Ivey Takes LA Poker Classic Championship --  Phil Ivey has been a mainstay in World Poker Tour events but had never claimed a title for himself, until he turned the trick in the championship event of the LA Poker Classic, the richest event on the WPT schedule.  Ivey ran the board on the event’s final two days and dominated a powerful table to claim the event’s $1,596,100 first prize.  Other big names in the six-player final included runner-up Quinn Do ($909,400), fourth place Nam Le ($411,770) and Phil Hellmuth, who won $229,820 for finishing sixth.

Third Time's The Charm for Jesus --  Chris "Jesus" Ferguson finally won the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in his third trip to the final table… which isn’t bad when one considers that the event’s only been running for four years.  Ferguson knocked off Andy Bloch 2-1 in a best-of-three final that saw Ferguson triumph with an overpair when Bloch’s draw to a flush or a second pair went unfilled.  Ferguson picked up $500,000 for the victory, Bloch won $250,000.

But the story of the early rounds was the three-match winning streak of former LA Dodgers pitching great Orel Hershiser.  Hershiser knocked off former Heads-Up champ Ted Forrest and WSOP bracelet winners Allen Cunningham and Freddy Deeb to reach the final eight, where he was dispatched by Bloch.

Mrs. Nguyen Wins At WPT Invitational --  The first-ever female winner of an open World Poker Tour event wasn’t anyone you might expect.  The honor went to Van Nguyen, wife of Men Nguyen, who took down the WPT Invitational event that closed out action at the L.A. Poker Classic.  Mrs. Nguyen won $100,000 and a $25,000 seat into the upcoming WPT championships.  But don’t feel too bad for hubby Men, who won three of the preliminary LAPC events.  Van overcame a final table that included Poker Hall of Fame member Billy Baxter, who went on to finish third.

Ben Hock Takes WSOP Circuit, Council Bluffs --  The recent flurry of WSOP Circuit events included a stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, that had to be a bit of a letdown to Circuit organizers.  With several major events happening elsewhere, only 99 players travelled to Iowa’s western edge to vie for the newest Circuit ring.  Famous faces were in scarce supply as well, although one recognizable name, former WSOP Main Event final tablist Bernard Lee, made it deep into the final before finishing fourth.  The winner was Ben Hock, who dispatched Day Two leader Michael Martin to claim the event’s $169,327 winner’s payday.

UK “Super Casino” Plans Dashed --  Plans for Vegas-style “super casinos” in Manchester and Blackpool were officially scrapped this past week, months after they’d fallen into disfavor with the Gordon Brown-headed Labour Party government.  Instead, UK punters will have to deal with much smaller casinos spread across 16 British cities, each of which will likely have little or no room for poker.  The reworked plans drew the ire of other UK politicians and foreign investors such as Las Vegas Sands, which had hoped to build one of the major casinos as originally planned.