WSOP Omaha Event

I'm not even sure when ESPN is broadcasting the WSOP events, but they keep showing up at random times on my DVR so I'm not complaining. I just watched the $5000 Pot Limit Omaha event and I really enjoyed it. These days it seems that 99.9998% of the poker on TV is holdem, and it can get old for even the most enthusiastic poker fan. I'm not very experienced in playing any other game, so I always look forward to broadcasts of non-holdem events. I want think it helps to get a feel for the game to watch other people playing it.

I especially appreciated the fact that they split the final table into two episodes. This way we can actually see some hands develop and they can show interesting hands that don't necessarily result in the elimination of a player.

It would be cool if high stakes poker turned into a mixed game. Or maybe they could play Omaha-8 for a season. Something to mix it up and let people know that there are other games besides holdem.

Another interesting point that Norman Chad kept bringing up is the number of international players that won bracelets this year. I wonder how much of that is a result of the UIGEA and the fact that not as many US players are qualifying online. Or at least not as high of a percentage of players.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSOP on TV

I was flipping through the channels this evening because there's nothing on. Baseball's on the all-star break and all my normal shows are on summer reruns. I was bored so I checked the DVR which I don't do very often these days since there aren't a whole lot of new shows on these days. So like i said, I checked my DVR and lo and behold there's brand new WSOP 2007 episodes sitting there waiting for me.

Last year I wasn't real interested in watching on TV since I already knew the results of most of the events. This year I haven't been following poker nearly as much so the WSOP is exciting again.

So, just in case you're looking for some new poker on TV, the WSOP is back.

And yes, Norman Chad is still annoying.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

7 Stud Hi/Lo Tourney

I qualified for another one of those WSOP fantasy league free roll tourneys on FullTilt on Monday. As you can probably guess by the title of the post it was 7 Stud Hi/Lo. I did surprisingly well considering my complete lack of skills in this particular game. 1000 people qualified, a little over 400 actually registered and maybe 200 of those actually showed up. 90 places paid. I finished just out of the money at 107. I probably could have folded to the money if I wanted to, but where's the fun in that?

Since there were so many no-shows my table started off playing three handed with the other five just contributing ante's for us. I thought I was in trouble after the fist couple of hands when the other two guys came out aggressively, but I started playing some hands and pushing them around and winning some decent sized pots and before I knew it I was the table bully. And it only took me a little over one blind level before I remembered it was Hi/Lo. In my defense though, I was trying to cook dinner at the same time so I wasn't all that focused.

Eventually two of the other dummy stacks showed up so we were five handed for a bit, but for the most part it was just us three. I completed/raised with just about any three cards. If I had top door card of the three of us I raised, if I had low door card I raised, if my hole cards could beat their door card high or low, I raised, and usually I took the pot right there. It did a lot for my confidence, but probably didn't help me out too much with that whole learning proper hand selection thing.

For most of the first hour or so I was the top 30 and had a fairly comfortable stack when all the no-shows finally started busting. As the tables started to fill up with actual players, I started loosing some hands, and stopped growing my chip stack. The killer was when seventh street brought me trip eights in a big three way pot where no one was likely to have a low, but brought one of my opponents a full house queens full of twos with all three queens hidden.

Before I knew it I was dangerously close to the next big hand I played being almost a guaranteed all-in. I decided to wait until I had what I thought would be a monster, or else hope I could just hang on until the money.

It was rolled up jacks that killed me. I think starting off with three of a kind on the short stack in this game is bad luck, because the last time I played a 7 Stud hi/lo tourney (maybe it was horse) was a blogger event and I went out when I got all my chips in with rolled up 5s only to see my opponent's up cards come heart after heart after heart, and I lost to a flush. This time it was spades. I got all my chips in on fourth street, and cringed as he got spades on four upcards, and I failed to pair any of my other cards. He actually didn't get a flush, but managed a low straight and scooped the pot.

Oh well. I did have fun playing unlike previous attempts at this format where I just sat there and got abused and felt like I had no clue what I was doing. I'll have another shot next week at the normal 7 stud event.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSOP Cash

I made my first WSOP cash tonight. Technically I wasn't actually in a WSOP event, but I did earn some cash as the result of it, so I'm counting it.

