A promo photo from the The Well's website. (photo courtesy of CovinaWell.com)

If there's anything the cops in small towns hate, it's mixing booze, bikinis, babes and Hold'Em anywhere that's not a licensed casino. So it's no wonder that a bar in Covina, California, was busted last night for hosting shindigs that combined all four.

When the police raided, there were twenty-four people enjoying some Texas Hold'Em action, as well as a number of staff members working as bartenders and dealers. Eight people were arrested in the fun-dampening raid, including six employees, and two poker-playing patrons who were caught for outstanding warrants. According to police, they'd been investigating the bar for more than a month. Of course, that lengthy investigation had nothing to do with the fact that the waitresses at The Well wear only bikinis or underwear while on the job...

The authorities confiscated $2,000 in cash during the bust, as well as poker chips, shuffling machines, and other gambling-related paraphranalia. The manager was arrested, along with five other staff members who had previously been identified as helping to run the illegal gaming operation.

There won't be any WPT main event cash for Phil Ivey this time around.

Just 39 players returned today for Day 3 of the first-ever WPT stop in London - and Phil Ivey wasn’t one of them. Ivey enjoyed a good run until he lost most of his stack with pocket queens against online qualifier Giovanni Safina of Italy when Safina flopped three tens with J-T. The rest of Ivey’s stack went when Luke Schwartz flopped the nut flush against him, leaving the Great One plenty of time to play high-stakes London cash games before WSOP Europe gets started in two weeks.

A handful of notable players did advance to Day 3, though. Praz Bansi and Richard Ashby were among the group of British poker pros who won WSOP bracelets this year, and both are still in contention to win the first WPT event on British soil. Angry young man Schwartz made it through to Day 3, but he lost a coin-flip in the early going to bust out. WSOP Tournament of Champions winner Huck Seed also found a way to get to Day 3 and even moved toward the top of the leaderboard for a bit, though he took a nasty beat holding A-K against A-9 shortly afterward to find his stack in jeopardy.

Today will likely be a short day for WPT London, since there are two more days of play left and the last is reserved for the final table. Tomorrow will see the tournament play down to that final table, as well as the £15,000 WPT London High Roller event, which at three times the buy-in of the main event should be enough to get the attention of Phil Ivey.

Jennifer Harman has a chance to pull of a Hall of Fame double this year.

After months of public nomination, the World Series of Poker has narrowed down the list of names for the 2010 class of the Poker Hall of Fame to just ten players. In alphabetical Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey, Linda Johnson, Tom McEvoy, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen and Erik Seidel. 

The next step is for the ballot to be sent to all of the 16 living members of the Hall and a 17-person media panel, all of whom will vote based upon selection criteria. Those criteria are that a player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition; played for high stakes; played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers; stood the test of time; or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results. The top two vote-getters, assuming they receive a majority of the votes, will be added to the Hall.

Most of the players on this year’s ballot were also eligible for induction last year, when only Mike Sexton was voted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Among those on the ballot for the second straight year is Jennifer Harman. If she were to be voted in, she would pull off a unique double; she has already been scheduled for induction into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame later this year.

The induction ceremony for this year’s class of the Poker Hall of Fame will take place at the Rio in Las Vegas during the November Nine weekend later this year.

British online poker star Toby Lewis leads EPT Vilamoura. (Photo: The Hendon Mob)

Four days are down in Vilamoura, Portugal, site of the latest European Poker Tour main event, and the top three chip stacks heading into the final table all belong to British poker players.

Chip leader Toby “810ofclubs” Lewis (3,322,000) is a successful online poker player who’s a relative newcomer to live poker tournaments. Already the eighth-ranked online player in the UK according to PocketFives, Lewis’ first live cash came with a win in a £200 buy-in tournament in Brighton back in the spring of 2009. Since then he has piled up another $171,669 in live tournament earnings, including two EPT cashes. He has already secured the biggest live tournament cash of his career regardless of his finish tomorrow.

Second-place man Sam Trickett (3,365,000 in chips) has been cashing in poker tournaments for only about the last three years, but he’s made the most of that short time by winning nearly $1.33 million, impressing nearly every time he sits at the table. His fourth-place finish in the 2008 WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event was worth $245,927. At this year’s Series the biggest of the former professional soccer player’s six cashes ($505,725) came from a second-place performance in the same event, and he had a chance at an even bigger score before becoming the final table bubble boy in the $25,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event and settling for a $141,168 payday instead. A win tomorrow would mark the seventh tournament victory of his short career.

