gambling are illegal. However, U.S. Courts have ruled to the contrary. Also, many^[who?] believe the phrase “in the business of” means only businesses are affected. Some argue that the law only covers sports betting, and not other forms of gambling such as poker.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting and not other types of online gambling.^[2] The Supreme Court has not ruled on the meaning of the Federal Wire Act as it pertains to online gambling.

There have been a few bills presented in Congress to legalize online Poker and I believe this lawsuit has brought this to the forefront and I expect some newly developing legislation to be presented and acted on in the very near future.

This case has to go infront of a Federal Judge also. These Judges are appointed and I am sure politics will be played out. How long this will take, no one knows for sure.

I hope these sites don’t make a deal with the DOJ due to over reacting to the players demands for their money. I think they have a great case in proving their sites are legal and the UIGEA bill should have not been attached to the Port Authority bill.

We will see in the coming weeks. In the mean time the Csinos that have been against the online sites are seeing an increase in play. This is going to allow them to say “we told you so, these sites have taken income away from us”.

Since I have been involved in the Poker Community and started my charitable organization, I have seen first hand what many of these sites have done for charity and they all as well as the ones in need are going to suffer.

It is truly time for us voting American citizens to take a stand. We decide who goes into office and those we elect are supposed to be OUR voice, However so many of them who promise to do right by us have their own agenda once elected and it’s usually not the promises they made to us during their campaigns.

We have the right to recall as Californians did with Gray Davis a few years ago thinking Arnold would be better.

If Obama can raise 4 million dollars in one night in LA for his campaign I am sure Poker Players could gather enough funds and hire those needed to help get the ball rolling on changing our State and Federal politicians or maybe just the threat will make them have a change of mind and be the VOICE of the people.

238 players remain they are playing 5 90 minute levels and have to get dwnn to 63 players. If not they will play until we hit the money at 63.

Michael Mizrachi is sitting right next to Dinero (who looks alot like his father) Joe Hachem is in a good mood and the bustouts are happening faster then I thought they would.

We are currently at 207 players with 8 minutes left until the break and the end of level 11.

At the start of Level 12 we lost 7 players pretty quick to bring the event down to 200 at 82:00 minute mark

You can just hear the clattering of chips soo unlike the events I play. There is hardly any talk. The Ballroomm is freezing and I gave my jacket to Mike Matusow to keep him warm.

180 players left moving at a steady paceto the final 63 today

still sitting on 163 players as level 13 strts blinds are now 1000-2000 300 ante.

For my friend @Willing2Die on Twitter…”Whose your daddy Now”

Some big pots starting to come into play as the bigger stacks are putting pressure on the smaller stacks. Time to play Poker and also I thought there was going to be a Hellmuth explosion, however he sat back down and controlled himself.

Carlos Mortensen’s Chip stack

Level 13 is finished and 138 players remain blinds are going to 1200-2400 400 ante when they return The Grinder is the Chip leader by a few and Daniel Alai is chipping up at their table. Dinero appears to be pressing as his stack is not as massive as it once was.

The Remington Trophy which is a tradition at the @LAPokerClassic is going to the winner which will be one of the 126 players left in this room come Thursday Night or early Friday morning. It is much larger then the ones given out at the early events and it is quite heavy.

The Grinder folds his hand after Daniel Alai re-raises Mikes 35k bet.Mike tanks as theres two nines on the board and after about 4 minutes mucks his hand. Daniel starts to breathe again and mike loses about 53k and is down to 355k,well above the average of 172k. there are 116 players left as they go on break. Blinds will be 1500-3000 500 ante as we say goodbye to the brown 100 chip.

Eric Lingren and Josh Arieh in the 25k High Rollers event.

Carlos Mortensens chip design is getting bigger and bigger

The railers are here tonight

Nam Le is done as is Steve Sung and we are down to 96 players with 17:00 minutes to go in level 15. Definietly going pass the 5 levels today as they need to get to 63 players,

Level 16 has started and there are 83 players left Grinder just bluffed away 100k of his chips on a K-9-4-6-5 board he had 10-7 in a good position but was called every street by his opponent who tabled A-4..(Russian)

My good friends over at Poker Road just signed a deal with WPT Enterprises which is great news for all of us fans so we will be seeing alot more and listening to more Poker Road radio in the future.

Time for me to hit the road, a little under the weather and have to go to work at 5am. Thanks for stopping by Take Care…Be Safe..

There were 666 entries yesterday and there were a few satellites running after the day ended at 8:30pm pst last night. Players will be allowed to register up until the 12:00pm start Saturday and with most poker players being superstitous I would guess their hoping for at least one more entry to change that number.

There were some notables missing from yesterday, Scotty Nguyen, Mark Seif, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harmon, Jonathan Duhamel, J.C.Tran (new daddy) Phil Laak, Tom Dwan and Kelly Kim.

The structure early is unbelievable with 90 minute levels and the majority of the tables were stacked but i saw a few very week tables and the early bustouts were not suprising.

Heres todays seating assignment and chip counts of the remaining 507 players courtesy of  Commerce Casino