2008 World Series of Poker: Brilliant Final Table Today

Date: Wed, Jun 11, 2008

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I am going to attend a final table today at the World Series of Poker. I wish you could be here, it's not another No Limit Hold'em tournament either. In fact, this is a game very few players play well and most don't even understand: Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball. The game is played with a limit betting structure and there is a single draw. Two rounds of betting; one before and one after the draw.

But what is going to be exciting about this final table is the cast of characters who have made it to this seven-handed party:

Erick Lindgren
Mike Matusow
Jeffery Lisandro
Barry Greenstein
Tony "G" Guoga
David Benyamine
Tom Schneider

The fun kicks off at 3 PM PDT. My reports will come during breaks in the action, no chance I am going to miss one moment of this table. Do I have a favorite for the bracelet? Well, yes I do but you will never guess who.

The Dark Side of Poker

Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008

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dsotm All that you give and all that you deal
and all that you buy, beg, borrow or steal.
-Pink Floyd

Anyone who tells you there isn't a dark side to poker hasn't been here. By here, I mean the World Series of Poker. Now to be clear, the World Series is actually one of the brighter and lighter stops in the dark reaches of the vast poker road. But when you put all or most of the great professional poker players in one place for six or seven weeks, well there are bound to be some examples of truly desperate behavior.

Add to the thousands of players, dealers, staff and fans a large and at times articulate poker press; well, we are bound to get some reflections on the darker sides of poker. I hope we in the media are not getting too inbred but I must direct you to some insightful and very dark observations from both Dr. Pauly and the Pack-at-Pokerati. You want the dark side of poker, they will dish it up for you with wit and a wet wipe to tidy up afterwards.

On the other hand, I (the Poker Shrink) am not going to offer up a taste of darkness because you see I don't look at poker that way. I don't believe you can look at the psychology of poker and of poker players if you assume some pathology, illness, character flaw or yes, darkness. Does it exist? Certainly. But beyond the dark or perhaps right beside it there is a unique psychology to the world of poker. Yes, some or all of the lifestyle that poker requires can and does lead a few individuals to some very dark places. The list of casualties is long and will get longer. But as a wise and eloquent sage once said: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

The problem, as I see it, is that very few of the victims ever take a hard, honest look at what poker is really about. Tell me if you would take this job?

Every tenth working day you get paid.

OK, nothing wrong with that ever other Friday a paycheck, sounds like a lot of jobs. But wait, that is not what I mean. You get paid every tenth working day and on the other nine you get nothing. Actually, its worse then that, on the other nine days you lose money. What the hell kind of job am I talking about? Tournament poker that's what.

Only 10% of the field, on average, get paid in a poker tournament. So nine days out of ten you not only do not make any money, you lose your buy-in. Of course, being in the top 10% will only make you a little money; if you want some real profit you have to be in the top 3% or better. So you may really only get paid one day a month.

You not only have to be good at your job, you have to be very good at it all the time.

So you have an off day at the shop, the boss didn't notice and you will be fine tomorrow. So you missed one sale, no one will ever know. But miss a hand in the tournament and you are out the door, another no-pay day. You must be better than all the other players and you must be better than them every hand, every day or you don't get paid.

Health benefits - none.
Retirement - get a real job.
Paid Vacation - no.
Sick Days - sure, you will get sick; Oh you mean paid sick days.
Colleagues - lots of them, but they are all trying to take your paycheck.

Applications taken at your local card room, all day every day. Bring cash and turn the lights out when you leave, it needs to be dark in here.

2008 World Series of Poker: Grinding for Bracelets

Date: Sun, Jun 8, 2008

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edog 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.

Tuesday June 3rd, Event #4 day two: Twelve hours of play narrows the field from 91 to the final table nine. Erick will begin the final day fourth in chips but a veteran packed group has made the final table. Playing for the bracelet will be: David "Chino" Rheem 885,000, David Williams 678,500, Justin Bonomo 517,500, Erick Lindgren 345,000, Howard Lederer 324,500, Roland de Wolfe 194,000, Andrew Robl 162,000, Isaac Haxton 115,500 and Pat Pezzin 108,500.

Wednesday June 4th Event #4 Final Table: After 11 hours and 197 hands, Erick Lindgren defeats Justin Bonomo heads up and wins the bracelet. Nearly every media story leads with some variation of: “The best player never to win a bracelet…wins one!”

Thursday June 5th Event #9: $1,500 NLHE 6-handed. Less then 10 hours after winning a bracelet and who knows how many hours after the celebration ends, Erick Lindgren is back at the tables and perhaps understandably does not survive the first hour of this tournament.

