Wsop

I’ve mentioned it before but it definitely bears repeating, and that’s the fact that when it comes to instructional poker, there’s really nothing that can stand up against learning from the pros in person, such as at a poker clinic. Words from a book can be misinterpreted and most poker DVD’s focus on the basic fundamentals of poker, leaving more experienced players unsatisfied. And when it comes to cash games, the list of good non-clinic methods of learning drops to almost non-existent levels. Worry not however, as the WSOP has just recently announced a new series of cash game based academies for 2009 designed to help those that don’t put 100% of their time and effort into tournament play.

The Cash Game Academies will include live-play workshops, seminars, hands-on instruction, and will end with cash game competition. Topics taught at the event will cover different aspects of the game such as making the transition from tournament play to cash games, bankroll management, and ID’ing opponent hand ranges. Students will even be treated to video analyses of cash games, with instructors breaking down hands at each stage and discussing different strategies.

The first WSOP Cash Game Academy will be held at Harrah’s in Atlantic City from January 24th-25th, with a stop at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas just two weeks later on February 7th-8th. Professional poker players Mark Seif, Paul Wasicka and Alex Outhred are among those scheduled to teach at the Atlantic City event, with Seif and Outhred meeting up with Michael Gracz two weeks later to instruct students at the 2nd stop at Caesars Palace.

Entry fee, as is the case with many high-end poker schools, is fairly expensive for the casual player, with each event carrying a price tag of $1,899. Still, for those who make their living at the tables, the benefits of such a course could in return bring a substantial gain in money made during further sessions.

I wouldn’t recommend such an intense course for a hobbyist poker player, but those that view poker as more of a lifestyle and profit center should strongly consider sitting down at a WSOP Cash Game Academy. You can find more info at www.wsopacademy.com

I recently posted an entry explaining my dislike of many of the aspects of the new method of showcasing the WSOP Final Table that ESPN undertook this year. Well, apparently I’m not alone, as a number of pokers best and brightest have voiced their criticisms of the program as well.

In an interview with Card Player TV, Mike Matusow explained, “If I was a fan, it’d be a big letdown. As far as that, I think it was a failure. As far as Harrah’s and ESPN, I think it was a major success.”

He’s right on the success part when it comes to ESPN. The final table program garnered 46% more viewers than in 2007, despite the fact that fans had to wait four months after the rest of the Main Event had ended in order to watch it. But for purists, it’s the content that matters, not the hype, and the fact that the final table, which ran for 17 hours total (the longest in WSOP history), was edited down into a two hour elimination montage, continues to be severely disappointing.

“They just never showed any hands,” said Matusow. “They just showed everyone’s bust-out hand.”

Over 274 hands were played at the final table, 23 of them made it to air. With just nine players at the table, that means that almost half of the hands shown were the ones that knocked players out of the tournament. And in an almost criminal fashion, only two hands total were shown during the final heads-up action, when in fact over 105 were played between winner Peter Eastgate and runner-up Ivan Demidov.

Chris Ferguson has come out and said, “The one glaring omission was that the heads up lasted two hands on television. It really didn’t show the entire battle between these two great players.”

The Mouth, as usual, also had an opinion on the lack of heads-up footage, saying, “It’s a shame the rest of the American public didn’t get to see that. It would’ve been so sick to watch.”

With the next WSOP still over half a year away, we’ll have to wait and see if Harrah’s and ESPN decide to stick with their new formula. Hopefully, they heed the advice of the pros and make some important and needed changes.

With all my hobbies, I have become an avid collector of memorabilia and one of a kind items, poker included. Unique poker items though can be hard to come by, but thanks to Harrah’s, it looks like myself and other poker player across the globe will get the opportunity to grab some great World Series of Poker (WSOP) items.

Over 30 items are being placed into eBay auctions, with the crème a la crème being a very special poker table, complete with LED and blue-glass lighting, which was used to host the final table for both the 2007 and 2008 WSOP Main Events. The table was manufactured by Diamond Tables of Las Vegas. The starting bid for the table is $25,000, and also includes free shipping to anywhere in the continental U.S.

