Having by some accounts almost reached the end of the road with appeals to successively higher courts (the Kentucky Supreme Court is due to issue what could be a final ruling on the jurisdictional and gambling device questions raised by iMEGA and the IGC), it would seem that the state’s legal team is trying another throw of the dice by lodging a claim against Pocket Kings for monies “lost between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009 by persons located within the borders of Kentucky.

Pocket Kings, the filings made in the Franklin Circuit Court in the name of Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown explain, is the owner and operator of Full Tilt Poker.com, one of the domains in contention.

The 14-page filing invokes Kentucky statute 454.210 and calls for Pocket Kings to refund the state of Kentucky the amount of money lost between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009 by persons located within the borders of Kentucky, together with the no doubt substantial legal costs of the action.

Making sure it has all the bases covered, the Kentucky legal team also claims unknown individuals and entities have acted in concert in joint ventures to facilitate, host, operate, and profit from online gambling businesses, going on to name Absolute Poker, UltimateBet.com, Bugsys Club, Cake Poker, Crazy Poker, DoylesRoom, Golden Palace, Microgaming, MySportsbook, Pitbull Poker, PlayersOnly, PokerHost, PokerStars, PokerTime, Red Star Poker, Reefer Poker, Sportsbook.com, True Poker, and WSEX.

There are several identification errors in the list, along with the intriguing fact that several online poker operations that openly accept US players appear to have escaped the legal researchers’ eyes.

The filing claims that Full Tilt Poker facilitated and solicited poker play from Kentucky residents, profiting thereby and had its software installed on computers within Kentucky.

The Full Tilt Defendants have done, or have caused to be done, tortuous acts in the Commonwealth for which the Commonwealth has a substantial and compelling interest in exercising personal jurisdiction, the complaint continues, using an oral claim made by the IGC before an earlier court of appeals hearing that 13 000 Kentucky residents play online poker.

In related news, a company spokesman for Full Tilt Poker said that weekend reports in the Financial Tmes regarding an alleged Manhattan Grand Jury investigation of the company were news to its management.

“We are not aware of any grand jury investigation of Tiltware or any related individual or entity, and the company’s position is that it has done nothing wrong. We are not going to comment about a speculative grand jury investigation that we are not aware of and we have no idea what, if anything, they are investigating.”

Joseph Cada, a 21-year-old professional poker player from Michigan, is set to face Darvin Moon, a self-employed logger who, until this year’s WSOP, had never been on an airplane or gambled for high stakes.

The final nine began proceedings on Saturday and the UK’s James Akenhead was the first to bust out after his threes lost all in versus the nines of Kevin Schaffel. The PokerStars.com qualifier took home $1.2 million for his ninth-place finish while fellow online qualifier Schaffel was eliminated a few hands later by Eric Buchman to walk away with $1.3 million.

Professional poker player Phil Ivey was the next to go after pushing all-in against 46-year-old Moon. Although Ivey’s ace/king combination dominated the ace/queen of his opponent, Moon caught one of three remaining queens on the flop to move ahead. With the turn and river helping neither player, Ivey went home in seventh with $1.4 million.

New York investment banker Steven Begleiter was soon eliminated in sixth for $1.5 million after Moon caught a river ace to beat his queens while the Editor of CardPlayer magazine, Jeff Shulman, was the next to leave the table after going all in with pocket sevens against Antoine Saout. Shulman retired with $1.9 million after Frenchman Saout hit one of his over-cards as a nine came on the flop.

New York native Eric Buchman finished in fourth spot to take away a prize of $2.5 million after going down to Moon on Saturday evening while dawn broke with Cada’s ace/king beating Saout’s pocket eights with a river king. Saout entered the WSOP through a $50 online satellite and now has a $3.5 million return on his investment.

Moon and Cada are set to resume play tonight from ten o’clock Los Angeles time at the Penn And Teller Theater of the Rio All-Suite Hotel And Casino with the younger competitor holding a two-to-one chip advantage. Moon has just under $59 million in chips while Cada sits atop a $135,950,000 stack. If Cada were to win, he would become the youngest WSOP main event champion in history while the runner-up will walk away with a consolation prize of $5.2 million.

Track owners detailed their concerns Monday in a meeting with officials of the Ohio Lottery, which will regulate the slots. Track owners lobbied for about two dozen changes in slot machine rules that have been approved by the Lottery Commission.

The state plans to authorize 2,500 video lottery terminals at each of seven racetracks to raise $933 million over two years to shore up a budget deficit.

Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration expects the track owners to be ready with initial slot machine application fees Sept. 15.