As I've mentioned before FullTilt has a fantasy poker league where you pick players to money in each event and get points based on the amount of cash they win. For each event the top 1000 fantasy teams qualify for a freeroll.

I qualified for event #3 I think but the tournament for that ran yesterday. Only 300+ of the 1000 people registered for the tourney, but I was on vacation and by the time I got to my hotel room I had already busted out in 167th place. Top 90 pay. Oh well. I did get a free hat for being in the top 50 in fantasy points.

I also qualified for event #7, the $2000 Omaha Hi event and with the freeroll running tonight. I We're now at the 2 hour break and we've just hit the money. So I have won at least $10 at this year's WSOP. Go Me.

Either last year I only qualified in Holdem events, or they mixed it up this year. Which ever game was played in the tourney for which you finish in the top 1000 fantasy players, that is the game that is played in the freeroll.

So I just cashed in a Omaha tournament. Sure 1/4 people who actually registered cashed, and I'm guessing most of them don't know what they are doing in Omaha, but I still cashed. And for the record I don't know what I am doing either.

I started off not having any clue what I was doing and dropping my stack to about half of what I started with. Then I went on a bit of a run, hitting my draws, picking up orphaned pots and stealing blinds from the abundance of people who didn't show up.

Then I started running into a number of aggressive players and didn't know what to do. I have no idea what kind of hand is worth defending pre-flop in Omaha, so I folded a ton, and limped into the money.

I managed to hang on for 27th place and a fat $10 for my efforts. If had lasted until 19th I could have doubled it at $20. I was hoping for a top 10 finish because the they are entered into a freeroll at the end where the winner gets a seat to the 2008 WSOP which is probably my best shot at making it. Alas it was not to be.

On of the problems with pot limit tournaments is that you can't go all-in pre-flop without some cooperation from the rest of the table, which meant the all-in tards were forced to play their hands which in turn made the tourney last longer. On the other hand maybe that helped be because even when I was bored and just wanted to push and end it I couldn't.

I'm registered for the Stud Hi/Lo later this week. That should be interesting. I suck at Omaha, but I look like an expert compared to my 7-Stud skills. Hi/Lo? I might as well close my eyes and mash on the keyboard.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Fantasy Poker 2007

Full Tilt is running their fantasy poker game again for this year's WSOP. It's kind of a pain to get to. Rather than just going to the website and logging in you have to login to the poker client then go to the cashier, and select "My Promotions" and then goto the fantasy poker promotion.

For just about every event, you select 15 fantasy poker players, 5 in group A, 5 in B and 5 in C. You earn points equal to the players cash winnings in group C, 2x winnings in B and 3x in A. There are prizes for the top fantasy finishers in each event and total for the season, including entrances to freerolls, and FullTilt merchandise. Last year I made it into three of the freerolls and just missed the huge one at the end.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

2007 WSOP Schedule Released

The schedule for the 2007 WSOP is available here. Unlike last year's World Series of Holdem events this one seems to be rather diverse. There are a number of H.O.R.S.E. events, a S.H.O.E. event, a razz, 2-7 draw and triple draw lowball, a number of stud and omaha events and of course a bunch of hold'em events.

In addition to the usual $10,000 hold'em main event, there is also a $10,000 Omaha event and they brought back the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E.

A number of events have the "World Championship" prefix. I don't know if you get an extra shiny bracelet for winning those or just get to add "WC" after your name when signing autographs for your hundreds of fans.

Personally I'm glad they mixed it up a bit this year. I hope the broadcast more events than just holdem and the one token day of omaha this year. Last year by the time the main event episodes were over, I was so sick of watching 8 guys I've never heard of and one pro battle for another $1000 hold'em bracelet that I don't think I watched any episodes on ESPN other than the main event.

I would bet that part of the reason there are so many non holdem events this year is because many sites are starting to offer other games and people are enjoying them. Holdem has that whole been there done that feel to it and people are lookng for something new. Of course the number of people qualifiying online is likely going to be reduced thanks to a certain change in U.S. laws, and mass exudus from the U.S. market by many online sites. I wonder what the percentage of online qualifiers was for most events last year, and if that percentage will go down or not this year. I guessing it will be down, but apparently Harrah's doesn't think so, since there are seven more events this year and they talk about additional space for side games/tourneys and what not.