For those with smaller wallets, you can find relatively inexpensive items such as decks of cards used at the final table for as little as $50 (the price the card auctions started at), and even the dealer button used in the televised event. The winner of the dealer button will also receive a special certificate of authenticity signed by WSOP Commissioner Jeffery Pollack.

Whether you’re looking for the exclusive Milwaukee’s Best Light neon poker sign that hung above the WSOP poker set or one of a dozen “main table” felts, there should be an item to grab everyone’s attention.

Better hurry though, as many auctions end within’ a day. Happy hunting!

By now you’ve probably at the very least seen some highlights from last Tuesdays ESPN WSOP Final Table event. I was able to watch the whole thing from beginning to end in my cabin aboard the Norwegian Star during my WPT poker cruise that I was on all last week. From the opening moments to the end credits it was obvious that ESPN was trying to go for something very different here and take a chance at doing the impossible, making poker a spectator sport.

Personally, I didn’t really get a good vibe from the whole production. Having an auditorium full of screaming fans didn’t exactly seem appropriate when you realize that the only action any of these spectators are going to see (since they can’t see the player’s hole cards) are the poker players pushing in chips or folding their hand. Not very exciting in its own right, in fact it’s down right boring. Poker in its nature is a very laid back activity, played for the most part in silent card rooms with few distractions. It’s not quite as mentally taxing as say chess, but there are numerous comparisons between the two that you can draw, and try to imagine a chess match that was televised with the same amount of over-the-top voice over and hype that the WSOP Final Table was. It just doesn’t make for a good fit.

Part of the reason I don’t believe this idea will ever be used again is because the players themselves were almost painfully boring. Despite the WSOP’s best intentions, these guys were not the all-stars that we were made to believe they would become in the months leading up to the final table event, and much like any other pro sporting event, without having someone to root for, and without having a great personality to watch (like a Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negraneau), it was hard to stay emotionally invested with the show.

You can’t blame the poker players either, they were placed in a impossible, emotionally charged situation that was light-years different from any previous final table experience they may have had, and many of the “November 9” were too busy sweating bullets and worried about looking dumb on TV instead of providing compelling table talk or showing any kind of emotion at all that was worth watching.

For me, the final nail in the coffin was when Peter Eastgate finally eliminated Ivan Demidov in heads up play. The 22yr Eastgate had just won $9 million in cash, became the youngest player to ever win the WSOP Main Event, and he didn’t even crack a smile. Imagine watching the Super Bowl and when the winning team’s kicker makes a last minute field goal to secure the victory, he just walks off the field without celebrating. It would quickly ruin millions of viewer’s experience of the event, and Peter Eastgate’s zombie-like expression served as a cherry on top of why poker just shouldn’t be treated like a UFC type sporting event.

We have yet to find out just how many viewers tuned in to watch the final table, but regardless of the numbers I highly doubt that the production which was months in the making lived up in ESPN’s eyes to all the hype and time and money they spent trying to turn poker into something it isn’t. Here’s hoping that for 2009 we can look forward to the return of classic poker television.

Buy the dip and get your home game buddies ready, the World Series of Poker finale is coming up!

Final-table play starts this Sunday, November 9th and will finish up on Monday. For the first time ever though, the coverage of the final table will air on ESPN just one day after the last hand is dealt and a champion is crowned. This is a welcome change from previous years where viewers, most of whom already had learned online who had won the Main Event, had to wait a full month before viewing the coverage. It never really made any sense to me. Would you still watch the Super Bowl if you knew four weeks ago who had won?

If you haven’t been following the WSOP this year, the Main Event began in July with a field of 6,884 players. Play continued until nine players were left, and they were quickly dubbed the “November Nine”, the ones who would return to the Rio hotel in Vegas this weekend to play for the $9 million dollar first place prize.

Producers for the telecast expect to have about 16 hours worth of footage to comb through once the event is over, and they will have just one day to transform that into a cohesive two-hour package for the viewing audience on Tuesday. Play will begin on noon Sunday and will continue until the final two competitors remain. Then on Monday at midnight, the two finalists will return to play heads-up until just one of them is left. Hard to imagine that if heads-up play runs long, the production crew will have just a handful of hours to edit and finalize the package. But, I agree it’s a needed step in the right direction of poker broadcasting.