“It was a game of Russian roulette I was playing and I didn’t realize that,” Moxley said in Baltimore District Court after a prosecutor had spelled out the details of a four-car accident July 24 in West Baltimore that was caused by Moxley, who told police he had been out drinking sangria with friends. A woman was injured. It was his second driving under the influence charge in four years.

“You’re not going to go to jail,” Judge H. Gary Bass said to the 50-year-old councilman. But Bass placed Moxley on two years’ probation and ordered him to serve 85 hours of community service, to operate his car with a so-called ignition interlock device for 18 months, and to continue seeing a psychologist and attending an alcohol-treatment program.

Moxley was not fined, the judge said, because he was already incurring significant costs as part of his treatment and rehabilitation.

Moxley had initially been charged with four counts — three for driving under the influence and the fourth for failing to reduce his speed to avoid a collision. In an arrangement with prosecutor John Mitchell, Moxley was able to plead not guilty to a single charge of driving while impaired. Bass found him guilty of that lesser offense.

Moxley, a four-term councilman who represents the district that includes Catonsville and Arbutus, said after his arrest that he had no intention of resigning, but did not return phone calls from The Baltimore Sun or speak publicly about the incident.

After Wednesday’s hearing, Moxley expressed regret for the accident and for the “embarrassment” it brought to his wife and daughter, both of whom were in court. He also said he was sorry for the effect it might have had on the other three drivers in the accident, who were also in court.

“I’ve got a problem,” he told reporters. “I am powerless over alcohol.”

Cast of Characters: Both hours of coverage featured Raymer and Alexander on the main TV table while 2009 Pot-Limit Omaha-8-or-Better bracelet winner Roland de Wolfe and 2000 Main Event champion Chris Ferguson held down the secondary featured table. Todd Brunson, Alex Kravchenko, and Berry Johnston all found themselves contending with Brad Garrett at different parts of Day 2A, while Johnny Chan, Lex Veldhuis, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Dewey Tomko, Eli Elezra, Pro Boxer Kili Madrid, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Joe Sebok, Barry Greenstein, Vitaly Lunkin, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Tom Schneider, Pam Brunson, Erik Seidel, Gavin Smith and Jonas “nebuchad” Danielsson all earned some face time.

Norman Chad’s New Schtick: “Roland de Wolfe hangin’ on, like K-Fed did to Britney.”

Interesting Tidbits: Twenty former Main Event Champions played in the 2009 edition of the “Big Dance.” Fourteen survived Day 1 and seven continued their quest on Day 2A.

Blink and You’ll Miss It: PokerNews Tournament Reporting Manager Garry Gates and blogger Don Peters donning sunglasses behind Dewey Tomko’s table.

“The Nuts”: In this week’s segment, Norman Chad went up against Tomko on the golf course in a putting contest. Although Chad had a shot to win it, his final shot bounced off the rim of the hole, giving the match to Tomko.

A Moment He’ll Never Live Down: World Series newbie Dennis Baltz lays down pocket kings preflop after Raymer four-bets him with jacks.

New Poker Terminology: Pocket fours have a new nickname, the “Obama,” for the poker-playing 44th President of the United States.

Week 3 Fashion Highlight: Roland de Wolfe’s (apparently lucky) Viking hat.

MVP — Greg Raymer: He suffered one bad beat and hit a few lucky draws but more than anything showed why he deserves to be called one of the world’s best No-Limit Hold’em tournament players. In every hand he played on Day 2, Raymer seemed to either extract maximum value or lose the minimum on his way to nearly tripling his Day-1 stack.

Hand of the Week — Raymer turns a bigger boat: Alabama musician Mark Terry limped in for 400 with the , Albert MinnJoullin limped behind him with the[ 6h], Jonathan Lewis completed the small blind with and Greg Raymer checked his option in the big blind with . Lewis hit trip eights when the flop came down[ Jd][ 8c][ 8d] and led out for 1,500. Raymer called, Terry called and Minnullin folded. Everything changed on the turn, however, when the hit, Raymer making jacks full to Lewis’ eights full. Lewis checked to Raymer, Raymer checked to Terry, and Terry checked as well, taking us to the river card. It was the , a disaster in disguise for Terry, as it made him a king-high flush that was the third-best hand. Lewis bet 3,500 and Raymer raised to 12,000, leaving Terry to a decision for all his chips. He made the call, putting the action back on Lewis who made a deft lay-down. Raymer took down the pot, eliminating Terry.

Notable Bustouts: Jennifer Tilly, Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Phil Laak, Lex Veldhuis, 96-year old Jack Ury, Mike Matusow, Kili Madrid, Gavin Smith, Brad Garrett, Eli Elezra, and Amarillo Slim.