Anyways, you have 5-6 months to qualify, so get started.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

2006 WSOP Final Thoughts

I finally finished watching the 2006 WSOP main event. Despite the fact that I already knew Jamie Gold won, I was rooting for him to lose every hand he played for the last five or six episodes. There were so many other likeable guys in the tournament; it’s a shame that an asshat had to win. He certainly wasn’t the most obnoxious guy playing, but he continually did things that would have really pissed me off if I was playing with him. Maybe that was by design. I worked for him either way.

While Gold was undoubtedly catching more than his fair share of cards, I think that other people’s perception of him getting lucky, and his assholedness combined to cause the perfect situation for him. Even with his cards, I don’t know that I could have done nearly as well as he did.

People kept commenting that players were just giving him their chips. I think in many situations where he busts a player, that same player would have gotten away from the hand were they up against anyone else.

Everyone thought Jaime was getting lucky. What do you do when you see some luckbox at your table with more chips than he knows what to do with? You figure you can outplay him, and loosen up your play a bit. You think he’s not smart enough to get away from his top pair even though your raises are giving him every reason to believe you have two pair. In your excitement over the thought of taking the sucker’s chips, you don’t consider the possibility that he might actually have you beat, and you run that two pair right into his set.

Now add on to that the fact that you don’t like the guy. I don’t know how other players felt about Gold, but I’d have to think he rubbed some of them the wrong way. Your pot odds might not be quite good enough to call, but the satisfaction you would receive by winning a pot from that guy seems to make it worth the chance. And before you know it, you are suckered into a tough situation, and you’re on your way home.

Repeat that a process a few hundred times and we have the new champion. Give Gold’s cards to Allen Cunningham and he’s not going to make nearly as much out of them, because people aren’t anxious to get into a pot with him. Gold’s antics made it so that his opponents were just begging to get into pots with him. And they lost because of it.

Shenanigans or not, lucky or not, I think Gold played fairly well. You can’t not play well and win a tournament that size. He had a big stack and he abused people with it. Congratulations to him.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSOP Final Table

The final table for the WSOP Main event is currently underway. As always, you should check out Pauly’s blog for live updates.

Looks like I was a bit off in my predictions. Stars players made up three of the final nine, and only one FullTilt pro made it. Allen Cunningham is the only big name left, and I’ve been rooting for him for the past few days. Why is that you ask? Because he’s on my fantasy poker team of coarse.

It’s amazing what fantasy sports will do for your interest in that sport. Five years ago the only football I watched was Bears games, and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about players on any other team. After a few years of fantasy football, and much to my wife’s chagrin I now enjoy watching just about any pro game, and I know who just about every skill position player is. And trust me; nothing impresses the ladies like knowing the average yards per game of the third string WR for some football team halfway across the country.

It’s almost the same for the WSOP this year. I participated in the goofy fantasy league at FullTilt and even though there wasn’t much riding on it I would still check PokerWire.com each night to get chip counts and see how my picks were doing. Last year, without some competition that involved me, I would check the results as they came in, but this year I definitely followed the standings more closely. So yeah, you want me to be interested in some sporting event? Set up a fantasy league and give me something to play for, and I’m in.

WSOP Final Table Prop Bets

I probably should have posted this last week, but of the 10 people who make it to the final table of this year's WSOP main event, do you think there will be more representatives from PokerStars or FullTilt? I don't know the exact numbers, but I think 20-25% of the field qualified through PokerStars. I could be way off though. FullTilt doesn't have nearly as many, but I think they have more professional players representing them than all other sites combined.

If I had to set a line I would put the over/under on number of PokerStars players at 3.5 and FullTilt players at 2.5. This would be players that qualified through that site, or were sponsored/endorsed by the site prior to the start of the tournament. As the tournament progresses I think the unclaimed players are quickly recruited for advertising purposes, so those people don't count.

Of coarse that leaves four seats left. I would give one to a Party Poker qualifier, one to some random small site, and two mystery seats, maybe people that bought their way in or made it through a live satellite.

