WSOP Event #8: Mixed Championship
May 16, 2008
I was looking over the schedules for all the tournaments in Las Vegas this summer and I came across and event I had overlooked when the World Series schedule first came out. On June 4th, World Championship Mixed Event appears on the WSOP schedule. A ten thousand dollar buy-in event, this one has missed a lot of media coverage, which it will definitely get when it is played over the three days (6/4-6/6). Unlike the Mixed Hold’em events which are No Limit and Limit Hold’em or the H.O.R.S.E. events made up of five events: Limit Hold’em, Omaha8, Razz, Stud and Stud8; the World Championship Mixed Event is made up of eight different poker games.
There will be two Mixed Hold’em tournaments this summer ($5,000 and $1,500) and three H.O.R.S.E. events ($3,000, $1,500 and $50,000) but only one $10,000 Mixed Event with all eight games.
Games in order for the Mixed Event will be:
Triple Draw Deuce to Seven Lowball
Limit Hold’em
Omaha 8 or better
Razz
Seven Card Stud
Stud 8 or better
No Limit Hold’em
Pot Limit Omaha
The game changes every eight hands. Levels are 60 minutes. There are three different blind structures for each level to accomodate the different games.
Check out the tournament structure at this WSOP site.
Summer 2008: Poker at the Crossroads
May 13, 2008
“It was chance created the poker beast; beancounters will kill it.”
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Economics and Poker will clash this summer among the slightly tarnished gaming glitz of Las Vegas. Dispassionate observers of the poker world realize that this may be the watershed moment in the continuation or the demise of the “poker boom” worldwide.
Let’s deal with the jingoism first: the United States is not the center of the universe. However, in some areas the U.S. does lead and one of those areas is ‘poker as a recreational fad’. The central elements present in the U.S. that have fueled the poker boom are: the high proportion of casinos and card rooms available to the population; a large middle class with disposable income; high amounts of leisure time to pursue gaming as a hobby; relatively lenient social restrictions on gambling. Add to this the holy trinity of: the internet, television hole card cams and Chris Moneymaker; shake and stir and you have the poker boom of the last five years birthed in the United States.
The first nail in the poker coffin was indisputably the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in 2006. While online poker remains available to everyone who is really interested; any trend, craze, furor or fad like all good pyramids needs a constant influx of bodies to provide new fuel and new fodder. The UIGEA strangled that conduit of new poker players in the U.S. and hurt online sites globally that relied on U.S. players. While many internet sites continue to flourish, we all dream of what might have been had the wealth of new U.S. players not been shutoff.
But why will this summer be such a telling moment for poker? Well, the pieces are in place for the perfect storm of economic factors to lay bare the shaky fiscal underpinnings of the poker phenomenon. First and most obviously, the whole world will be watching the World Series, which begins here in Las Vegas in just two weeks. In fact, our first piece of evidence is the change in the WSOP schedule moving the main event final table to November. Clearly, this is an attempt to salvage the declining viewership on ESPN. Sure, sure there are other PR reasons being floated for the experiment but the television numbers don’t lie.
Further evidence of the slowly failing interest in televised poker: the World Poker Tour is set to begin its 7th season with the Bellagio Cup in mid-July. At this point there is no television contract for the filming of this season’s tournaments. The Game Show Network and WPT have not announced any agreement and speculation is that based on the viewer numbers for season six, the first on GSN, there may be no season seven contract for television. No television would mean few, if any, professionals would travel to the WPT events outside of Las Vegas. For more details on GSN, the WPT and High Stakes Poker check out the story on Pokerati and be sure to read the comments section for Oliver’s insightful contribution.
Now there are many arguments to be made about bastardizing poker to the whims of television. Over the past several weeks we have all heard rants and raves about the benefits of television exposure. I feel no need to cover that ground again. If you would like to read two well reasoned expositions on both sides of the TV/Poker divide, I would direct you to Short-Stack Shamus for a moderated view on the whole issue and to my good friend and writing partner Amy Calistri for a sad lament on what television has done to poker.
OK, let’s review. UIGEA - bad for poker. Television - good or bad for poker but ratings numbers are falling. The WSOP is about to begin, so why is this summer different from every other WSOP?
The U.S. is in a recession, well someone had to say it. Revenues at Las Vegas casinos was off a whopping 30%, first quarter 2008 compared to first quarter 2007. Fewer tourists and players are visiting Las Vegas. Those who do come are spending less on gaming, food, rooms, entertainment and shopping. Some of the smaller poker rooms in Las Vegas have closed, other rooms are limiting their hours and rumors of more closures are in the air. As the poker world turns its eyes to the World Series, everyone will be looking at the numbers.
