Change100 at PokerWorks

It’s Day 3 of the L.A. Poker Classic and my temporary home is the Ramada Commerce, only a 2-mile trip from the casino down an access road that runs alongside of the 5 freeway. Every night I’ve driven home from the tournament so far I’ve seen people being pulled over and arrested on that stretch of desolate road, peppered with warehouses, car-repair shops, sketchy motels, and a drive-thru lumberyard. The nicest of the no-tell motels is the Best Western Montebello Plaza, it’s neon sign reading “ask us about wedding packages!”

Two mornings ago I awoke to the sound of a children’s birthday party. Dozens of Mexican children were packed into a room adjacent to ours singing Feliz Cumpleanos to somebody. Funny, I didn’t see a sign outside proclaiming “ask us about kids’ birthday parties!”

The city of Commerce is located about 10 miles southeast of downtown L.A., about a 45 minute drive each way from my apartment (hence the hotel stay). It’s neighboring burbs include Pico Rivera, Compton, and the city of Cudahy, which was profiled in the latest issue of L.A. Weekly with the headline “The Town the Law Forgot: an L.A. ‘burb is mired in gangs, cartels, and south-of-the-border style politics.” Yet, admidst the poverty and crime that surrounds it, millions of dollars change hands on a nightly basis in the poker paradise of the Commerce Casino. It’s the largest poker room in the world with over 200 tables and home to the highest-limit action in L.A. There is a game at every limit at every hour of the day. O8, razz, stud 8, Chinese Poker? It’s all here. And whether you walk in at 3:30 PM or 3:30 AM and the crowds and the buzz will be equally palpable.

On Friday afternoon I played in the media tournament along with the whole PokerNews gang (except for Pauly, who was still recovering from strep). Tim Lavalli lasted the longest of our crew, finishing 7th. I came in 18th, and Wil went out around 12th or 13th. F-Train was in town and sweated us along with Ryan, before heading downstairs to play the uber-juicy $9-$18 LHE game. After finishing up with work stuff, I checked out the high-limit cash game area to see who was playing. I spotted Cyndy Violette at a table with Men the Master and C.K. Hua, Allen Cunningham playing $800-$1600 mixed with a cast of characters that included Chau Giang, and Mike Sexton and Barry Greenstein playing what looked to be Badugi.

Day 1 of the tournament was pretty crazy. 791 players started, making it the largest field in the history of the WPT. If anyone thinks live poker is dying, they only need to step inside the Commerce to prove themselves wrong. Tournament numbers are only going up there and the place is so freakin’ huge that they didn’t even need to split up the Day 1 field. We had 70 tables going in the main 2nd floor ballroom, another 15 or so set up in a tent on the outside veranda, and another half a dozen downstairs in the main casino area. Play went from 3:30 PM to 3:30 AM and the field dwindled to 368 by night’s end. At one point while I was checking chip counts, I saw an unknown player pass Mike Matusow a bottle of prescription pills.

Hmmm… Adderall, anyone?

Day 2 was much more subdued, though it would prove to be life-changing for at least one player. Gavin Smith, who had been short-stacked almost the whole way finally busted out early on Day 2, thus losing his last-longer bet to Joe Sebok, who was one of the chip leaders at that point with over 200K. The stakes? Loser had to get the winner’s initials tattooed on their ass. Poor Gavin will be seeing “J.S.” in the mirror for life. Though he did declare to Schecky, “I don’t so much have an ass as I have a really long back with a crack at the bottom.” Nice. Sebok went broke about 4 hours later in a huge hand that doubled up current chip leader J.C. Tran, who is looking for a little LAPC vindication after going out of last year’s tournament in 5th place on the sickest of all sicko beats– a one-outer to eventual champ Alan Goehring.

We have about 150 players remaining including poker luminaries such as Barry Greenstein, Kristy Gazes, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Ted Forrest, Chau Giang, Daniel Alaei, Erik Seidel, and 2005 LAPC champ MIchael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. The young internet poker contingent is also kicking ass with Jason Strasser, Alan “Bodog Ari” Engel, and Prahlad Friedman all sporting big stacks. Three women are left in the field: Gazes, L.A. player Lori Conn, and some Asian woman that looks like J.J. Liu but is not J.J. Liu. I’m about to head back over to join the sexiest tournament reporting team in poker. Pauly and Schecky will be on the radio this afternoon, and Shronk is putting together some kick-ass video coverage. Make sure to check it all out at PokerNews.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.