Personally I can’t wait to prop up my feet in the poker room aboard the Norwegian Star cruise liner and view a piece of poker history. Check your local listings and don’t forget to tune in to ESPN on Tuesday!

When we talk about the poker economy, the first question should be, which one? At the top are the big tours (WPT, EPT, WSOP etc.) but the wider poker economy is the 2/4 or 4/8 cash game at your local casino and then there is the middle or tourist economy in Las Vegas, Hong Kong and London.

At the top, there are signs of weakness but with a fairly easy explanation. The top pros are not playing fewer tournaments but the second tier professionals are not as likely to be traveling from Europe for WPT events or from the U.S. to EPT events. In addition, the "local pros" who actually have other employment are certainly going to be concentrating on holding down the real job and playing less big poker tournaments. You can see this by scanning the registration lists of any big event and comparing it to last year.

At the bottom, this is a real mixed bag story. While the number of local players who have cut back playing is up; there is also the factor of players who have decided not to go on a poker vacation, so they stay home and play locally. The very bottom of the poker economy is benefiting from some reverse trickle down economics.

Vegas etc. here is where the real pain is being felt. The major poker destinations are all way, way off. Look at any of the prime casino clusters around the world and you will see double digit reductions in casino poker room income. It costs for those airline tickets and those hotel rooms before you even get to the poker table.

Overall, it is no surprise that the gaming economy suffers right along with the other sectors in a worldwide economic downturn. The real issue will be: Does the gaming sector turn up with the rest of the economy when the upswing eventually begins. The betting wisdom is that there will be a lot of economic "make up" for individuals to take care of in a long litany of priorities where gaming and poker are not anywhere near the top of the list.

Then there is online poker, which seems to be healthy with numbers up, up and up. Just like in previous bad times, many people stay home and play games. Now because of the internet you can keep playing poker with your only added expense being the internet hook-up and we don't see folks giving up that 21st century necessity.

Here are some of the words of wisdom I have overheard at the tables during the '08 World Series of Poker.

"Man I took those after my back surgery, how do you stay awake at the table?" "Who said I stay awake, this is only poker."

You get to meet so many different people at the Series:

"They have broken my table four times today; its not that I mind moving but you guys are nowhere near as cute as my last table."

In the different strokes for different folks category:

"I don't want to win the free massage, my wife would never understand."
"What does your wife do?"
"She dances in the Folies at the Tropicana."

The next four were all sung badly by two players at a 7 Stud table:

"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be poker players."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be dealers."
"Momma don't let your babies grow up to be President."

Player busting out late on Day 2B:

"I woulda made money in any other event."

In fact he outlasted 4500+ players, which would have easily won every WSOP tournament, except of course, the Main Event.

At the World Series of Poker, you get to play against all those great professionals you see on television:

"I like Annie Duke on those days when she is Howard Lederer's sister but sometimes she acts like Phil Hellmuth is her brother."

This is my favorite, a guy with a good read but no follow thru.

"I hate it when I'm drawing dead . . . . how much did you bet?"

And finally, what we have all come to know as The Moneymaker Dream:

"If Jerry Yang can win this thing then so can I!"

I had several interesting conversations in the last 24 hours about the math involving entrants on the Day 2's of the Series. Surprisingly there is a wide range of opinions about these numbers.

The basic formula we are talking about is this:

Day 1A survivors + Day 1B survivors = Day 2A combined field
Day 1C survivors + Day 1D survivors = Day 2B combined field

Which works out in actual numbers to this:

636 + 615 = 1,251
1026 + 1352 = 2,378

This all comes about because the starting fields for Days 1A & 1B were much smaller than for Days 1C & 1D.

The question is: Are players at any disadvantage starting their Day 2 with a field of 1,250 or 2,378 and if so, why?

