The Spectacle of Poker

Poker has come a long way from the dingy, dark-alley-up-a-dark-staircase-into-a-poorly-lit-smoke-filled-room games that were played back when guys like Doyle Brunson, TJ Cloutier, Stu Unger and Johhny Moss were making a name for themselves. Finding the right game, travelling on buses, eating fast-food and worrying about getting beaten up or worse were just part of the lifestyle. You got in, made money, and got the hell out as fast as you could.

Luckily, thanks primarily to the invention of the hole-card camera and on-line play, Poker is celebrating a period of massive success. Today's top players can command appearance fees comparable to top TV & movie stars, musicians and athletes. They can be seen on TV, not just as participants in one of dozens of different televised poker games, but also in commercials for online poker sites. As the game gets bigger, so too do the egos of the top players.

Probably the best example of this is Phil Hellmuth. Possibly the best player in poker (just ask him, he'll tell you), Phil is also one of the most recognizable players. If he was successful at the table, but introverted and hiding from the spotlight, we would still know who he is for his 11 WSOP titles, but it's Phil's antics at the table and away from the table that make him the social phenomenon he is today.

Phil is known for never being shy about saying what's on his mind. In an age where most players have been trained to be aware that the media is always watching, Phil doesn't seem to care. When giving exit interviews, just after being eliminated from a tournament, Phil will say what's on his mind, even if it means calling his opponents donkeys, or worse. That's what makes Phil so great to watch, you never know what he's going to say or do, because he runs on emotion. He manages to control it while playing poker, just barely, and he loves the attention.

Last year, at the WSOP, he tried to make a dramatic entrance into the Main Event. Instead, he managed to destroy a race car, sponsored ultimatebet.net. Somehow, this actually worked in Phil's favor. All the media attention was on him, more so than if he didn't crash, and ultimatebet.net managed to use this to their advantage in TV commercials, saying unlike their cars, their website will never crash.

This year, with many people wondering what Phil would do to make his grand entrance, he did not disappoint. Phil arrive to the main event, fashionably late, of course, in a military vehicle that pulled up to the front doors. When Phil got out, he was wearing a 11-star military outfit, one star for each bracelet he's won at the WSOP. He was also accompanied by 11 ladies dressed in military fatigues, who walked him into the Main Event room, for all to see.

“I’m glad he didn’t crash this year,” said World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “If Phil was able to make an entrance that is bigger than anyone else’s entrance and do it without injuring himself or any of his colleagues, I think that’s a good thing.”

I wonder what's in store for 2009?