Horse

ESPN showed the 2008 WSOP $50K H.O.R.S.E. event for the first time yesterday. If you haven't seen it, there is a lot of controversy about the conduct of several of the players at this prestigious final table; most notable the talk is about eventual champion Scotty Nguyen. Here are just a few points to be considered when watching the event on television or pondering the state of poker as viewed through the lens of this tournament.

Most of the conversation centers around whether Scotty Nguyen was drunk, abusive and/or an ambassador for poker and a role model for the kids. Quite frankly, it is the opinion of this writer that anyone who pays $50,000 to enter a poker tournament can act any way they want. But beyond that there are some real issues:

ESPN gets to present the "facts" of any final table in any way their editing capabilities allow. This final table lasted nearly 15 hours and ended at 5 A.M. ESPN chose to focus on the bad behavior of several players at the final table. Their choice, they paid for the television rights.

PokerNews.com, who have the exclusive rights to get in close and report all of the WSOP final tables, made a decision to not report any of the player interaction in their live internet reporting. Again, a decision based on access.

Was Scotty drunk? I don't know, I couldn't get close enough to get a blood sample.

Does Scotty use his "alleged" drinking to verbally abuse players and put them on tilt? Duh! Yes and if Michael DeMichelle did not know that before the final table, he was simply unprepared to play at this level.

Did DeMichelle get out of line with this celebration after winning some early hands? Yes, but nearly everyone blamed that on his youth. Seems the poker world has agreed that "kids" get to be jerks until they are 25.

Did Scotty use Demichelle's behavior to try and tilt him? Again, yes; this is poker folks, if you can get an edge you do it.

Was Erick Lindgren the hero for his good behavior when they got down to the nasty stuff with three players remaining? No, that was his way of taking advantage of the situation. Any edge, any time; again its poker.

Should the WSOP staff have done something to modify Scotty's behavior? Look what happened a few weeks later when they tried to reign in Phil Hellmuth, the penalty was overruled by higher ups. The floor staff know which players get a 'bye' when it comes to rule enforcement.

It is clear that this was good television. Good for poker? Who knows? But it was good TV and afterall, despite all of the lip service to etiquette and good manners; eyeballs on the tube are what poker needs these days.

Day One of the $50,000 Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud Eight or better tournament is in the books. Event #45 of the 2008 World Series of Poker is the fifty thousand dollar World Championship H.O.R.S.E. tournament, which is perhaps even more anticipated than the main event starting next week. The 50K HORSE is a very unique event at the World Series of Poker, here are some random observations from Day One of this truly unusual tournament.

For poker fans on site and the media, today is the best day of the World Series of Poker. I wonder about the thoughts behind today's schedule as far as player comfort but the who cares today will be fun.

At noon there is the second of the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/ rebuys event. As you probably know the professionals play these rebuy events very differently than the amateurs. The pros will show up with the cash for 20 or more rebuys and they play the early rounds to get money out on the table. Building a big stack can only be accomplished at an "action table", so the pros create action. In the early rebuy rounds you will see two things over and over: first, there will be lots of all-ins pre-flop and even more players pushing on the flop; second, you will see a lot of shell-shocked amateurs with one or two rebuys in their pocket being run down by the pros ready to indiscriminately gamble it up.

This is a fun two hours of rebuy poker madness, well maybe not so much fun for those spendthrift rookies with only a single rebuy. And today's event will be even more wild since about 150 or so of the top players will be throwing even more chips around because if they can't build a monster stack than they would rather bust out early because they have another appointment later this afternoon.

Future winners of the $50,000 buy-in event at the World Series of Poker – currently the HORSE World Championship – will receive a trophy named after the late David “Chip” Reese, according to Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

“A true gentleman and the youngest person admitted to the Poker Hall of Fame, Chip Reese was recognized by his peers as the most successful player in the biggest mixed cash games of all time.”

Pollack went on to say:

“He was also a great tournament player with three WSOP bracelets, including one for his historic victory in the inaugural $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament in 2006. As a tribute to this great player who embodied the very best of our game, next year’s $50,000 HORSE World Championship will be played in Chip’s honor and memory and the winner will receive the ‘David “Chip” Reese Award,’ as well as a WSOP bracelet, to commemorate their achievement.”

.
Suggestions for this tribute popped on on several poker forums last week and the WSOP staff jumped of those ideas to make an excellent and timely decision.

You sometimes hear me refer to the "poker media" by which I mean the rag-tag group of writer, photographers, bloggers and "others" who make some kind of subsistence living reporting the world of poker to you. I know to some of you this life sounds glamorous, trust me it isn't. But over time you do tend to become friends with some of the players and you do tend to dislike others. Poker professionals are just like the rest of us and at times they get tired of all the same olde questions and having their picture taken 155 times a day.

Everyone once in awhile, all the big names play each other and basically they all know, like and dislike each other. But once a year, they all get to sit in one small tournament (by small I mean the number of entrants) and that event is going on right now at the World Series of Poker; its the $50,000 HORSE Championship.

Now anyone who covers the poker circuit can get fairly jaded about being around poker superstars, especially at 2 AM on another late night Day One but yesterday I was just sitting at an empty table next to the HORSE event and I look over at the nearest table to see these players:

Greg Raymer
Carlos Mortensen
Eli Elezra
Phil Hellmuth
Erik Seidel
Chad Brown
Cyndy Violette
Chip Reese

Now that is a poker table.

Just for kicks, here is the edited list of the starters in this event. On average there were at least four of these players at any one starting table on Sunday, by today there will be six or seven of them at each table of eight: