Steve Hall's LAPC & NBC Heads-Up Review

Vegas visitation hit a 26 year low in December. Personally, I appreciated not having to fight my way past as many overweight rodeo fans on my way to the Bellagio. Station Casinos have defaulted on a loan and Coast Casinos may be tempted to make a cheeky bid for their main rival for the "local" casino players.Less competition is rarely a good thing though for the consumer.

With the poker tournament scene on hiatus I relocated to L.A. for the duration of the LAPC at the Commerce. This was the first one organized by Matt Savage, who is the tournament director for the Shooting Stars at Bay101. Matt tried to lure the Europeans over by adding two PLO tournaments. However, with the exception of Chris Bjorin the Euros stayed put. Chris cashed six times in total but not in the PLO. In fact Chris was playing a cash mixed game during the first tournament and overslept for the second.

The tournament was a success though, although many will be unhappy with a 7% state tax, on winnings over $1500, for non California residents. The cash games seem to be recession proof at the Commerce with over twenty names on the list for a $10k buy in NLHE game an everyday occarance.

The online players were consumed by FTOPS so sightings were a rarity until the buy in's increased towards the final weeks of the event. Full Tilt pro Vivek Rajkumar won the $10k heads up championship with Chris Moore "toph" second. Moore sightings are rarer than Mexican restaurants in Torbay but he does well when he appears. Last year he won $692k at the Wynn Classic and the second here was worth $190k. Vivek won $350k.

The Main Event threw up many hitherto unknown players with just Chris Ferguson making the final six from the long list of pro's in the 697 entries. The winner was Cornell Cimpan.

After the main event was the Invitational were many Hollywood celebs played the freeroll. Some, such as Marlon Wayans and Ricki Lake (pictured) made Day 2.

I managed to visit the scenic Santa Anita racecourse (photo) as often as possible. The owners Magna, like Station Casinos, have defaulted on a $240m loan from a Canadian bank and have been delisted from the Canadian stock market. This throws a doubt over the future of the historic racecourse which is scheduled to host the Breeders Cup again this year.

Huck Seed , the ever young 1996 WSOP champion, won the NBC Heads up championship at the weekend. The rarely seen Full Tilt pro defeated, Pokerstars and GoDaddy sponsored, Vanessa Rousso in the final to win the first prize of $500k which was half of what he received in 1996.

What a run "LadyMaverick" Rousso had though. On her way to the final she defeated Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Paul Wasicka, Daniel Negreanu and Elky. She certainly deserved her prize money of $250k.

Another casino opening. This time it is the M resort which anyone driving in from California will see, everyone will probably never go there as it is about 15 miles south from the Bellagio. The unique appeal of M, apart from the one letter name, is that it is experimenting with "in running" betting a norm in Britain but not in Las Vegas. With March madness college basketball this month it could be a big draw for the punters.