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.

High Hand Jackpot scam cracked at Planet Hollywood

It looks like tough times just got a lot tougher for four really, really dumb Planet Hollywood poker room supervisors in Las Vegas.

After months of investigation, the Nevada State Gaming Control Board has charged Jonathan Sanner, Jason Peterson, Thomas R. Kordick, all of Las Vegas, and Scott Marshall of Henderson, Nev., with crimes including forgery, embezzlement and conspiracy in connection with a scam that robbed the Las Vegas Strip poker room’s high hand jackpot of “thousands of dollars.” (The Los Angeles Times’ Richard Abowitz says the total was $2,201.) There’s no word yet on what made these jokers think cheating the customers and putting their jobs on the line for such a small amount of money was worth it.

The now-former P-Ho employees appear to have taken advantage of their positions by working together to file false paperwork so they could collect prize money from the jackpot for high hands that never actually occurred in the room. Apparently they would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for a meddling fellow employee who reported them to the NGCB.

If there’s one thing Nevada casinos won’t tolerate, it’s being cheated. Don’t expect the law to go easy on these guys.

(Planet Hollywood poker scam nets arrests of four supervisors - Las Vegas Sun , Four supervisors at Planet Hollywood accused of theft - Los Angeles Times)

Full Tilt’s MiniFTOPS gets under way

While the online high rollers go out at it this month over on PokerStars for the WCOOP, the low rollers and micro players got in on the action at Full Tilt yesterday with the first event of the MiniFTOPS. The $22, super-stack no limit hold’em event had a $200,000 guarantee but ended up paying out $335,000 when 16,750 players showed up to play. The eventual champion, leoelectric, skewed his ROI stats for life when he took home $50,250 for first place.

Another $2.8 million is guaranteed to be up for grabs through the rest of the MiniFTOPS schedule, which runs through September 20th and features everything from hold’em to pot limit Omaha to Razz to whatever other games you’d be the best at if only you could stop taking so many nasty bad beats.

California online poker will have to wait…

A coalition of forces looking to legalize intrastate online poker within California, led by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, has postponed its plans to push legislation on the matter until January. The Morongo tribe had been working in an unusual alliance with card rooms around the state to come up with a system that would bypass the UIGEA and explicitly allow Californians to legally put their money on the virtual felt. The main reason for withdrawing consideration of the legislation at this time appears to be a regrouping effort.

“You always try to come up with the best proposal possible,” said Patrick Dorinson, spokesman for the Morongo tribe. “As the legislative session winds down, one, we’re running out of time and two, we want to address the concerns and build as strong a coalition as possible.”

In this case the Morongo tribe hopes that strong coalition will include Senate Republicans, who in August had asked to delay the bill’s consideration until next year in order to allow for a “thoughtful, thorough, and transparent debate.” They’re also likely waiting to see what will happen late in the year with two federal bills currently under consideration that could change the post-UIGEA legal landscape.

(Morongo tribe suspends push for online poker legislation - The Press-Examiner, Morongo Band folds on Net poker - Palm Springs Desert Sun)

…but California live poker is thriving

While regulated online poker in California may still be a thing of the future, the live game is still a big draw in the Golden State. Proof positive: the Commerce Hold’em Series at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. Day 1A of the first event, a $220 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed no limit hold’em tournament, had drawn more than 1,150 players at press time today - and that was just for the first of three starting flights. Former BLUFF cover girl Christina Lindley arrived two hours before start time and noted on Twitter that Commerce was already almost at capacity; Alex Outhred showed up an hour later and was the 43rd alternate.

The entire Commerce Hold’em Series has 17 events, only five of which have buy-ins of $1,000 or more. The majority also have either a guaranteed prize pool or money added by Commerce, so the crowds are sure to be thick through the rest of the month at the world’s biggest poker room. It already looks like there’s a chance of breaking the guarantee before Day 1C begins, which would be a great start for tournament director Matt Savage and company.

Commerce Hold’em Series schedule and details here. Commerce’s Twitter feed here.

Cyprus Hill

And finally, Rep Porter holds a commanding chip lead going into the final table of the Little Tournament That Could, aka the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. At 1.79 million, he has nearly double the tally of his nearest opponent, Jonathan Little. Porter is looking to pick up the second win of his career to go alongside his WSOP bracelet from the 2008 $1,500 Shorthanded No Limit Hold’em event.

Standing in his Porter’s way will be Little, Layne “The Most Interesting Man In The World” Flack, Huck Seed, Nenad Medic, and five guys you’ve never heard of before. Kelly Kim, of the original November Nine, and three-time EPT final tablist Anthony Lellouche almost replaced two of those guys you’ve never heard of, but instead fell short in 11th and 14th places, respectively.

While the tournament rolls on, there’s some big side action going on. According to Jean-Robert Bellande’s Twitter feed, he’s the “clear favorite” in a currently running $200-$400 mixed side game against 2009 $50,000 HORSE champ David Bach, 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, and the aforementioned Mr. Lellouche. It’s hard to imagine the action isn’t good at that table if JRB is so much as joking about being the favorite.

Sunday is always a big day for online poker, but this Sunday in particular saw serious action as Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS series came to a close. Two players took home over $400,000 for their respective wins - Travis “TravestyFund” Rice in Event #22 (2-day NLHE) with $460,000, and Pocketownage420 in the Main Event with $432,400. The MiniFTOPS also wrapped up yesterday, and TesT_tickler turned a $55 Main Event buy-in into $92,868.25 by outlasting an incredible field of 11,983 runners.

