The main event of the California State Poker Championship began yesterday at the Los Angeles Commerce Casino, with 175 players coughing up $3,085 each, to compete for a top prize worth $162,970.

Among the players who chose to compete in LA’s last big event before the World Series of Poker were such well known established pros as Matt “All in at 420” Stout, Amit “Amak” Makhija, Mark Seif, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, “Miami” John Cernuto, Sam Stein and PokerRoad’s “rappin’” Jeff Madsen.

Madsen, despite his impressive start in 2010 thus far, was unable to summon the magic during this particular event and busted before the end of the night’s play, however some of the other big names in the field did manage to hang on, and are still among the living with only 28 players left in the field.  Some of those live players include Jonathan Aguiar, “Miami” John and Gavin Griffin, currently in second place behind William Eister with over 130,000 in tournament chips.

Day 2 of the California State Poker Championship, where the final 28 players will play down to the 18 person money bubble- and beyond- begins Saturday at 2 p.m. PDT.  For more information on this event visit the Commerce Casino website.