What surprised me is that some of the same "mathematical" reasoning goes into arguments that either of the two fields gives some hidden and unfair advantage to the players in that flight. Here are a few of the "facts" I have heard:

As I mentioned yesterday, this is the official Day Off for the 2008 Main Event. There is a $500 Casino Employees event and a Charity Media Tournament but the only real high or low-lite will be the WSOP News Conference, if anything comes out of that lovefest, we will report details later; otherwise--see you tomorrow for Day 2A of The Greatest Tournament in the World brought to you by Milwaukee's Best Lite.

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As expected Day 1C was a much bigger field than either 1A or 1B. Estimates for tomorrow's Day 1D are all over the board with many predictions of over 2,000*. To match last year's Main Event total the magic number is 1,985*.

Lots of name professionals are playing tomorrow and plenty of other players are coming in after spending the Fourth of July with family and friends. So, "close" will be the operational word tomorrow for all of those over/under wagers* on the total runners in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

TODAY: 2008 Main Event Day 1C: 1928 entrants [4,373 three day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1C: 1743 entrants [4,575]

2008 Main Event Day 1B: 1158 entrants [2455 two day total]
2007 Main Event Day 1B: 1545 entrants [2832]

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

2008 Day 1D: Sunday?*
2007 Day 1D: 1783 entrants

*Late/Early reports or Early/Late reports are that the field for Sunday is over 2200 and counting.

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This year Day 1B was smaller than Day 1A, unlike 2007 when the field grew each successive day. But we still have two big fields to count on Days 1C & 1D.

In 2007 the final two days had much bigger fields and that is anticipated again this year; some early registration numbers indicate Saturday and Sunday will be much larger.

2008 Main Event Day 1B: 1158 entrants [2455]
2007 Main Event Day 1B: 1545 entrants [2832 two day total]

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

2008 Day 1C: Saturday?
2007 Day 1C: 1743 entrants

2008 Day 1D: Sunday?
2007 Day 1D: 1783 entrants

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A lot of people seemed surprised that today (Day 1A) "only" had as many entrants as last year. Seems like a pretty good number for a Thursday and one full table ahead of last year.

2008 Main Event Day 1A: 1297 entrants
2007 Main Event Day 1A: 1287 entrants

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The beginning of the beginning of the end....

Fifty-One bracelets have been handed out; two more are ready to be presented today; the Player of the Year has been determined, congratulations to Erick Lindgren; the Ante Up for Africa event goes off today. Then, finally, we get to the Main Event and we answer most of the questions everyone has waited for.

Will we have more entries than last year?

Will the professionals somehow continue their dominance they have shown thru 53 preliminary events?

Will it all run as smooth as the tournaments have run so far? By the way, nice job to the WSOP staff this was truly a nicely run Series so far. Minor mistakes, quick fixes and overall solid and uniform floor decisions. Kudos to Tournament Director Jack Effel and his WSOP floor staff.

Another great move comes later this week, when the WSOP Media event is brought back with substantial prizes given to the favorite charities of the final table participants. A great solution to that on again off again event.

Then tomorrow we reach the 2008 World Series of Poker $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event. Four Day One flights, two Day Two flights and five more days to play down to the "November Nine" or the "Fall Final". Then all the WSOP eggs go into that ESPN/November basket and we all wait, watch, hope and pray. No matter who you favor in that mass of poker humanity, say a little prayer that at least one or two "names" make it to the final nine. Nothing could be better for poker than to see Scotty, Mike, Phil, Phil, Erick, Jennifer, Antonio, Gus, Daniel, Joe, Johnny** or heaven help us Doyle! make the final table.

It all starts tomorrow.

**Dewey, Cyndy, Bill, Gavin, Carlos, Chris, Doug, Liz, David, Tony, Lyle, Barry, Berry, Huck, Patrik, David, the other Phil and the other Phil, Greg, Layne, Chad, Isabelle, Todd, Freddy, T.J., Michael, Mike again, Ted, Gabe, Andy, Howard, John, John, John or John, Lee, Annie, Eli, Hoyt, Andy or even Jerry.

