Life's A Bluff interviews poker pro Kenna James.
 LaB: OK, so this is Matt Waldron here with “Life’s A Bluff” talking to Kenna James. I’ve been listening to him and following him around today, so it’s been great to have him put up with me and let me listen in to all the amazing things going on with him right now, but the thing I’m most interested in is talking to you about is the “Wounded Warrior” project which, correct me if I’m wrong here, but basically collects funds for family members and soldiers coming back from Iraq that have been wounded?
KJ: The Wounded Warrior Project is an organization that assists wounded men and women coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever, who now have lost an arm or a leg or limbs and pretty much their military service has ended and now they have to adjust to civilian life and certainly there’s some change and shift that happens especially with the 19, 20 and 21 year old that come back and have to go back to their family and the workplace. It’s a non governmental agency that helps with rehabilitation, prosthetics, stuff like that. And gets them back, you know, into the swing of things here. I think it’s the least I can do, these guys put their lives on the line and there isn’t a lot for them when they come back like this.
LaB: So can you tell me how they set it up? I mean is it a percentage of tournament winnings? Is it. . .
KJ: No, how it started was, I first heard of, somebody hit my website from Screaming Eagle Poker which is this group of soldiers and they play poker out there on the front lines and they support this cause because it’s their brothers and sisters. They see them when they get injured and they want to support them when they come back home injured. So through them I was linked to this charity. I was going to try and get over to Iraq and play with the guys, and just try and boost morale when that got shot down, I just looked for another way so we ended up some poker here. The internet company that sponsors me (Sun Poker) agreed to host a charity event and so we did that and we raised over $70,000. And then Mike Sexton donated $100,000 of his Tournament of Champions winnings, so it was over $170,000 that went to the Wounded Warrior Project. So it is primarily things like that and I donate 1% of all my tournament wins to them throughout the year. Then the other thing is the Screaming Eagle guys that are coming back from overseas and we’re going to have a big just shindig, BBQ, seminar and tournament at my house here in a couple of weeks in Las Vegas.
To finish reading the interview & see Kenna sing 'Over the Rainbow' click here.
 BELL GARDENS, CA-- Last night, while a dark cloud moved over the future of online poker in the U.S., live poker flourished at the Bicycle Casino, where 227 ladies bought in for event #4 at Big Poker Oktober-- the $100+25 "Queen of Clubs" NLHE tournament. Yours truly crossed her fingers, downed two mimosas at the complimentary brunch buffet, and bought her donkey self in.
At my first table I was seated two to the left of the vivacious and chatty Timmi Derosa, who captured the California Ladies State Championship on Monday night at Ocean's 11 Casino in Oceanside. I immediately recognized Timmi's studded jacket and Louis Vuitton day planner from a fashion photo I snapped at the World Series of Poker (scroll down to the one with the caption reading "the Queer Eye guys want their hoodies back").
 Last night, while we were all freaking out and consequently drinking ourselves into a stupor over the impending online poker ban, Shannon Elizabeth made the final table of the Bicycle Casino's Big Poker Oktober event #2, $200+30 NLHE with rebuys, ultimately finishing 7th. 20% of the prize pool went to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) 171 players came out to the Bike, creating a prize pool of $77,400. Orange County's Kevin Goodling finished first for the top prize of $31,000.
The official standings (as well as most of the online databases) list Elizabeth under her given name, "Shannon Fadal" (Elizabeth is her middle name). Back at the WSOP, I remember her remarking to a crowd of media that she had to get that fixed. Rounders writer Brian Koppleman also made the money, finishing 15th.
Congrats to Shannon, who has been on a rather nice roll this year, including three WSOP cashes.
 Like our fearless leader pointed out yesterday, major tournament action is spread thin around the Western Hemisphere at the moment, from Tunica to Aruba, to Atlantic City. While there may not be a clear favorite yet as to where the most TV- friendly poker players will end up spending this month (though it appears Aruba has an early lead), the field sizes aren't suffering at all, and hundreds of local pros, from the banks of the Mississippi to the SoCal beaches are getting great opportunities to go for that big score.
As Los Angeles is without a Harrah's property, we don't have a WSOP Circuit stop here, though our neighbors to the south in San Diego will have the tour blow into town in February. We do, however, with the sheer number of world-class poker rooms we enjoy here in the greater L.A. area, have a seriously thriving mid-size local tournament scene. It seems like every month there's some sort of series going on and October is no different.
That's right, people. It's Big Poker Oktober at the Bike. Get yer buyins out, Southern California.
 BELL GARDENS, CA– When the average poker player thinks of the WPT, no doubt, images of glitzy casino properties come to mind. Bellagio. The Mirage. Borgata. Foxwoods. Even the Aviation Club de France. The TV images on the WPT don’t exactly prompt viewers to picture a small locals’ cardroom in a semi-sketchy area southeast of Los Angeles. But that’s exactly where we are.
The Bicycle Casino is located in Bell Gardens, a small blue-collar suburb in a light industrial area 10 miles south of downtown L.A. and a five minute drive east of Compton. Packed with chain restaurants and strip malls, by day it’s a typical slice of Southern California. By night... one is reminded of its extreme proximity to the dicier areas of East L.A. The Bike reminds me of locals’ casinos in Vegas like the Orleans, the Gold Coast, and O’Shea’s. It’s comfortable, but not fancy. Though a marble, chandeliered lobby greets you at the valet parking entrance, the cardroom itself is rather simple– green and tan carpeting, beige walls with gold accents, fluorescent overhead lighting and a dozens of poker tables. For the pros who call it their office and the regulars that gamble here every weekend, the Bike is almost like a second home. Everyone seems to have known each other for years. It’s like “Cheers”... with cards.
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