Friday June 6th Event #11: $5,000 NLHE Shootout. Erick along with along with 359 others put up the $5,000 for this event. Thirty-six tables of ten players will play one round today, each table producing a single winner for tomorrow’s day two. Erick busts just before 5 P.M. and immediately registers for Event #12.

Friday June 6th Event 12 (5 P.M. start): $1,500 Limit Hold’em. Eight hundred and eighty players start this limit event with 181 making it to day two. Just before 3 A.M. play halts for the day with 15 hours of poker in two events, Erick has 27,300 chips, which is good for 12th spot on the leader board.

Saturday June 7th Event #12 day two. At 3 A.M. the tournament staff calls the end of a long day, which has not produced a final table of nine but rather two tables and eighteen players. Erick Lindgren will begin the final day second in chips with 244,000 and a shot at a second bracelet.

Sunday June 8th Event #12 day three. The final eighteen will begin play today at 2 PM PDT. After playing down to nine, they will take the ESPN interview/dinner break and then decide the bracelet late tonight. Erick Lindgren the “best player never to have won a second bracelet.”

[7:20 P.M. Erick Lindgren bubbles the final table in 10th place]

World Series of Poker: Week One Comparison

Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2008

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aasde We have one week of the 2008 World Series of Poker behind us and some of the early questions have revolved around how 2008 would stack up against 2007. Has the economy, the gas prices and the fading poker boom taken its toll on the WSOP?

Well as far as the first week numbers go, the answer has to be a solid, definite 'wait and see'. Bolstered by nearly 4,000 players in the first $1,500 NLHE event, the first week has been close to or above the comparable event in 2007.

Here is how the first ten tournaments compared:

2008 Event #1
$10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 352
Number of 2007 entries: 398
(down but the 2007 event was a $5,000 buy-in)

2008 Event #2
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 3,929
2007 Entries 2,998
(previous record for non-main event registrations was 3,151)

2008 Event #3
$1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 713
2007 Entries: 781
(registrations off by about 10%)

2008 Event #4
$5,000 Mixed Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 332
2007 Entries: 451
(25% drop in entrants)

2008 Event #5
$1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/rebuys
Number of Entrants: 776 + 2,358 rebuys
2007 Entries: 814 + 1814 rebuys
(notice the huge increase in rebuys in a smaller field)

2008 Event #6
$1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or better
Number of Entrants: 833
2007 Entries: 690
(a big increase for the first Omaha event)

2008 Event #7
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
Number of Entrants: 1,593
2007 Entries: 1,531
(up 60+ players)

2008 Event #8
$10,00 Mixed Event
Number of Entrants:
2007 Entries: this is a new event
(Eight different games in a $10,000 buy-in)

2008 Event #9
$1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed
Number of Entrants: 1,236
2007 Entries: 1,427
(no late registrations were allowed for this event, which held down the numbers)

2008 Event #10
$2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8
Number of Entrants: 388
2007 Entries: 327
(an increase of over 20%)

To be fair:
4 events had increases
2 events were decreases
1 event was a new tournament
1 event ($1,000 rebuy) had mixed results
1 event was increased from $5k to $10K
1 event had limited registration time

Year of the Professionals at the World Series of Poker?

Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2008

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Quick somebody has to be the first to say it: "The name professionals are claiming (reclaiming?) the World Series of Poker, at least through the first eight event."

erick It's hard to argue with that assessment on the day after David Singer and Erick Lindgren took down bracelets. But if we look a bit deeper, I think we will see even more evidence of the professionals beginning to dominate the 2008 World Series. Erick took down the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em event and yes the bigger buy-ins attract more big name professionals but you can't lower the value of a bracelet just because it costs more to enter the event.

Erick was joined at the final table by Justin Bonomo (2nd), Roland de Wolfe (4th) Howard Lederer (6th), David Williams (7th), Isaac Haxton (9th)and by several less-than-household names, who are still clearly professional players. Andrew Robl (3rd), who is only an "unknown" because of his age and David Rheem (5th), who has four years of solid poker cashes behind his name.

David Singer won his bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event over Jacobo Fernandez, who final tabled at the LAPC last year and is accumulating a nice string of cashes for his poker resume.

The monster $1,500 NLHE event #2 that drew nearly 4,000 players was won by an amateur: Grant Hinkle but both Chris Ferguson and Theo Tran made that final table in an event that many professionals chose not to enter.