A short week five to compare as we are now on the threshold of the Main Event. Fifty-three events are in the books or about to be and here are the numbers:

53 Preliminary Events:

25 events had increased entries
15 events had decreased entries
12 events were new tournaments or increased buy-ins
1 tie

Here are the week four comparisons:

2008 Event #48
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,319
2007 Entries: 2,038
(Big increase)

2008 Event #49
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,718
2007 Entries: 3,151
(down over 400 from the old record, but the event was capped so it had no chance of hitting 3,000)

2008 Event #50
$10,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Number of Entrants: 381
2007 Entries: 314
(a strong increase for a $10K event)

2008 Event #51
$1,500 H.O.R.S.E.
Number of Entrants: 803
2007 Entries: 730
(this was a $1,000 S.H.O.E. event last summer)

2008 Event #52
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,693
2007 Entries: new event
(an added 7th $1,500 NLHE event)

2008 Event #53
$1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout
Number of Entrants: 823
2007 Entries: capped at 720
(the cap was raised this year, so we’ll call this an “other”)

Next, I will be watching the four Day Ones of the Main Event to see where those numbers go.

Week Four Comparison
Week Three Comparison
Week Two Comparison
Week One Comparison

First and foremost, congratulations to Scotty Nguyen for taking down the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. and being the first player to hold the Chip Reese trophy. Scotty has an amazing track record over nearly 20 years of playing poker. His record, of course, includes the 1998 World Series of Poker main event championship and tournament earnings approaching Ten Million Dollars. Now Scotty adds to his legend, taking down the most prestigious tournament in professional poker.

But like so many great careers there is a dark side to Scotty's, one episode of which took place last summer at the 2007 WSOP main event. With twelve players remaining in the hunt for the final table nine, Scotty Nguyen was the chipleader and, as we all know, he did not make the final table. That crash and burn troubled Scotty for many months and will probably never be forgotten in poker lore.

Fast forward to this summer, the very next World Series of Poker main event and add to the mixture: the delayed final table. Combine these two events and I offered to you the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

Syndrome: a predictable, characteristic pattern of behavior, action, etc., that tends to occur under certain circumstances

I don't know when it will hit and it will not affect all players at the same moment but somewhere around 18 players or 27 players; maybe even as high as 36 or even 45 players for some, it will appear. This is not just the World Series of Poker Final Table, no this is the "November Nine", the "Fall Final".

And as sure as it will be 108 degrees in Las Vegas, each an every player who survives to Day Six on July 13th and certainly to Day Seven on July 14th, each of those players will experience the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

To get that close to four months of publicity and interviews and endorsements and fame and potential fortune and who knows what else... The "SNS" is going to massively effect play whenever it sets in. Players will get tight, really tight; decisions will take longer, a lot longer; tempers will shorten, in some cases really, really shorten; table talk, hand winning celebrations and anything resembling angle shooting will be scrutinized, analyzed and penalized? Floor decisions will be magnified out of all proportion, imagine giving a player a two round penalty on the bubble!

The final table bubble itself will be much bigger, extending out to at least 27 players. The media coverage will be more intense and more critical than ever before. And the players...? Well the players will not be themselves because they will be playing under the influence of the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

Rumor has it that Corona will lessen but not alleviate the symptoms of the syndrome but there is a rebound effect if you excede a twelve pak in less than two full tournament levels. Perhaps Harrah's should supply extra massage staff for the final four tables or just rig cold showers above the tables like they do in hazardous material labs. And people say poker is not a sport.....

Through 47 events here is how the '08 Series is standing up to the '07 Series:

47 Events to Date:

23 events have increased entries
15 events have decreased
8 events were new tournaments or increased buy-ins
1 tie

Here are the week four comparisons:

2008 Event #38
$2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 605
2007 Entries: 599
(up a few still counts as UP!)

2008 Event #39
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,720
2007 Entries: 2,778
(down a few still counts as DOWN!)

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.

The size of the World Series of Poker has grown dramatically over the past decade. In 1999, the entire Series was 16 events. In 2002, for the first time, there were more than thirty separate tournaments. In both 2007 and 2008 the WSOP has offered 55 bracelet events. With the "poker boom" has come some conflicts between the desires of the professional players for a more diverse (non-Hold'em) schedule with higher buy-ins and the attempt to make the World Series truly open to all players. The focus of this "low end" diversity has become the $1500 No Limit Hold'em tournaments.