And in third place is Teddy Sheringham (1,783,000). With 415 English Premier League games and 51 international appearances for the English national soccer team under his belt, Sheringham picked up live poker tournaments as a hobby. He nearly had a big breakthrough at last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event, finishing in 14th place of 334 players to grab a $66,738 prize. If he finishes in seventh place or higher in this tournament he’ll have grabbed his biggest career cash.

Of course, there are still five other players left, including short-stacked former EPT Grand Final champ Rob Hollink. But at the 12,000/24,000/2,000 level they’ll all need some luck on their side since none of them have more than 50 big blinds. Along with the three British poker players dominating the leaderboard, they’ll be back in action at noon local time tomorrow to see who takes the €467,835 ($597,285) top prize.

It’s business time for Luke Schwartz at the Mayfair Palm Beach Casino.

With starting flights out of the way, WPT London began the task of whittling the survivors down to a final table today. Tournament director Jack McClelland took a page out of his Bellagio Cup VI playbook and kept registration open all the way through the end of Level 8, enticing a few late arrivals like Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Jeffrey Lisandro to get into the game. 

Once the last chance to get a ticket on this train was gone, the total number of entrants stood at 171 - not a number that will blow anyone away, but not a bad total for the WPT’s first stop in London (with an EPT event running concurrently in Portugal, no less). The total prize pool was £820,800 ($1.27 million); 18 players will get paid, with 18th receiving £8,848 ($13,591) and £273,783 ($420,558) set aside for the winner.

As for who that winner will be, there’s still the matter of playing two more full days of poker before we can find out. Priyan de Mel started the day with the best chance of the 90 remaining players, holding a tournament-leading chip stack of 235,000. Right behind de Mel was 2010 WSOP bracelet winner Richard Ashby (229,800), with eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel (226,200) right on his heels. Not too far behind is Phil Ivey, who will be looking for a record-tying 10th WPT final table appearance. As of right now, though, the chip leader is none other than sandwich-thieving poker pro Luke Schwartz, who put a cooler on Seidel for most of his stack. That got Schwartz into something of a confrontation over table etiquette with Phil Ivey. With more than 140,000 in his own stack, Ivey won't be rolling over for the brash Brit anytime soon.

Play will continue today until 27 players remain, with those survivors coming back to resume their journey to the first WPT London final table at 12 p.m. local time tomorrow.

Blair Hinkle has earned the first seat in the WSOP Circuit National Championship.

The new slogan for the World Series of Poker Circuit is “First The Ring, Then The Bracelet” - but the first WSOPC main event winner of the new season decided to write his story in reverse.

Blair Hinkle, who won his first WSOP bracelet in 2008 just two weeks after his own brother Grant had earned his own WSOP hardware, emerged victorious at the WSOP Circuit main event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa. He may have been the only previous gold bracelet winner of the last 13 players, but the final day was anything but easy for Hinkle, whose stack swung back and forth and had him on the verge of elimination several times throughout the final table.

The day began with 13 players, but the final table wasn’t set until ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee was eliminated in 10th place with A-K against Jack Do’s K-K. After eliminating John Wakeen in eighth place Hinkle found himself in the lead, but he quickly surrendered it after doubling up three-time WSOPC ring winner Dwyte Pilgrim with A-2 against Pilgrim’s A-K. Another confrontation shortly afterward saw Hinkle get in behind Pilgrim with K-Q to A-2 but come out ahead when a queen hit the turn. 

A key coin flip (9-9 vs. Charles Moore’s A-K) with five players left saw Hinkle grab the lead, and then Shiva Dudani leapt ahead when he knocked out Matt Lawrence to leave the game three-handed. Thirty minutes later Hinkle finally got the best of Pilgrim, flopping a straight with 8-6 against Pilgrim’s top pair with A-T to send the multiple-ring-winner home and set up the heads-up match. Hinkle and Dudani played for nearly an hour and a half before Dudani bluffed all-in on the river with a busted straight draw; Hinkle called with two pair and ended the first stop of the new WSOP Circuit season.

For the win, Blair Hinkle takes home $88,555 and the gold WSOP Circuit ring. He also earns the first seat in the 2011 WSOP Circuit National Championship, which will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next May before the WSOP begins.

Today's Apple Announcement better be about something cooler than a new iPod.

There's an Apple announcement scheduled for this morning in San Francisco, but insiders are undecided about whether it's going to something big, related to Apple TV, or something less dramatic, like a new iPod. And, it being Apple, a company with legions of devoted followers, the suspense is driving people crazy.

What we know for sure: The announcement will take place at 10am PST today and it will be live streamed, a first for Apple. But nobody knows whether the live streaming means today's announcement is a Big Deal, or whether it just means Steve Jobs' ego has grown even larger.

