Well at least the WSOP gave us a cool moniker for the final table. In exchange, we have to wait until November to see the final table play out. Seems fair enough. Fortunately, suspense remains as long as the legendary Phil Ivey remains. Ivey is still only 7th and desperately needs a double up to get out of the danger zone, but his presence at the table alone will draw a great deal of attention.
Jeff Schulman, editor of Card Player Magazine, spiced things up with some outrageous comments.  The primary message was Schulman said he would …read more

The Main Event has shed 84 players from yesterday to leave us with 101 players. Phil Ivey is the lone mega star left and is doing well in the top 25. Another pro, Kenny Tran is hanging on but is dead last with 262,000 chips.
Peter Eastgate and Prahlad Friedman are in the 50-75 range. Dennis Phillips and Antonio Esfandiari are looking even better with both placing in the top 35.
I have a very good feeling about Ivey. He’s much different from other pros in that he doesn’t play with fear. He has ice in his …read more

Independence Day wasn’t a great one for the WSOP as Main Event attendance dropped to 873 registers for day 1b from 1,116 on day 1a.  This is also down from recent years of Main Event play.  After 1a, Redmond Lee was the cheap leader with nearly 135,000 chips and interestingly Jason Alexander (aka George Castanza) actually ended up 6th.
Alexander also had his voice off the felt, offering a great soundbyte to ESPN360.com on the November final table.  “It’s becoming something the game is not meant to be.”  In stark contrast, Mike Sexton suggested just to go with the flow and …read more

Count me as a strong opponent to how this year’s WSOP played out.
I get it.  I really do.  This was a marketing, money making manuever to increase exposure and advertising dollars.  I can’t fault the executives for pushing this end, but that doesn’t mean I liked how it went down.
The WSOP is the ultimate poker endurance challenge, the marathon of all marathons, and now when you make it to the terrific ten, there’s a four month wait before you play out the field?  I think this goes to far away from the game.  The game is supposed to retain its …read more