WSOP Field

There were a few more than 8500 participants in this year’s WSOP main event.    Unless the US government actually succeeds in stopping online poker, and as a result the way the majority of the field found $10,000 to spare for a poker tournament, the size of the field is going to become unmanageable in the next few years.  Already its broken down into four heats of 2125 players who play down to about 800, before combining into two more heats before playing down to 800 again.  Soon you are going to be waiting a week in between your day one and two sessions.  

I know this isn’t going to be a real popular option, but I think automating the process via online play for the first day would make everything easier.  You could even use those electronic tables.  Everyone would still show up to the tournament, the cards and chips would just be virtual for a while.  This eliminates the shuffling dealing and chip counting/stacking from the process and I imagine it would greatly speed up the whole tournament.  You wouldn’t have to play for 20 hours straight on day one just to get 2500 players down to 800. You could probably take your field of 10,000+, play for 10-12 hours and be down to 1600, or maybe even 800 by the end of the day.  From there you would still have a weeklong tournament before crowning a champion.  And yes I pulled those numbers out of my ass.  Where did you think I got them from?  

True, the event changes drastically when you do this, but I think it would be worth it.  Plus, it’s more indicative of today’s game.  Poker is played more often than not on the internet, so wouldn’t it make sense to have the championship event also take place, at least somewhat online?  After day one, you should have a reasonable enough field to go back to the old fashioned dealer method.  

The question now becomes, is it easier to manage multiple days worth of qualifiers with live dealers and everything that goes with it, or to set up a bajillion poker terminals in one place and have to deal with make sure every single one of them is functional.   Now that I think about it, setting up a network of at least 10000 poker terminals in a few days without running into any issues is probably impossible.  And somehow I don’t think players that put down $10,000 for a tournament would be overly forgiving of technical malfunctions.  Maybe the live method would be easier after all.  Just be prepared to take a month or two off of work if you plan on advancing very far.  That’s about how long it will take to make it to day three.

WSOP vs WPT

WSOP vs WPT


Warning: I may just be stating the obvious in the following post, and I’m sure someone else has brought it up before, so if I’m restating the obvious, I apologize.

I think it goes without saying that the two most popular poker shows on TV right now are the World Poker Tour, and World Series of Poker. In general, I feel like the WSOP is a more interesting, and prestigious event and all things being equal I think I would choose to watch the WSOP over the WPT.

Despite my obvious preference for the WSOP, after watching a few episodes of both recently, I’ve realized that the WPT is a vastly superior show. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that the WSOP was THE World Series, I don’t know if the show would even be watchable.

Here’s the problem. In the WSOP telecasts, they feature a final table of nine players, and determine the winner by the end of the hour long show. Assuming after all the commercials, and features, and other fluff in the show, there is maybe 40 minutes of actual poker broadcast that means they have to eliminate one player every 5 minutes, or maybe three hands. With such little time to actually show game play, the show becomes a highlight reel of the hands people went out on. The ratio of hands where someone is all-in, to those where someone is not is disproportionately high. You aren’t really watching poker, its more like bingo.

Now, on the other hand, WPT has only six players at its final table, and a two hour long show. I’m going to assume between 80 and 90 minutes of actual play, after the commercials and other crap, which means someone gets eliminated about every 15-18 minutes. This allows them to show many more interesting hands, rather than just those where someone gets knocked out. You actually see strategy and table image, and you actually feel like you are watching players try to outmaneuver one another as opposed to just pushing all-in and praying.

It’s tough, because there are so many events to televise, but ESPN really needs to rethink their format. They really need to change it so that they have less people at their final TV table, or increase the length of their shows. Or better yet both.

So it that might have been obvious to everyone, and if so I apologize, but after watching some poker shows recently it became really apparent. And if it was obvious, then why hasn’t anyone at ESPN figured it out?

----

On a somewhat related note, Phil Hellmuth was in the last episode of WPT that I watched. Is there anything more enjoyable than watching him lose a hand? Especially one where he was the favorite going in? Could anyone possibly to be a worse loser than he is?

2005 WSOP Main Event Winner

And the winner of the 2005 WSOP Main Event is....





Joe Hachem!



Who?

Joe Hachem. I don't know. I never heard of him until this week. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from/about him in the near future. Check out the final table play by play at Pauly's Site.

