World Series of Poker: the Calm Before the Storm

Date: Sat, Jun 28, 2008

We are in the final week before the 2008 World Series of Poker main event. There is still a lot of "preliminary" action going on at the Rio; action that should not be overlooked as we all get our over/under bets in for the big show.

The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament hits Day Four today with 24 survivors including: Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren and the eventual winner.

There are two final tables today: Event #47 a six-handed Hold'em event and Event #48 Seven Card Stud that will have to play down from 13 to a champion today. Event #48 is a $2,000 Hold'em event entering Day Two today; they stopped play late last night as the players hit the money at 198th place. So everyone who goes out today walks away with cash.

The big event today is the noon start of another $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament. Last year this event (Saturday before the Main Event) broke all existing records for non-Main Event registrations. That record has already been broken this year back on May 31st. All eyes will be on the registration count today, as anticipation is high for another record turnout.

Sunday will bring us the final $10,000 Championship event prior to the Main Event. Expect a heavy European contingent for Event #50 Pot Limit Omaha. Late on Sunday, Event #51 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. will go off at 5 PM.

Monday brings the 7th and final $1,500 NLHE tournament; speculation is mixed on what a Monday start will mean for these usually big registration events. With two of these low buy-in events the final weekend before the Main Event, it is anyone's guess how many players have come in to town to take a double-shot at a WSOP bracelet.

Tuesday brings us the now traditional $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout Event #53. Followed by the Ante Up for Africa Charity event on Wednesday.

Finally, the beginning of the end and the arrival of the storm. On Thursday the Main Event will kick off four Day Ones with Day 1A. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday will each launch a separate Day One, as the march to the November Final Table begins.

World Series of Poker: Week Four Comparison

Date: Thu, Jun 26, 2008

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!)

2008 Event #40
$2,500 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Lowball
Number of Entrants: 238
2007 Entries: 290
(last year this was a $1,000 event with rebuys, not a good comparison)

2008 Event #41
$1,500 Mixed Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 731
2007 Entries: 620
(5 PM event with a nice increase)

2008 Event #42
$1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,217
2007 Entries: 1,882
(many more seniors)

2008 Event #43
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better
Number of Entrants: 720
2007 Entries: 687
(another increase)

2008 Event #44
$1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/rebuys
Number of Entrants: 879 w/ 2,508
2007 Entries: 1,048 w/ 2,336 rebuys
(many less players, many more rebuys)

2008 Event #45
$50,000 H.O.R.S.E.
Number of Entrants: 148
2007 Entries: 148
(a flat out tie!)

2008 Event #46
$5,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed
Number of Entrants: 805
2007 Entries: 728
(11% increase)

2008 Event #47
$1,500 Seven Card Stud 8 or better
Number of Entrants: 544
2007 Entries: 668
($1,000 buy-in in 2007)

Week Three Comparison
Week Two Comparison
Week One Comparison

World Series of Poker: the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship

Date: Thu, Jun 26, 2008

Day One of the $50,000 Hold'em, Omaha 8, Razz, Stud, Stud 8 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.

Gavin Smith
Josh Arieh
Mark Vos
Darrell Dicken
Tuan Le
Kirk Morrison
John Phan
Carlos Mortensen
Erik Seidel (he has an Omaha final table today)

and the ladies contingent is way down this year, missing from last year:
Kristy Gazes
Jerri Thomas
Maureen Feduniak
Cyndy Violette

1. Freddy Deeb
2. Bruno Fitoussi
3. John Hanson
4. Amnon Filippi
5. Kenny Tran
6. David Singer
7. Barry Greenstein
8. Thor Hansen
9. Gabe Kaplan
10. Dewey Tomko
11. Mark Gregorich
12. Stephen Wolff
13. Tim Phan
14. Greg Raymer
15. Chris Reslock
16. Mike Matusow

World Series of Poker: the Most Entertaining Day of the Year

Date: Wed, Jun 25, 2008

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.