Will the first $1,500 NLHE event on Saturday May 31st draw a monster field? Well, yes it will.
Will the main event numbers hold up? Maybe, perhaps a few more then last year or a few less.
The real numbers will come from the 53 events in between those two tournaments. How many players will make the commitment to a summer in Las Vegas this year? Sure the professionals will be here, that is not in question, this is what they do for a living. What we will discover is whether the second and third tier players still have the bankroll to play the Series in this economic climate. Will a bunch of poker buddies from Chicago still make the trip to try their skills against the best in the world or will they instead go to a local casino back in the Midwest and play some $100 tournaments? Remember when Chris Moneymaker won his bracelet in 2003 there were 36 events in the Series not the 55 there are today. Chris defeated 839 entrants in the main event not six or seven thousand players of the past several years.
So why will the summer (and one Tuesday night in November) of 2008 be so significant to poker? The World Series of Poker remains the premiere event in poker. Whether Harrah’s/Caesars keeps the WSOP franchise or sells it off or moves it to a truly “World” Series by holding it in various international locations; a lot of those decisions will be based on what happens this summer. If the numbers are down, then the franchise is worth less. If the numbers are steady and the new final table format is a rating success, then we should expect more expansion and innovation from the WSOP brain trust.
What is likely to happen? I honestly don’t know, I am in the reporting business not the prognosticating game but I will be here all summer bringing you news from the WSOP and from the entire Vegas poker scene. We are going to focus on background stories and player contact away from the tables. We will find out how the players think and feel about the current state of poker. Is the boom over? Who is playing more? Which players are planning for a life after poker? Is the death of poker in the wind or is the boom still booming?
Brits Mock French for Online Gaming Ban
May 11, 2008
While nearly all of the European Union members could be and perhaps should be arguing over the myriad of byzantine online poker regulations; it appears that historical antagonists are now going to verbally spare over the dispute.
The UK House of Lords has condemned the French government and the gambling laws that protect their monopoly on gaming and poker, calling the laws “atrocious.” Interestingly, the French have recently given signs of moderating their position and there are certainly more intractable members of the EU on this issue. The French government has certainly delayed its response to pressure from the EU commission on the free trade aspects around online gaming. But one wonders why now? And why point out that the punishment for online gambling is the same as for child pornographers?
Lord James of Blackheath pointed out that the punishment for a French national to place a bet with a British online bookmaker is one year in prison and a Euro 75,000 fine, the same punishment given pedophiles that download child porn.
One wonders if the European Union must now step up and actively pursue one or more countries whose online gaming laws leave them outside the statutory mandates of the EU for free and fair trade.
Party Poker Millions VI Cruise Final Table
May 8, 2008
A final table battle on the high seas takes place today aboard the Party Poker Millions Cruise VI. Germany’s Dominik Stopka enters as chip leader, but only by a single chip over Alexander Jung also from Germany. The final nine also include Sweden ’s 2008 PartyPoker Late Night Poker winner Andreas Jorbeck, Johannes Strassmann and Mika Paasonen. All have tasted recent success on the European circuit. Amongst those to miss out on the final table include Thomas Bihl, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Florian Langmann and Christop Haller.
For a summary of all the final table action check the PartyPoker Blog.
Here are the final table players with beginning chip counts, we will add the finishers as they bust out down to the champion.
SEAT 1 – KENNETH GREGERSEN – Denmark - 44,000 9th place
SEAT 2 – RAYMOND ESTALL – UK - 187,000 5th
SEAT 3 – JOHANNES STRASSMANN – Germany - 182,000 7th
SEAT 4 – ALEXANDER JUNG – Germany - 326,000 CHAMPION
SEAT 5 – MIKA PAASONEN – Finland - 236,000 4th
SEAT 6 – DOMINIK STOPKA – Germany - 327,000 2nd
SEAT 7 – CORY ALBERTSON – United States - 90,000 3rd
SEAT 8 – PETER STEINLESBERGER – Austria - 132,000 8th
SEAT 9 – ANDREAS JORBECK – Sweden – 182,000 6th
Phil Gordon Q&A on All Things Poker
May 7, 2008
Poker Pro Phil Gordon did a recent interview with those folks over at Freakonomics. Phil has always been an keen observer and no-holds commentator on the real life of the professional poker player. Here are a few of this comments.
Q: What percent of your success would you say is attributable to randomness?
A: Randomness, otherwise known as “variance” at the poker table is much bigger and more important than most poker players realize. I have a simple theory: change 10 river cards in any poker player’s tournament career and I would bet that they would be a losing tournament player for their career.
