Written By: EveryBonusCode.com
As of today, June 14th, the 2008 World Series of Poker has crowned a total of 22 new champions. To say it’s been an exciting start to the 55 event series would be an understatement. Some of poker’s biggest names have already won (and lost) bracelets, and the first female champion (in a non-ladies event) of the year has been crowned. On top of all this, the rebirth of an online poker scandal from last year has been brought back to life as well.
We’ve already seen poker giants Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, David Singer, and Nenad Medic take home bracelets. Matusow won the $5000 w/rebuys, No Limit 2-7 Draw event. Mikey bested an unbelievably tough field including most of todays toughest players. For his win, Matusow took home a nice check for $537,862. In defeat, Jeff Lisandro took second place and $347,004 and Barry Greenstein stuck another $225,552 on top of his growing stack of cash. Hmmm, I wonder where Barry keeps all that cash anyway?
Erick Lindgren won his long-awaited first WSOP bracelet when he won event #4, the $5000 Mixed Hold’em event. E-Dog beat out well known online - turned live pro Justin Bonomo heads-up to get the monkey off his back. Erick beat a healthy field of 331 top-notch players and won $374,505. For those of you who might be looking, the monkey is at the bar doing shots with Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Gordon.
One of the big stories going around this year is that Phil Ivey has made some seriously huge bets with other players for bracelet wins. Without hard facts we won’t try to tell you any actual numbers, but the somewhat qualified rumors are that it’s a bet into the millions. One of his bets is with Daniel Negreanu who won his first bracelet of the year in the $2000 Limit Hold’em event #20. As reported on Pokernews.com, when the event was over, Daniel raised his bracelet in the air and gleefully announced “Me-1, Ivey-0″. For his win, Negreanu won $204,874, plus $200,000 from Phil Ivey. Wouldn’t you love to be able to throw around $200K like that? We would.
We’ve also seen this years first female champion when Vanessa Selbst won event #19, the $1500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Selbst had a great showing at the WSOP last year, making a final table and proving that this girls has some big, big balls….maybe literally too. Wait, are we actually publishing that statement? The boss says “uh huh”, so there you have it. Seriously though, this chick has what it takes to win, and keep winning. While we wouldn’t go so far as to say we “like” her a whole lot, we definately give her huge props and expect to see her win again in the future. Selbst won a nice $227,933….bitch. Just jokes Vanessa, just jokes.
Want some controversy? This years WSOP has had some of that as well, as the man behind the man who helped to create, then cheat players at Absolute Poker won event #11, the $5000 No Limit Hold’em event. If you’ll recall, there was a debacle last year in which a player named Scott Tom was involved in a huge cheating scandal at Absolute Poker. Scott Tom was a co-owner and former President of Absolute Poker, and after a long, drawn out affair it was made public that he in fact used a ’super-user’ account where he could see the hole cards of his opponents and use this to his advantage at the tables. There is a great article about the Absolute Poker cheating scandal at CasinoSmack.com, with a complete timeline breakdown….very eye-opening stuff. Anyhow, Scott Tom’s father Phil won event #11 causing new focus on this (in internet terms) old news. Apparently Phil provided Scott with his initial investment capital for the sites original development. There are funny stories going around about railbirds cracking jokes and making sarcastic comments as the final table played out.
At this point we can only hope things stay as exciting as they’ve been. When well known, big name players win bracelets, tv ratings go up. So far it looks like the folks at ESPN are in for a great ratings boost this year, with lots of great stories to tell and lots of great action. People either love or hate Mike Matusow, but it’s undeniable that people love to watch him play. Daniel Negreanu is obviously a fan favorite, sure to generate high viewership as well. That’s all good news for poker, and good news for all of us. On top of this, the Main Event final table will not be played until 24 hours before it airs. So, once the final table has been set, play will end until November, one day before the final table airs on ESPN. What’s the reason? Well, the feeling is that the delay will generate a lot more interest in this years final table. The way the tournament has been played and aired in the past, by the time of the airing everyone already knows who won. This leaves the airing of the tournament to be less exciting as the only thing left to air is ‘how it played out’. Now, anyone who doesn’t want to know the results simply needs to stay away from poker sites for a single day (cough), and watch the event the day after it happens. There’s a lot of controversy over this topic, and there are reasonable arguments for each side.
Lets say you’re not such a great player, but you’ve gotten lucky a few times, had the tournament of your life, and find yourself at the final table with several million dollars at stake. Lets also imagine that I am Phil Ivey (Yes!). With 4 months in between this offers the weaker players at the table time to develop their skills and hire coaches as well. This will change the outcome of the final table, and some players think this hurts the integrity of the game. However, the majority of players seem to agree with this concept, willing to give up their advantages in order to help build the popularity of the game. Also, the final 9 players will now have better opportunities for gaining sponsorship and exposure, making them somewhat ‘poker stars‘ before the final table plays out. Isn’t it better television when the table is full of players we know? That’s the concept they’re going with, we’ll see how it plays out.
