Commerce Casino

At around 2:00 AM Sunday morning, the clatter of poker chips at the Commerce Casino was interrupted by an eruption of gunfire near the building's main entrance. A suspect in a high-speed freeway chase abruptly pulled off the 5 freeway and drove his vehicle into the valet parking area of the casino, plowing his black Toyota Scion into the rear of a Porsche. With the police right behind him, the suspect realized that he didn't have anywhere to go and he fired multiple gunshots at the cops. The officers returned fire, killing him instantly. The suspect had a female passenger in his car and she was taken in to custody.

St. Louis radio host Paul Harris was playing poker at the Commerce at the time of the incident and offers up an execellent first-hand account on his blog. According to Harris, most players and dealers hit the deck as the shots rang out, diving under the poker tables for cover. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The police later cordoned off the entire valet area with crime scene tape and everyone at the casino who had valet-parked was unable to retrieve their vehicle that evening. Some grumbled and complained, others accepted offers of comped rooms at the casino's Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Most, though, just kept on playing.

The California State Poker Championship Main Event gets underway tomorrow at the Commerce Casino. A $2,500+80 buyin gets you a seat and probably at least one food comp (but I'd avoid the tacos). Tony Ma is our defending champion, having bested last year's field of 214 entries for a $384,000 payday.

Back in 2004 when Ben Affleck famously won $356K and the title, the CA State Championship boasted a $10,000 buyin main event, but the crowded post-boom tournament schedule has caused this event to fall a bit by the wayside in terms of prestige and the presence of big-name pros. In 2005 the event was moved from June to September to accomodate the later-starting WSOP and the main event buyin dropped from $10,000 to $5,000. However, it was now scheduled opposite televised events such as the WPT Borgata, the U.S. Poker Championships, and the Ultimate Bet Poker Classic in Aruba. And we all know how important TV coverage is. This year, there was the same sort of scheduling logjam, and the buyin was lowered again, this time to $2,500, putting it more on the level of Commerce's other semi-annual midsize tournament series like Heavenly Hold'em.