WSOP November 9 a Hit

The American poker world has been in a tailspin since the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act passed two years ago. Looking to stem the tide of this ESPN and Harrah's tried something new. The held the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker till after the other episodes had aired on ESPN.

The main purpose of this was to minimize the number of people who knew the winner before the show aired last night. Not since Greg Raymer won in 2004 had I not know the winner before the final episode was shown. Trust me it makes a major difference. Here is what I liked:

Big Supporting Crowds- giving peoples friend 3 months notice on the final table allowed each player to have a large cheering section

Michael Buffer - when the action got heads up they brought out the 9 Million Dollars in cash that went to the winner. Then the had the worlds best announcer Michael Buffer introduce the two remaining players and did his "lets get ready to shuffle and deal"

Quality of Poker - Giving the players 3 months to bone up on poker made the final table less of a luckbox festival. Ivan Demidov played some of the best final table poker ever seen in the main event. Unfortunately it wasn't enough win as I van took down almost 6 million for second place.

Goodbye Poker Brat - Peter Eastgate the new great Dane of poker was the eventual winner as he combined high level poker with just enough lucksacking. Eastgate who is only 22 years old bested the record for the youngest player to take down the Main Event. This record had been held for almost 20 years by the poker brat himself Phil Helmuth. Sorry Phil, I guess the 10 other bracelets he won since then will have to comfort him.

Overall this was the best thing to happen to poker since the hole card cameras. Kudos to Harrahs, ESPN, Jefferey Pollack and whoever the nameless faceless person whose idea this was.

Krusty says HEY HEY

Poker Update November

Well fall is in full swing and poker is picking up a bit. ESPN just finished airing the last of the pretaped episodes of the WSOP Main event. The November Nine have been revealed to all of us. Soon we will see if Harrahs and ESPN's move to try to make this more of a "live" event. I hope so. Poker needs a shot in the arm.

Those of you who have been watching the march to the November Nine saw Phil Hellmuth and Mike Matasow make deep runs in the Main Event. We all know had either of these men made the final table the buzz would have benn extraordinary. This is the double edged sword of the "Moneymake Effect".

I have some rooting interests at the final table. I played extensively with Chino Rheem and Ylon Schwartz during my time out on tour. Had the final table happened the standard way it had in thep ast they would have been my top picks. The fact that the other 7 players have had 4 months to immerse themselves in poker the gap closes quickly.

In Atlantic City poker news. The US Poker Champions was recently held at the Trump Taj Mahal. And the real question is who the hell cares. This easily could have been the crown jewel of Atlantic City poker, instead they were down to just sixty some odd entries. Two years ago Atlantic City got tons of air time with the (12) one hour episodes on ESPN. That is a thing of the past.

Borgata is having $350k guarantee this month. These always sems to blow past the number. I can tell you that I dont think you will see them trying that 5 million gurantee anytime soon. That was a close one guys. They were a bad thunder storm away from having to post a having to post a big six figure number.

Looks like John Phan is on his way to CardPLayer Player of the Year in 2008. He should have won it in 2005 but Men the Master manipulated the system as he oft does to eek out a victory. Hope you get this one Razor. But dont lose sight of Betrand Grospellier. He is like Sacha Baron Cohen in Talladega Nights. I just hope they dont make out at the Bellagio in Dec where I am certain this thing will be determined.


Till then. Suck it

AJ