Welcome to the BLUFF Daily Buzz, where we scour the entire internet for all the latest news in and around the world of poker. If it involves chips and cards, or people known to associate with chips and cards, we’re there.

Darrell Cain tops monster field at LA Poker Classic Event #1

Darrell Cain came out the big winner at the LAPC's first event. (Photo: LA Poker Classic Blog)

The first event of this year’s LA Poker Classic is officially in the books, and Darrell Cain of Sacramento, Calif., is its champion.

The $300-buy-in tournament sported a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool but ended up eclipsing that mark by more than $600,000 when it drew 5,847 entries. More than a few of those entries - 2,083 of them, in fact - were repeats by players who busted on earlier starting days but were allowed to buy in again thanks to the tournament’s unique rules.

Cain’s victory was by no means a sure thing. After several attempts to chop up the remaining prize pool at the final table, he lost a big pot and thought he was out of the tournament. Already on his way to receive a payout, the others at the table called out to him that he had eight chips left in play. Taking the “chip and a chair” trope to heart, Cain persevered and managed to make it to three-handed play with the chip lead. It was there that he finally managed to make a deal with Amir Ghazvinian and Joel Tushnett and be declared the champion. His official take for the win was $363,936.

Check out LAPC Tournament Director Matt Savage’s interview with Cain here. The official LAPC blog is here. Dr. Pauly’s Tao of Poker interview with Savage is here.

Aussie Millions update

The 2010 Aussie Millions is well underway at the Crown Casino in Melbourne and the two biggest tournaments on this year’s schedule were both on tap today.

First was the $100,000 Challenge, which has been won in the past by notable players like Erik Seidel and Howard Lederer. Another Full Tilt pro, the one and only Phil Ivey, had a shot at the title when he and seven others sat down to play out the final table today, but he ended up falling one spot short after falling in heads-up play against former WSOP Ante Up For Africa champ Dan Shak. Shak’s take was A$1,200,000 (US$1,084,920), while Ivey grabbed A$600,000 (US$542,460) for finishing runner-up. That moves him past Daniel Negreanu into first place on the all-time money list.

Meanwhile, today’s second starting flight of the Main Event drew 243 players, ten more than had showed up on Day 1A. 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Annette Obrestad, who took down one of the preliminary events at the Crown last week, finished up the day with a healthy stack. Joining her in bagging chips at the end of the day were other notable players like 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, 2008 APPT Manila champ Van Marcus, Marsha Waggoner, Leo Margets, Neil Channing, Dani “ansky” Stern, and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger. Others who were less fortunate and found their way to the rail included Erik Seidel, Grant Levy, Chris Ferguson, Vanessa Selbst, Jay “Krantz” Rosenkrantz, and Australian cricket legend Shane Warne.

The final Main Event starting flight begins at 12:30 p.m. local time tomorrow, and if past experience is any indicator it should be even bigger than the first two days.

Sega: the future of online poker?

The launch of the Sega online poker room last week was greeted with little more than curiosity here in the United States, a country whose players are blocked from even pulling up the new room’s website thanks to the UIGEA. But blogger Bill Rini is outside the country and knowledgeable about the business side of things when it comes to online poker, so he took a look at Sega’s offering and posted a few thoughts about what the video-gaming giant’s entry means for the market’s future.

“This is a multi-billion dollar a year business but when you look around at the leadership of most poker sites you wouldn’t know it looking at the resumes,” wrote Rini. “If the likes of Harrah’s or SEGA moves into the online poker space with any sort of seriousness you can expect that they’re going to be put their best and brightest people behind it. If smaller poker sites are hurting now, just wait because it’s only going to get worse if some of these new arrivals start deciding to throw some serious cash and resources at online poker.”

The whole post is worth a read, especially if you’re an American who dreams of a future where you can check-raise donkeys on your video game console.

(SEGA Poker Room Launches - Bill’s Poker Blog)

Around the Table

EPT cashing machine Antony Lellouche had half the chips in play at the EPT Deauville High Rollers event with three players left, but the Czech Republic’s Martin Kabrhel took down the title and the €250,000 prize … Somebody actually bought T.J. Cloutier’s WSOP bracelet on eBay, for the princely sum of $4,006 … The NHL’s Calgary Flames raised $300,000 for charity with their 5th Annual Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament on Saturday … Poker’s opponents are desperate enough to compare the game to drug addiction in order to maintain the status quo.

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