3 Things Poker Players Can Be Thankful For

   Happy Thanksgiving Readers! It's been a tough year for us poker players with all that's taken place with the DOJ and online poker, Congress' epic failure to license and regulate the industry, and some countries and US states rejecting proposals for casinos and online gaming, but fear not! There are a few bright spots, and some reasons to be optimistic.

   It was a record setting year at the World Series of Poker. There were 75,672 entrants from 105 different nations. There were 58 events spanning a 50 day period, and the total prize pool was $191,999,010 making it the largest WSOP in history. The Main Event was the third largest poker tournament all time in a year which saw the epic take down of the three biggest online poker sites in the world. ESPN covered the final table and showed every hand on a 15 minute delay for the first time ever. This year's WSOP also hosted the largest live Pot Limit Omaha event in history with 1,071 entries, a 21 percent increase from 2010. 1st place was awarded $292,825. Next year the World Series of Poker will be hosting a 1 million dollar buy-in event which is unprecedented. A few WPT events saw an increase in traffic this year as well. These are clear signs that poker is still running strong.

   This week Governor Deval Patrick, of my home state of Massachusetts, signed a bill into law that will allow for the creation of three full-scale casinos and a slot-only casino. Massachusetts becomes the 40th state to legalize casinos and slot parlors. Opponents will likely seek a referendum to repeal the law in 2012, but personally I doubt they will be successful as this bill had a lot of support. It took Governor Patrick 3 years to get this done and he and his staff deserve a lot of credit. I happen to live on the western border of Massachusetts and the nearest casinos are Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods which are 2 hours away in Connecticut. There is also Turning Stone casino in upstate NY, but that's about 2 and a half hours (plus they don't serve alcohol there; less drunks mean less fish for us sharks to feed on). As it stands, I haven't played a live poker tournament in months! The signing of this bill could potentially put a casino just 45 minutes to an hour away thereby cutting my travel time in half. It looks as though I'll be playing a lot more live poker tournaments in the near future. Hooray!

   Now hear this, now hear this. Phil Ivey has returned to tournament poker. Finally! He sat out this year's WSOP in response to allegations against Full Tilt Poker, the website he endorsed. According to cardplayer.com, Ivey entered the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Macau main event on Wednesday. With over 13 million dollars in lifetime earnings, 8 WSOP bracelets (none of which are in No-Limit Hold Em), four top 25 finishes in the WSOP Main Event since 2002, and a WPT title, Ivey is considered by many, including myself, to be the best all around player in the game today. It looks as though poker has its "ambassador" back. Thank God! Welcome back Phil!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait... And Bet

   Well The WSOP Main Event is over and congrats are in order for the winner Pius Heinz and the other 8 contenders for a very entertaining Final Table. It was definetly fun to watch. ESPN's coverage was excellent and it was great to be able to see every hand played. There were questionable plays, questionable analysis, and some questionable wardrobe choices, but all in all whether you are a poker fanatic (like myself) or not you had to appreciate the conditions and the pressure these nine individuals were under. In this post I will be discussing the first three eliminations.

   The short stack coming in to this final table was Jesse Eisenberg look-alike Sam Holden. He wins my award for Best Hair. The only Englishman at the table he had quite an uphill climb. Unfortunately his A-J suited in spades ran into Ben Lamb's A-K and he was out in 9th place. Personally, I don't think he had to go broke there. Lamb open raised and Holden could have called and taken position in the hand. When the flop came three clubs, Holden easily could have folded and gotten off the hand leaving himself with over 10 big blinds. If I came in as one of the short-stacks, my goal would be to not finish 9th. Let someone else make that mistake.

   The second smallest stack entering play on Sunday was also the youngest player at the table 21 year old Anton Makiievski from THE U-kraine. Anton gets the award for Hardest Name To Spell. His bust-out was probably the worst. I should give him an award for that too. Anton went all-in with K-Q off and was called by Heinz and his 9's. Flop came K-J-J and the turn was a 9. The river blanked and Makiievski was out in 8th. Exactly where he entered the final table. No harm no foul on his decision. He took a bad beat. Nothing more you can say other than shit happens. He played well and picked a decent hand to move with in my opinion.


   That brings us to our 7th place finisher, and one of my horses, Bahdi Bounahra. He came in running 6th and played well I thought. He wins an award simply for holding his own against significantly younger opponents. The oldest player, and possibly least experienced, made a good showing and made his country proud. His bust-out hand was A-5 offsuit, but I don't fault him for it. He was extremely short on chips compared to the rest of the table and A-5 is better than A-6 as a blind all-in hand. Good for Bahdi and good for Belize. Way to go!


   In my next post I'll discuss the 6th, 5th, and 4th place finishers. Till then...