Here’s the rundown of all the major Sunday tournament action.

Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Event #22 ($2,500 + $120 No Limit Hold’em 2-day event)
Entrants: 795
Prize Pool: $2,000,000 ($12,500 overlay)

1. Travis “TravestyFund” Rice - $460,000
2. Claws of Gix - $290,000
3. BickleAce - $215,000
4. GnightMoon - $165,000
5. CiegoBoY - $125,000
6. marlin5555 - $90,000
7. pzyclone - $60,000
8. HaiducF - $46,800
9. phat_cat1 - $34,000

Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Event #24 ($120 + $9 No Limit Hold’em with bounties)
Entrants: 8,280
Prize Pool: $1,000,000 ($6,400 overlay)

1. AAAPOKRDONKY - $159,900
2. Chances Cards - $100,000
3. vedder1980 - $60,000
4. Jedi AllStar - $45,000
5. I__MCMK__I - $35,000
6. GinsasH - $27,000
7. Asiandude7 - $20,000
8. IDOLLS -  $15,000
9. theVisionay - $11,000

Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event ($500 + $35 No Limit Hold’em)
Entrants: 4,581
Prize Pool: $2,500,000 ($209,500 overlay)

1. Pocketownage420 - $432,400
2. azzabentonaces - $262,500
3. iDubDeuce - $170,000
4. Hartwith - $132,500
5. nickeltwenty - $100,000
6. -NinG- - $75,000
7. RonFezBuddy - $57,500
8. baDONKaD0NK88 - $43,750
9. oiltrader - $32,500

Full Tilt Poker MiniFTOPS Main Event ($50+5 No Limit Hold’em)
Entrants: 11,983
Prize Pool: $599,150

1. TesT_tickler - $92,868.25
2. pheal - $62,910.75
3. zilbee - $44,337.10
4. cotrugli - $31,874.78
5. Mattdb9er - $23,366.85
6. Dyzalot - $16,776.20
7. Handsome_Liar - $11,983
8. TheRounder09 - $8,567.85
9. bunny2003 - $6,057.41

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan ($200 + $16)
Entrants: 1,181
Prize Pool: $236,200

1. StoneTemplPilot - $53,145
2. SickGambl00r - $33,658.50
3. bkvt17 - $24,919.10
4. hattrick8810 - $19,486.50
5. DownTheStreetD - $14,762.50
6. FatsoFat6969 - $10,629
7. The_Dean221 - $7,086
8. Grippolio - $5,314.50
9. Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - $3,779.20

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($200 + $15)
Entrants: 3,702
Prize Pool: $750,000 ($9,600 overlay)

1. 28h@andsl@ater - $78,090
2. Pearldam - $83,335
3. INW85 - $89,681
4. daskalos20 - $59,392
5. SgtSaLT - $31,875
6. Freshern - $24,375
7. schakal - $16,875
8. Torowe - $9,375
9. mkind0516 - $6,000

PokerStars Sunday Million ($200 + $15)
Entrants: 7,752
Prize Pool: $1,514,400

1. Hanamichi23 - $212,152
2. paulsl - $182,152
3. weeminer - $121,152.01
4. OllowainTim - $80,263.21
5. FiveStand - $62,090.41
6. EaseYourPain - $46,946.41
7. RasA86 - $32,559.61
8. JIZOINT - $18,172.81
9. APowers1968 - $11,736.61

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance ($200 + $15)
Entrants: 1,359
Prize Pool: $271,800

1. MakemefoldAA - $49,358.88
2. Norm427 - $35,877.60
3. ImustBonTILT - $27,180
4. Pechorin - $20,385
5. Bparis - $14,269.50
6. MACDRE09 - $11,551.50
7. woodee9 - $8,833.50
8. annuitant - $6,115.50
9. kesher79 - $3,805.20

The twelfth installment of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series kicks off May 6th with $18 million in guaranteed prize pools over 25 events and a new twist for lower stakes players, MiniFTOPS.

The schedule includes the normal FTOPS standards; six tournaments with a guarantee of at least $1 million, a $2,500 + $120 buy-in two-day event with a $2 million guarantee and a $500 + $35 buy-in Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of $2.5 million. If those buy-ins are a little out of your current bankroll you need not worry, Full Tilt has taken care of you as well.

MiniFTOPS will have 25 events that mirror the FTOPS schedule but the buy-in will be 10% of the FTOPS event. This includes the two-day event and the Main Event which have guaranteed prize pools of $200,000 and $500,000 respectively. The MiniFTOPS Main Event guarantee is actually double that of the regular FTOPS Main Event offering lower stakes players an ever better value.

Another new twist for players with FTOPS XII is the inclusion of FTOPS Challenges. Players will be rewarded with special prizes for completeing certain tasks while playing in any of the events. One such task is the Zero to Hero Challenge which will award prizes for players who are able to turn $1 into an FTOPS buy-in and subsequent in-the-money finish in that event.

Buy-ins for the FTOPS event range from $100 + $9 for the rebuy events to the $2,500 + $120 for the two-day event. Players can buy-in directly or use their FTP points or cash to buy in to any satellite events that are running now. For more information or to sign-up with Full Tilt Poker click here.