You might need to set aside players like Doyle Brunson here or maybe just up the number to 20 or 30 but Phil’s point is correct. There are several bookkeepers and more than ten chiropractors who would be well known poker professionals today if that one river card had gone the other way. By the same token, there are a couple of guys walking around with a WSOP bracelet on their wrist who should get out before variance brings them down to their true skill level.
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Several of the questions had to do with professional players and their gambling habits, I have grouped those answers together for Phil’s harsh but realistic assessment of poker professionals and money management.
Q: What percentage of professional poker players would you consider to be compulsive gamblers?
A: Ninety percent of the “professional players” I know have some serious “leaks” that affect their ability to hold on to their money.
Whether it’s playing too big for their bankroll or betting on sports or casino games, these leaks have a way of keeping many of them completely broke no matter how much they win on the tournament circuit.
One of the “requirements” to be a great player is being able to divorce yourself from money and its value. Making good decisions at the poker table means that you must have the ability to “put a Ferrari” in the pot if it’s right to do so. That lack of respect for the buying power of money leads to financial problems for many of the best players in the world.
Q: What are the finances of some of the top pros like?
A: Some: poor, reckless, with no shot at improving long-term. Others: multi-million dollar mansions, $5-plus million a year income, and no financial worries. If I had to guess, I would say about 50 percent of the “name pros” you see on television on a regular basis have a negative net worth.
As I said, harsh but true.
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And some poker advice for us from Mr. Gordon, which might run contrary to the accepted wisdom.
Q: What skill is more important in Holdem: discipline in the range of hands you play, or the ability to read the other player?
A: Hand selection is the most important in my opinion. A blind guy who has good hand selection skills could win a world championship. A guy with 20/15 vision who picked up all the tells but played every hand might never win.
Q: What is the most dangerously deceiving starting hand for an amateur player in Texas Holdem?
A: It’s a tie … AQ, KQ, and QJ. Those are death hands to be avoided at all costs, especially if your opponent has made any aggressive move pre-flop.
And you thought he would say AK or maybe JJ, right?
France and Finland Ponder Different Directions for Online Poker
May 4, 2008
Two members of the European Union appear headed in opposite directions as far as regulating online poker. One country is considering abolishing existing restrictive legislation, while the other is preparing to regulate online poker for the first time.
The French appear ready to reconsider their online gambling monopoly perhaps due to pressure the European Union. France is reportedly reconsidering its policies regarding online gambling. French residents may soon get the chance to again play at a regulated online gambling sites.
French law currently states that online betting is not allowed. However, the European Commission of the EU is pressuring France to conform to the EU treaty regarding free competition with other member nations. Reliable sources have the new regulations allowing online betting on sporting events – including poker games.
Finland, on the other hand, currently does not regulate online poker but is now looking at this source of taxable income. Gambling in Finland is organized as a national monopoly, but online poker has yet to be managed by government agencies.
I widely circulated report found that Finns spend as much as 50 million Euros annually on foreign online poker sites. Finnish officials obviously feel they could or should keep a significant portion of that money within Finland and, of course, tax it. Their problem will be the same as so many other member nations have faced, the EU regulations.
Party Poker Introduces Flat Fee Single Table Satellites
May 3, 2008
In an unprecedented move, PartyPoker.com has slashed the charges for all single-table tournaments over $200 to a super-low flat fee of $10. No matter how high the stakes are above $200, the fee will be just $10 meaning there is huge value to be had for the bankroll, value that cannot be found elsewhere.
To celebrate this, PartyPoker.com has introduced a complete range of high-end STT’s with buy-in’s all the way up to $5,000. With a fee of just $10 this is great value and is simply not available at any other online poker room. For example, on a six seat $5,000 STT the typical saving is $190 and a ten seat $300 STT the saving is $10.
Check out the full list of tournaments today!
PARTYPOKER.COM – FLAT FEE STT’S
$5,000 + $10 6 seat Save $190
$5,000 + $10 2 seat Save $90
$2,000 + $10 10 seat Save $80
$2,000 + $10 6 seat Save $80
$2,000 + $10 2 seat Save $40
$1,000 + $10 10 seat Save $40
$1,000 + $10 6 seat Save $20
$1,000 + $10 2 seat Save $20
$500 + $10 10 seat Save $20
$500 + $10 6 seat Save $20
$500 + $10 2 seat Save $10
$300 + $10 10 seat Save $10
$300 + $10 6 seat Save $10
$300 + $10 2 seat Save $10
$200 + $10 10 seat Save $10
$300 + $10 6 seat Save $6