You see at 5 PM today, the premiere event of the World Series of Poker is schedule. With apologies to the crusty, olde Main Event; the real superstar of the show is the five day $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament that begins later today. Last year 148 runners put up the $50K to prove who was the best in the world or at least the best for those five days. Freddy Deeb took down the prize last year. The speculation is rampant around how many players will put up the big buy-in this year but you can be sure of a spectacle well worth watching.

ESPN is back after four weeks to capture all the familiar faces for the big H.O.R.S.E. event, if you are anywhere near Las Vegas, this is the day to be at the Rio. Rebuy mania at noon and the big event scheduled at five, which means probably six or so; you can't rush the run for the newly created Chip Reese trophy.

World Series of Poker: the $1500 No Limit Hold'em Events

Date: Mon, Jun 23, 2008

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.

If we go back to 2006, we can find three such events, actually two with another at only a $1,000 buy-in. These events were the largest draws outside of the main event back in '06 with an average of over 2,500 entrants. In 2005, just one "low buy-in" NLHE event drew 2305 players. Two eight hundred players $1,500 No Limit tournaments were run in 2004 and 531 players played in the only event in 2003. The boom at the WSOP has at least partially been fueled by the $1,500 events.

It is clear that the WSOP scheduling is balancing the desires of the professionals with the populist demand for more low buy-in events. On the 2008 WSOP schedule a full 21 of the 55 events are $1,500 buy-ins across the full range of poker games and almost unanimously these events are matching or exceeding last summer's registration numbers.

So when the final numbers are in on the 2008 World Series of Poker, expect two themes to emerge:
-the professionals are winning a bunch of bracelets;
-lots and lots of the average poker players are still coming to Las Vegas to play the $1,500 events and the same shiny gold bracelets.

World Series of Poker: Another Big Final Table Brewing

Date: Sat, Jun 21, 2008

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

World Series of Poker: Week Three Comparison

Date: Fri, Jun 20, 2008

As we wrap-up week three of the World Series, registration numbers for 37 events are in the books. Here are the comparisons 2007 to 2008.

37 Events to Date:

18 events have increased entries
13 events have decreased
3 events were new tournaments in 2008
2 events had increased buy-ins from $5k to $10K (entries were down)
1 event with capped registration in '08

2008 Event #25
$10,00 No Limit Hold'em Heads Up
Number of Entrants: 256
2007 Entries: 392
(event was capped at 256 this year)

2008 Event #26
$1,500 Seven Card Razz
Number of Entrants: 453
2007 Entries: 341
(a monster increase in Razz players)

2008 Event #27
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,706
2007 Entries: 2,628
($1,500 events holding up well)

2008 Event #28
$5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys
Number of Entrants: 152 w/ 483 rebuys
2007 Entries: 145 w/ 450 rebuys
(a few more w/rebuys)

2008 Event #29
$3,000 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 716
2007 Entries: 827
(down over 100+ players)

2008 Event #30
$10,00 Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 218
2007 Entries: 257
(this was a surprise, down 16%)

2008 Event #31
$2,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed
Number of Entrants: 1,013
2007 Entries: 847
(big, big increase)

2008 Event #32
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: (2,304)
2007 Entries: 2,315
(down just a bit, but there are three $1500 NLHE in five days)

2008 Event #33
$5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Split
Number of Entrants: 261
2007 Entries: 236
(last year’s event was a $3K buy-in)

2008 Event #34
$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys
Number of Entrants: 320 w/ 1,350
2007 Entries: 293 w/ 880 rebuys
(nice increase in players, monster increase in rebuys)

2008 Event #35
$1,500 Seven Card Stud
Number of Entrants: 381
2007 Entries: 385
(everything is just about the same)

2008 Event #36
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 2,447
2007 Entries: 2,541
(off about a hundred)

2008 Event #37
$10,000 Omaha 8 or better
Number of Entrants: 235
2007 Entries: 280
(down 16%)

Week One Comparison
Week Two Comparison