2005 WSOP Main Event

Just in case you didn't know, the 2005 WSOP main event is underway. It looks like there were about 5600 players entered this year, with almost 1900 or so playing today. Check out http://taopoker.blogspot.com/ for live updates.

2005 WSOP Odds

In case you haven’t heard, the 2005 WSOP is going on now, and we are more than a week into the various events.

If you want to see the results as they happen check out these sites.

• World Series of Poker Live Blog


• 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery


• 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament Results


• 2005 World Series of Poker Live Chip Counts

Looking at the results for event number 2, I see that Scott Fischman came in second place which brings to mind the following question. How many times is ESPN going to mention “The Crew” in the WSOP coverage? They got more than their fair share of coverage last year, and this year they have a more established pro in Fischman.

According to their website, ESPN will be broadcasting for 2 hours a night, on Tuesdays between August 32rd and November 15, which by my count is 26 shows. Plus they have nine shows scheduled for the WSOP Circuit Championship from Juy 19th to August 16th. (See schedule here.)

Anyway, assuming they have 35 shows, I think “The Crew” will be mentioned at least 200 times. I also think they will do at least two of the mini feature segments on them (they called it “the nuts” last year, who knows what they’ll do this year). I would think they can find some more interesting things to do features on but I wouldn’t bet on it. Or maybe they can actually show some poker. Now there’s an idea.

Continuing in the feature segment category, I would predict at least two more with Chris Ferguson throwing cards through things. I wouldn’t be surprised if they even recycle last year’s footage. Last year he had three, two with him throwing cards and one with him demonstrating his card counting ability.

There is also going to be at least one feature on Phil Hellmuth. How can they resist? Nothing says good TV like a whiny arrogant poker player berating his opponents for beating him. I almost wish they wouldn’t film him during his tantrums kind of like how major league baseball doesn’t show the drunken fans that run out onto the field. They’re just looking for attention, stop giving them what they want and maybe they’ll stop acting like idiots.

So the official PokerWords over/under for various events in ESPN’s WSOP television coverage is as follows.

Number of Times The Crew is Mentioned: 200 (By the way I call “not it” on actually having to count the number of crew references.)

Number of segments featuring The Crew: 2.5 (The segment needs to be mostly about the crew, not just have them appear in the segment. For example showing Dutch Boyd’s chip trick skills doesn’t count.)

Number of segments featuring Chris Ferguson: 3.5 (The segment needs to be mostly about him, not just have him appear in the segment.)

Number of segments featuring Chris Ferguson throwing cards at things: 2.5

Number of segments featuring Phil Hellmuth: 1.5 (The segment needs to be mostly about him, not just have him appear in the segment.)

Number of times the term Poker Brat is used to describe Hellmuth: 37

Number of times Hellmuth is shown bitching about his opponents play after losing a hand: 22

Number of segments featuring the Women of Poker: 1.5 (The segment must be about the Women of Poker, not just contain a woman in the segment.

Number of times the phrase “xxxx player only paid $Y” or “xxxx player qualified for this tournament by playing a $Y online satellite” to get into this tournament, or something similar where xxxx is some previously unknown player and $Y is less than 100: 34

Number of times the phrase “This is player xxxx’s first time playing in a live tournament” or something similar is mentioned: 15

Number of Times I want to yell at Norman Chad for his commentary: 284

Anyone else have anything they want to add?

(Note: I reserve the right to change the above odds based on the results of upcoming events, and changes to ESPN’s scheduled coverage.)

(Also Note: I have pulled most of these number straight out of my ass, and they are for entertainment purposes only. I accept zero responsibility for any losses incurred by using these numbers for any sort of wagering type purposes)

(Also Also Note: If you were actually planning on using the above to place a wager that you might have a gambling problem and you should probably seek professional help.)


I wanted to try to put odds on who will win the main event, but with an expected 6000+ fields, and only moderate knowledge of the pros in it, that’s kind of hard. I tried grouping the players, to make is somewhat more manageable. Here’s the list I came up with in order of the likelihood of them winning.

PokerStars Qualifiers. I think they will be sending 10-15% of the entrants, and they have won the last two. If I was a betting man I would put my money here. Wait a second. I am a betting man. Let me try that again. If I was to bet on the WSOP winner, and this option was available, I would take it.