When it comes to speculating about what the Apple announcement is about, industry insiders fall into two camps: some think it will be the unveiling a new iPod, while others are sure it will have something to do with Apple TV.

If it's just a new iPod, be prepared for a lot of disappointed complaining in the next few days. After all, the portable music market is old and over-saturated. And considering that anyone who owns a smart phone doesn't even need an iPod, it's not exactly a sexy product these days. 

If it has to do with Apple TV, things might get more interesting. True, Apple's existing set-top box hasn't exactly enjoyed the runaway success of an iPad or iPhone, selling only around 500,000 units. But the merging of TV and internet does seem to be the wave of the future. And if anyone can get on that wave and ride, it's Apple. And that leads to speculation that today's big announcement may involve a new box, with downloadable programming provided by Netflix.

Either way, we'll know in about four hours or so. And not a moment too soon, because the suspense of whether or not I'll soon be able to buy a new, shinier iPod is killing me. 

A woman who is not Lakasha C. Johnson, at a hotel that is not the Quality Inn in Hammond, Indiana.

The professional gambler, who must remain nameless, was feeling pretty good. He'd just won more than $9,000 playing poker at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, when an attractive young woman named Lakasha C. Johnson pulled up a seat beside him and started to chat him up.

The two played poker together for a couple hours and then went out to get some breakfast. The next stop had them picking up some gum and condoms, then retiring back to his hotel room at the Quality Inn.

One thing led to another, and they spent the next few hours talking, and having sex. The poker pro finally fell into blissful slumber, but when he woke up, things weren't quite as rosy. The femme fatale was gone, and so was the $9,000 in casino winnings he had hidden behind the TV. The only thing left to prove it wasn't just a dream were Johnson's underwear and socks on the floor, and the sinking feeling he'd been swindled.

The story has a somewhat happy ending though, as Johnson was eventually caught and brought up on trial. This week, Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months of probation for the theft. She was also ordered to pay restitution to the man she'd swindled and to perform 90 hours of community service.

Phil Laak after his ATV accident. (photo from Twitter)

A few weeks ago, Phil Laak was bombing around sand dunes in Oregon on a 4-wheel ATV. Things didn't go quite as planned, and he crashed and burned. A short time later, he was in the hospital, demanding that his friend capture the moment on film, and that Antonio Esfandiari post them to Twitter. And, as you may have seen here, and elsewhere, the photos were pretty dramatic.

The accident left him with a broken rib, a dislocated elbow, a shattered wrist, and a damaged orbital bone and tissue around his right eye. But, as he says about the crash, it could've been much worse: "I was in extreme pain, but I was really happy because I had my wits about me, and that meant my brain was in good shape...My eyes were working. I knew my arm was bashed, but they could fix that."

But for those who appreciate the way he plays poker, you'll be happy to know he's back to playing, even if he's not fully recovered. According to a story on ESPN, he jumped back into the online poker action by four-tabling, for this first time in his life, at UnabomberPoker.com. And he's scheduled to get back to the offline tables, with upcoming stops in Partouche, Monte Carlo and London. And it's probably a good thing he'll choose to enjoy his thrills at the tables, rather than on a 4-wheeler, at least for the time being.

Dwyte Pilgrim seeks a record-tying fourth gold ring in Council Bluffs today.

The revamped World Series of Poker Circuit is set to wrap up its first stop today with the conclusion of the main event at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Attendance was up sharply for the Council Bluffs main event, almost certainly thanks to the changes for this year’s WSOP Circuit that saw the buy-in for main events at each stop lowered from $5,000 to $1,500. A total of 251 players showed up to play at the Horseshoe, more than the combined 212 who showed up for the main event there the last three years running. Even with the lower buy-in, there was still good money up for grabs: the total prize pool reached $361,440, with $88,555 set aside for the winner.

Just 12 players survived the first two days of play to earn the right to come back today and play for the gold ring. Leading the way when play resumes at 2 p.m. CT will be none other than Dwyte Pilgrim, a three-time WSOP Circuit ring winner who holds 822,000 in chips with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 2,000 ante. If Pilgrim were to win the event he would enter into a three-way tie with Men “The Master” Nguyen and Mark “Pegasus” Smith for the most gold rings won on the Circuit since its inception in 2005.

Of course, Pilgrim still has to make it past 11 more players if he wants to add another ring to his collection. Among those he has to surpass today are former WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle (243,000 in chips) and ESPN commentator Bernard Lee (339,000). Whoever wins - whether it be Dwyte Pilgrim, one of his fellow pros, or perhaps a lesser-known player - will take home the top prize and the gold ring, as well as the first automatic entry in the $1,000,000 WSOP Circuit National Championship to be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next year.