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.

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.

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.

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.

It was another smooth ride for Phil Ivey yesterday in London.

WPT London might be a new event on the World Poker Tour schedule, but it’s playing out more like an old one with three-time WPT final tablist Erik Seidel leading the way after the completion of one of the tournament’s two starting flights. Seidel finished up Day 1A of the first-ever WPT London with 226,200 in chips, good enough to lead the 31 players remaining of the 72 that began that starting flight. The eight-time WSOP bracelet winner won his only WPT title at Foxwoods in 2008 but has come close to another WPT title numerous times, with fourth- and sixth-place TV table finishes and four other top-ten finishes to his credit. 

Joining Erik Seidel in the top ten chip counts at the end of the day was none other than Phil Ivey, who wrapped up the day fourth in chips with 146,200. Like Seidel, Ivey has a single WPT title on his resume (the 2008 LA Poker Classic). But Ivey has made nine TV table appearances, second only to Gus Hansen’s record of 10. The last of those TV tables came at Bellagio Cup VI just last month, when Ivey bought in at the last possible second on Day 3 but still finished third.

Today’s Day 1B action is already underway at the Mayfair Palm Beach Casino in London. Plenty of recognizable poker players have turned up, including Chris Moorman, Neil Channing, Heather Sue Mercer, Richard Ashby, Marty Smyth, Tyron Krost and 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela among the faces in today’s crowd. Last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event champ Barry Shulman also showed up, but he was the first player eliminated on the day.

Play continues through the seventh level tonight, at which time the remaining players will bag up their chips and add their names to the Day 2 roster alongside Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey.

The WPT is finally making its first stop in London today.

After years of bypassing one of the oldest poker markets in the world, the World Poker Tour is finally landing in the United Kingdom today - and its £5,000 Championship Event is just the first of more than a dozen major tournaments to be held in the UK capital throughout September.

The WPT London Championship Event began the first of two starting flights today at noon local time and there were plenty of familiar faces in the field. Phil Ivey, James Akenhead, Praz Bansi, Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Andrew Robl and Tony G all turned up for the first day of play at the Mayfair Palm Beach Casino. Even the tournament director - the Bellagio’s Jack McClelland - made the tournament feel more like a gathering of old friends than a new stop on the WPT.

Tomorrow will see a second starting flight before the field combines and begins playing down to Saturday’s final table. There will also be a high rollers tournament with a £15,000 buy-in beginning on Friday that should draw some of the biggest names in the game. London won’t be through with poker when the World Poker Tour stop finishes up, though. WSOP Europe will begin on September 14th at the Casino at the Empire in the English capital and run five bracelets events through the end of the month, and the EPT will kick off a full schedule of events in London on September 28.

No time for rust to set in - the European Poker Tour is back in action.

Just two weeks after its first-ever stop in Estonia, the European Poker Tour got back to the felt this weekend in Portugal. EPT Vilamoura kicked off with two Day 1 flights on Saturday and Sunday. The two starting days combined for a total of 384 entrants, a new record for a live poker tournament in Portugal, and built a total prize pool of €1,862,400. Just 56 of those players will make the money, with a a top prize of €467,835 awaiting the winner of the event.

Leading the field when 221 players return today to begin the task of eliminating Day 1 survivors will be online qualifier Leonid Bilokur of Russia, who bagged up 161,200 in chips at the end of Day 1B. He’s followed closely by Day 1A chip leader Andre Coimbra (157,600), with notable poker players like Sam Trickett (132,600), Sorel Mizzi (132,200), Dario Minieri (131,400), Antonio Esfandiari (127,800), Brandon Cantu (122,400), Antony Lellouche (114,100), EPT Grand Final winner Nicolas Chouity (108,800), David Williams (86,100) and Liv Boeree (79,300) lurking further down the chip counts.

At this early point nobody can be a real favorite, but one man to keep an eye on today is Arnaud Mattern. After bagging up 119,200 in chips on Day 1A, the French poker pro appears to be have shaken off the bad beat that sent him packing in third place at EPT Tallinn. If he can continue to play top-level poker he may be back in the running to become the first two-time EPT champ faster than anyone expected from him.

EPT Vilamoura resumes at Casino Vilamoura in Portugal at noon local time today.