Other Online Qualifier. This represents a huge portion of the field, so you have to give them a decent shot of winning, just based on the number of players alone.

FullTilt Pros. They have about 30 of poker pro’s on their roster, so you would almost have to give them a decent shot at winning it.

Dan Harrington. The guy has made the final table at the last two WSOP. If had to pick any one person, it would be him.

Someone named Nguyen. No final table is complete without one.

Gus Hansen. Seems like no final table is complete without him either.

WPBT WSOP Qualifier.

I just got knocked out of the WPBT tournament on Noble Poker. What an uneventful tournament for me. I only saw the turn four times in the entire thing, and in all four cases I was either all-in or calling an all-in pre-flop. But, I took notes to do a tourney play-by-play and dammit that’s what I’m going to do. Boring or not.

We had 81 players register. Not a great number, most likely due to the fact that it’s at a new site. The tournament had 15 minute blinds, which was nice, and we started with T$1500.

Round 1. 10/20 Blinds. T$1500.

In the second hand I get QQ and raise to T$60. Everyone folds. That makes just about the most action I get all night.

Later in the round I limp with 96o from the small blind and see a flop of 627. I bet the pot (T$60) and the big blind raises to T$180. I don’t feel like risking a lot of chips with middle pair and a crap kicker, so I lay it down. He turns over 72o. I was almost brutally hammered. Thank god I didn’t push.

Round 2 20/40 Blinds. T$IDontRemember.

I steal a few blinds but that’s about it. Exciting, I know.

The consensus at the table is that the software sucks. I don’t think it’s that bad. There are two modes, a standard top-down mode and a first person 3-D mode. I think it was the people using the 3-D mode that were having problems.

Round 3 30/60 Blinds. T$1650.

I don’t think I played a hand this round. Is this intense or what? This has to be the most thrilling report you’ve ever read. Just wait it gets better. And by better I mean more of the same.

Round 4 40/80 Blinds. $T1560.

I actually play some hands this round. I steal some blinds with KQs.

I see a flop holding AQo when the BB calls my raise. I fold when he bets on a flop that completely misses me.

I have TT in the small blind. I plan on raising, but as I am taking notes on the previous hand, someone else bets. Before I realize he bet I raise. The big blind and original bettor call. Doh. Stupid notes. There’s an ace on the flop and I don’t have balls to try to claim it, so I fold when the big blind makes a pot sized bet.

1st Break. I have $1240 and am in 39th place. There are 55 players remaining.

Round 5 50/100 $1240

One of the players has no idea what this tournament is. He didn’t understand why the top two finishers both got $1500. He just saw WSOP qualifier on the tourney description and signed up. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t have five times as many chips as I do.

I’m dealt AJs in first position and raise to 200. The BB calls, and we see a flop of TTT. He checks folds to my bet.

CoolDog1029 (sorry I don’t known the corresponding blog) reraises a T$400 bet all-in pre-flop for $T1100 with a soooted hammer. He then hits a flush. And people claim 72 is a bad starting hand.

Round 6 100/200 $T1340.

I try to steal some blinds with K7o from the cutoff. The small blind reraises, and I have to fold. That sucked.

Shortly thereafter I get KJs and go all in for $940. After your avatar declares all in there is this chip noise that happens, similar to Party’s calling noise. It sounds like your all-in just got insta-called, and causes an unnecessary level of anxiety when you don't really want to get called. Of coarse the player immediately to my left does end up calling and he has KQ. I manage to hit a jack on the flop and I’m still alive.

I call someone’s pre-flop all in for $T640 and watch my AJ lose to his AQ when neither of us improve.

Later I call an all in for $T550 with KJ. He had just taken a bad beat so I figured he was on tilt. He had A5 the board helped neither of us. Now I’m down to T$605. Not my best performance.

Round 7 150/300 $T605.

I’m happy to see a number of other players go all-in and get eliminated, moving me up in the standings. It seems to be go-all-in-or-fold time. Not that I have much choice.

I make my final stand with JQs and get called by the big blind. I think if I had any sort of stack he would have folded, but he turns over his K4, and then proceeds to hit a 4 on the flop while I fail to improve.


So I finished 35th place. Yay.