In 2007, there were six $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournaments, which amounted to about one every Saturday. In 2008, there are seven of these events. But has the increase in "small buy-in" events worked for the WSOP. And, yes we notice, that $1,500 is not what most poker players on the planet consider "small", but that is fodder for another post.

Five of the seven $1,500 NLHE events have been played this year and to date the numbers compared to last year are up about 700 players in total. Perhaps more significantly, we are talking about events that have drawn in excess of 2300 players for each start. The only other WSOP events over 1,000 players this year have been the two $2,000 NLHE tournaments and the $1,000 Seniors event.

The $10,000 Omaha 8 or better is down to the final two tables and early this evening, we could have another (over)loaded final table. Here is where they stand at present, I will keep updating until the lure of being at the Rio watching my guy play becomes overwhelming.

Ten Handed -the final table technically begins at nine players but it appears they may keep playing rather than break for the traditional Final Table dinner, so I am off to the Rio to sweat the final nine.

1 Hieu "Tony" Ma
2 Jason Gray
3 Ram Vaswani
4 Toto Leonidas
5 Berry Johnston
6 David Chiu
7 Mike Matusow 5th place
8 David Benyamine Champion
9 Greg Jamison
10 Eugene Katchalov

X Ray Dehkharghani 18th place
X William McMahan 17th place
X Danny Dang 13th place
X Brent Carter 16th place
X Shun Uchida 11th place
X Pat Pezzin 14th place
X Chau Giang 12th place
X Stuart Paterson 15th place

“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.” . . . quote often attributed to Benjamin Disraeli

That being said here are some interesting numbers that have come down to us from the WSOP media office as we approach the mid-point (53.22%) of the Series. Some are interesting (22%), some are prophetic (12% or 78%) and a few are pure publicity hype (104%) or at least that is the opinion of some reporters (9 out of 11) in media row. Of course members of the poker media are at this point of the Series likely to be sleep deprived (56.8%) or simply depraved (23.4%).

Through 27 events, only one player has cashed six times to date – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. Five-time-in-the-money finishers include Tom Schneider, Roland Isra, and Alex Jacob. All are in contention to challenge the record of eight for "Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year," shared by four players -- Michael Binger ('07), Chad Brown ('07), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. ('06), and Humberto Brenes ('06).

The current "Player of the Year" standings shows Erick Lindgren on top of the points list with one gold bracelet win and four cashes. Vanessa Selbst, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein and Jacobo Fernandez are all very close (within the margin of error).

Through the 27th bracelet of this year's World Series of Poker, the "Professionals versus Amateurs" gold bracelet scoreboard reads:

Professionals – 21 wins
Amateurs -- 4 wins
Semi-Pros -- 2 wins

I had to include this last “stat” because I have heard the Shrink going on about what passes for a “professional” these days and I want him to put that post up soon (6 to 5, we get it within 48 hours).

Another packed final table goes off today in Event #28 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/ rebuys. Johnny Chan is after bracelet number eleven and Phil Hellmuth, though short-stacked is in the hunt for number twelve. Add to that mix John Juanda, David Benyamine at another final table, Kirill Gerasimov, some kid named Daniel Negreanu, Phil Galfond enters as chipleader and local professional Brian Rast in second. This will be another of those special final tables.

Here is the line-up as they get ready to go at it later this afternoon.
[We are updating as players are eliminated, summary below]

2 AM: Phil Galfond's sixth WSOP cash is his biggest so far (by about $800,000), as is Adam Hourani's second WSOP cash (about $450K larger). Over 100 hands heads up were needed to settle the bracelet matter between these two well known internet players.

Phil Galfond (Madison, Wisconsin) -- 1st place
Adam Hourani (East Lansing, Michigan) -- 2nd place
David Benyamine (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 3rd place
Johnny Chan (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 4th place
Kirill Gerasimov (Moscow, Russia) -- 5th place
John Juanda (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 6th place
Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 7th place
Phil Hellmuth (Palo Alto, California) -- 8th place
Brian Rast (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 9th place

David Benyamine 3rd place. David played his Aces strong but ran into a set of Queens.