The opening event for the 2008 Series was a $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament. This first final table had one very new player and one outstanding newcomer, Amit Makhija. Other than that, you might recognize the rest of the field: Nenad Medic (1st), Andy Bloch (2nd), Kathy Liebert (3rd), Mike Seton 4th, Chris Bell 6th, Patrik Antonius 7th, Phil Laak 9th.

When talking about "professionals" there are several levels of recognition. Certainly professionals blessed by the poker television gods will be known to most readers of this blog. But when we get down near a final table at the WSOP, the call on media row goes out: "OK, who knows this guy?" It usually takes only a moment to find someone who saw the player in Barcelona or knows all the local Vegas pros. Event #5 is an example of this; down to the final nine, here is the line-up.

Michael Binger: tied the record (8) for most WSOP cashes in a single year and perhaps the only "name" professional at this final table.
Michael Banducci: four 2007 WSOP cashes, three 2006 WSOP cashes.
Jonathon Aguiar: local Las Vegas professional.
Jeff Williams: just a kid, with the 2008 EPT Monte Carlo championship and a million dollars in his pocket.
Alan Jaffrey: three 2007 WSOP cashes.
Peter Gould: a long list of major tournament places, including 3 at the WSOP.
Lyric Duveyoung: this will be his second cash at the 2008 Series.

Oh and looking ahead. Theo Tran is the chip leader after day one of Event #7 and last year's WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider leads event #8 followed closely by Gus Hansen.

Not even a week into the World Series it is too early to say this is the year of the pros. But strong early signs certainly make it something to speculate about.

Year of the Professionals at the World Series of Poker?

Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2008

0

Quick somebody has to be the first to say it: "The name professionals are claiming (reclaiming?) the World Series of Poker, at least through the first eight events."

erick It's hard to argue with that assessment on the day after David Singer and Erick Lindgren took down bracelets. But if we look a bit deeper, I think we will see even more evidence of the professionals beginning to dominate the 2008 World Series. Erick took down the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em event and yes the bigger buy-ins attract more big name professionals but you can't lower the value of a bracelet just because it costs more to enter the event.

Erick was joined at the final table by Justin Bonomo (2nd), Roland de Wolfe (4th) Howard Lederer (6th), David Williams (7th), Isaac Haxton (9th)and by several less-than-household names, who are still clearly professional players. Andrew Robl (3rd), who is only an "unknown" because of his age and David Rheem (5th), who has four years of solid poker cashes behind his name.

David Singer won his bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event over Jacobo Fernandez, who final tabled at the LAPC last year and is accumulating a nice string of cashes for his poker resume.

The monster $1,500 NLHE event #2 that drew nearly 4,000 players was won by an amateur: Grant Hinkle but both Chris Ferguson and Theo Tran made that final table in an event that many professionals chose not to enter.

The opening event for the 2008 Series was a $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament. This first final table had one very new player and one outstanding newcomer, Amit Makhija. Other than that, you might recognize the rest of the field: Nenad Medic (1st), Andy Bloch (2nd), Kathy Liebert (3rd), Mike Seton 4th, Chris Bell 6th, Patrik Antonius 7th, Phil Laak 9th.

When talking about "professionals" there are several levels of recognition. Certainly professionals blessed by the poker television gods will be known to most readers of this blog. But when we get down near a final table at the WSOP, the call on media row goes out: "OK, who knows this guy?" It usually takes only a moment to find someone who saw the player in Barcelona or knows all the local Vegas pros. Event #5 is an example of this; down to the final nine, here is the line-up.

Michael Binger: tied the record (8) for most WSOP cashes in a single year and perhaps the only "name" professional at this final table.
Michael Banducci: four 2007 WSOP cashes, three 2006 WSOP cashes.
Jonathon Aguiar: local Las Vegas professional.
Jeff Williams: just a kid, with the 2008 EPT Monte Carlo championship and a million dollars in his pocket.
Alan Jaffrey: three 2007 WSOP cashes.
Peter Gould: a long list of major tournament places, including 3 at the WSOP.
Lyric Duveyoung: this will be his second cash at the 2008 Series.

Event #6: $1,500 Omaha 8 or better will have a final table today led by two time bracelet winner, Scott Clements. He will be joined by: Thang Luu with 3 WSOP cashes; Mark Wilds, who has cashed in fourteen WSOP tournaments; George Guzman, who cashed in this event last year; Greg Jamison with one WSOP money under his belt and yes, to be fair, three amateurs with no records we can locate.