WSOP Update #11

Phan-tastic!

Congratulations to John Phan for winning the $2500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball - Limit event #40. In doing so, John becomes the only player to win 2 tournaments this year, defeating the likes of Robert Mizrachi and David Sklansky at the final table to cash-in for over $150,000. Phan beat Shun Ichida heads-up, where his experience was very evident. Uchida seemed to be waiting for premium starting hands, and let Phan's big stack steal small pots until Uchida had little choice but to make a move, and lost.

The $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better has burst it's bubble! Only 69 players remain, as the top 72 players got paid from a starting field of 720. Notable names still fighting for the bracelet include Erik Seidel, 2005 WSOP main Event winner Joe Hachem, Chris Ferguson and a name I haven't even heard of in a while, Chip Jett. Once considered a top player despite never winning a WSOP tournament, Chip has been snake-bitten. Chip, I'm rootin' for ya.

A few other events are on the go right now, but it seems like the big names of poker are taking some time off to relax and prepare. With the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event and the $10,000 Main event coming up soon, the players want to make sure they're not burnt out. For the Main event, they are anticipating record numbers again, as they have scheduled 4 different group of 3000 players, for up to 12,000 entrants. This means that there will be 4 "Day 1s" 2 "Day 2s", and it won't be until one week after the start of the event, on "Day 3" that all the player will be in one room at the same time. It's a massive tournament, and very impressive that the organizers do such a fantastic job of ensuring.

One issue I am concerned with is the schedule for the final table of the Main event. If you haven't heard, they are planning something entirely different from anything they've done before. From July 3 to July 14, the players will be put through a mentally grueling endurance battle, one of the things that makes this event so great, to get to the final table. From here, the players will have to wait until November 9th to resume play, with and November 10th to crown the 2008 Main Event Champ. And if no clear winner emerges from all of this, a sack race will be held on consecutive Sundays until a champion can be crowned. Ok, that last part may not be true.

The concept, as always, is about making money. The plan is to broadcast the final table live, and they want to wait a few months because they want a chance to broadcast all the other episodes before the final table begins. It's a great idea as a spectator, I will be watching every second of it, but if I were a player at the final table, I'm not sure I would like the idea so much. Aside from dealing with the nerves for that long, and losing your momentum that you'd spent so long building to get to this point, there are a lot of things that can happen in that period of time.