Johnny Chan 4th place and the bid for an 11th bracelet is over.

Kirill Gerasimov 5th place.

John Juanda 6th place, Daniel Negreanu 7th place, Phil Hellmuth 8th place Late in level three, three superstars were sent to the rail.

Brian Rast 9th place It took nearly two full levels and lots of chips moving around the table before we lost our first player. Brian Rast, local professional known to many internet players as tsarast, got it in ahead but was run down on the river by the current chipleader: Johnny Chan.

How is the 2008 World Series of Poker holding up against last year?

So far it looks like the Series is still strong as we begin week three.

24 Events to Date:

12 events have increased entries
7 events have decreased
3 events were new tournaments in 2008
2 events had increased buy-ins from $5k to $10K (entries were down at the higher buy-in)

Here are the week two comparisons:

2008 Event #11
$5,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout
Number of Entrants: 360
2007 Entries: this is a new event
(first time for a $5,000 Shootout)

2008 Event #12
$1,500 Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 880
2007 Entries: 910
(a small decrease from last summer)

In a masterful performance at an epic final table, Mike Matusow took down the Deuce-to-Seven Lowball evening early this morning. The Poker Shrink was there for every hand at what truly was a final table for the ages. Tomorrow I will give you some details that you will find nowhere else; as many of you know I am working on Mike's biography and we spoke often during the twelve hour final table. In addition, we are going to get together after we both have had some sleep and then we will go over the entire final table from Mike's perspective. I will share some of that insight with you just as soon as Mike and I talk later today.

Until then congratulations Mike and good night or good morning from all of us here in the wee morning hours from Las Vegas.

[I apologize for the lingering promise of a follow-up article on Mike's win, but the truth is that the truth is so good, I am afraid it is going to have to wait for the final chapter of Mike's book.]

On this second Sunday of the 2008 World Series, a lot of attention will be focused on the final table of Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. Yes, Vinnie Vinh leads going into day three of this tournament but a lot more interest will be paid to the number two man on the leader board, Erick Lindgren. The speculation, of course, is whether Erick can land a second bracelet in less than a week.

A lot of casual observers might see such a double-barreled feat as the result of a good run of cards or just a very good player being overdue. Perhaps a closer look into at just what the first week or so of the Series really looks like to a poker professional like Erick Lindgren might be illuminating.

Friday May 30th, Event #1: $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em. Erick plays about eight hours before having his set of aces lose to another set with a bigger kicker.

Sunday June 1st, Event #2 Day 1B: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em. Erick is mostly card dead and goes out about mid-way in level three, still time for 18 holes before dusk.

Monday June 2nd, Event #4 (5 PM start): $5,000 Mixed Hold’em. Erick and ninety other players survive day one from a starting field of 332. With 8,400 chips. Erick Lindgren’s name is no where near the top of the leader board; not with the leader over 100,000.

No, I am not rethinking my position on moving the WSOP main event final table to November. I am for it, I have been for it since the first rumors last fall, I remain steadfast in the belief that this is a well thought out move to attract more fans to the Series and to insure continuing television coverage.

What I am hearing from players, both professional and otherwise, is that they are coming around to favor the "November Nine" idea. I certainly understand the initial reaction to such a big change. Lots of folks truly love this game and do not like it changing. I, myself, am not a traditionalist but for a truly moving statement about that aspect of the game, might I recommend an article by Amy Calistri.

As weeks have past and the whole idea has had time to be pondered and debated, more and more players are seeing the rationale for the move. Poker needs a boost and this just might do it. At nearly every table, this move comes up, more and more we hear positive remarks and a good deal of a 'wait and see' attitude. If it doesn't work then they just change it back next year. But it is worth the attempt and I applaud the WSOP staff for moving forward with this; just as I like to acknowledge them for making the summer of 2008 the year of "no tents at the Series". After all, not every experiment works.

I am not so fond of the label: "November Nine". It's just flat and doesn't evoke much. Now if they had asked me for a suggestion, need I point out who came up with Sequestrium last summer? I would have gone for: "The Fall Final". Emphasizes the event not the players and sounds just a bit like The Fall Classic.