 One of our favorite statistics to follow at final tables is the comparison of how starting chip stacks compare to final finishing position. Here are the starting chip stacks for the November Nine. We will update the finishing positions as they occur.
#1 Dennis Phillips 26,295,000 3rd on hand #169
#2 Ivan Demidov 24,400,000 playing 2nd hand #274
#3 Scott Montgomery 19,690,000 5th on hand #119
#4 Peter Eastgate 18,375,000 playing Champion
#5 Ylon Schwartz 12,525,000 4th on hand #155
#6 Darus Suharto 12,520,000 6th Place on hand #105
#7 David Rheem 10,230,000 7th Place on hand #76
#8 Craig Marquis 10,210,000 9th Place on hand #52
#9 Kelly Kim 2,620,000 8th Place on hand #53
For several years I have dabbled with an analysis of how chip stacks going in measure up against finishing position coming out at a final table. I did an analysis of the 2006 WSOP Main Event Final Table, which I will share with you later. Over the next several weeks, leading up to the 2007 WSOP Main Event on July 17th, I am going to look at how this comparison has played out during the entire 2007 World Series of Poker.
Today, let's begin by just looking at the basic concept as it applies to Event #1 at this year's Series. Going into the nine-handed final table, this is how the players stacked up.
Just take a look at those nine chipstacks and ask yourself: If I was going to make a wager, any wager, on what position these players would finish-what would be the best bet?
Event #1 $5,000 Mixed Hold’em
Final Table Starting Stacks:
Fred Berger - 942,000
Steve Paul-Ambrose - 771,000
Greg 'FBT' Mueller - 683,000
Steve Billirakis - 562,000
Tony George - 546,000
Kirk Morrison - 512,000
Roger McDow - 320,000
John Younger - 94,000
Jon Turner - 88,000
You may have noticed that I find the procedures and practices of running big field tournaments to be, well, out-dated. The size of the events these days has put more and more pressure on floor staff to create new systems to handle the overflow crowds. But why should the frontline staff be the only ones thinking about the game and why aren't the resources of the big corporate casinos being brought to bear on the new realities of poker?
Here is another example of lax security with tournament chips. Remember tournament chips represent "our money" not the casino or house money.
Perhaps the biggest security lapse at the WSOP this year took place in the early morning hours after Day 1B had ended. As was the practice at the end of each day’s play, after each table of ten players had bagged their chips and filled out the forms for the next day’s play, each table had all of the bags collected and placed in another larger “five table” bag (think Hefty), which was labeled with the table numbers of all five tables. Finally, the floor staff collected all of those black bags and moved them to the tournament cage for lock down. In the wee morning hours of Day 1B, one lonely garbage bag with 50 player’s chips was left unattended out in the tournament area until it was stumbled upon, fortunately by an off-duty tournament official.
Just a minor security oversight? No big deal? What if I tell you that the same, exact scenario happened the very next night?
If you have read the three articles Amy and I wrote about the extra chips in the WSOP Main Event, you know that a lot of people thought those chips came from players cheating. And while we pretty much dismissed those speculations in our articles, I must admit that I at first thought that was exactly what had happened. Below is a blog I wrote during the last few hours of the Final Table back on August 10th.
I didn't post it then because it just felt wrong. I could not convince myself that any player or any team of players working together could actually get over 2 million extra chips onto the tables of the Main Event. But I thought about it and I thought about it and I just tucked the thoughts away.... So today let me share with you some of my late night ponderings from a month ago.
LAS VEGAS. AUGUST 10, 2006.
I am going to tell you straight up front that the WSOP officials and staff will never answer this question. In my opinion, this single issue undermines the entire validity of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Since Amy & I broke the story yesterday on the extra Two Million Chips in the WSOP Main Event, a lot of talk has erupted all over the net. One interesting theory is that chips from 2005 WSOP were slipped into the 2006 WSOP. Well this may have happened in the early rounds but we know that last year so many high denomination chips went missing from the Series (staff souvenirs) that all new chips were made for this year's event in the higher denominations. New chips, new colors, no match to the 2005 chips.
All of the $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 and the "mint green and chocolate" $100,000 chips were all new for 2006.
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