The PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Los Angelesstop is no more. Instead, the series, which is ongoing from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, is being dubbed the Big Event and will hold its $5,000 buy-in Main Event starting on March 5th as planned. However, it will lack an NAPT endorsement. The news comes just a few days before the start of the Main Event, which several members of the online poker community qualified for.

In a post on the NAPT’s official website, a PokerStars representative explained, “The NAPT and the Bicycle Casino reached the voluntary decision to hold the event without branding after constructive discussions with California gaming regulators.” According to a post on TwoPlusTwo, the Main Event will go on as planned, but lose its coverage on ESPN.

The Bounty Shootout will now occur from March 10th to 12th and still be filmed for airing on ESPN. Those interested in catching the Main Event can do so via webcast on Live at the Bike.

On how the news will affect online qualifiers, the same post explained, “We will allow online qualifiers the option to defer their buy-in to a future NAPT event, but we will not defer the hotel portions for full-package qualifiers.” The next NAPT event is scheduled for April 9th to 13th at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

All activities planned around NAPT L.A. will go forth and PokerStars will send representatives to the California casino to help out players. Last year, the NAPT L.A. Main Event final table was moved from the Bike to the Crystal Casino in Compton.

Part of the rift between the Bike and PokerStars may stem from last July’s hearing in the House Financial Services Committee. In it, Tom Malkasian (pictured), Vice Chairman of the Board of the neighboring Commerce Casino, spoke on behalf of “fellow Los Angeles poker clubs” against Congressman Barney Frank‘s (D-MA) HR 2267.

Malkasian explained that the bill would not produce the revenue numbers its sponsors touted and called out “major flaws to the state opt-out provisions.” Malkasian questioned how the industry would be regulated by the Treasury Department and added that sites already servicing the U.S. market “should be deemed ineligible to ever be licensed.”

Amendments to HR 2267 addressed many of the casino executive’s concerns and the Poker Players Allianceresponded by setting up PlayersBeforeProfits.com, an online petition that garnered well over 10,000 responses. The petition asserted in part, “Poker players hate hypocrisy. So, we are particularly dismayed that while your testimony before the House Financial Services Committee criticized Federal legislation and regulation of online poker, the Commerce Casino is actively promoting legislation to create a segregated, California-only online poker network.”

Talk of a boycott of the Commerce Casino followed, but did not materialize. The gaming establishment is in the midst of hosting the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event, a stop on the World Poker Tour.

Last November, Joe Tehan took down the NAPT L.A. Main Event and collected $725,000. The tournament drew just over 700 players and distributed a prize pool of $3.2 million. UB.compro Eric basebaldy Baldwin (pictured) won the stop’s Bounty Shootout and banked $134,000. Both tournaments aired on ESPN2.

Among those weighing in on the last-minute withdrawal was longtime PocketFives.com member Casey bigdogpckt5sJarzabek, who posted on Twitter, “Wow, Stars bails on hosting NAPT L.A. 3 days before the tourney. Pretty withered.” Greg gses75 Sessler added that his travel plans had changed as a result: “Stars and ESPN pulled out of NAPT L.A.? Guess I’m not going back there and I am staying home for the next 2 weeks.”

PokerStars also appears to be in hot water with Nevada gaming officials, as no follow-up to last year’s wildly successful NAPT Venetian event has been scheduled. Visit PokerStars for more details.