WSOP 2011

2011 WSOP by Dan on June 21, 2011

The annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) now up to its 42nd TIMES is being held in Las Vegas (where else?) and began at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, the fun ran from May 31 to July 19. Before the sun sets on the city that really never sleeps there will be 59 bracelets awarded and a kings’ ransoms won and lost.

WSOP 2011

The grand prix of cards finishes with the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship. And this year 55 of the bracelet events are being screened by WSOP.com (almost) live on the Internet. ESPN have announced they will be broadcasting six consecutive days of the main event with hole-cards ( “as live” on a 30 minute delay for obvious reasons) starting from day 3. This year marks the first time that all events will be streamed live since ESPN3 is streaming the games which are not being streamed by WSOP.com.

Due to Black Friday (aka United States v. Scheinberg), fans, handicappers and analysts were predicting a vicious drop in entries this year. In the past around 60% of attendees came to the WSOP via online poker rooms. And Black Friday looked to have dampened that route to the tables. It’s not just the loss of advertising and exposure that was a problem, plenty of players had their online accounts frozen thanks to the court ruling. Still WSOP 2011 looks to have beaten the odds with attendance numbers in the first week showing an increase over last year. WSOP 2010 attracted 72,966 players and generated a total prize-pool in excess of $187million.

There’s already been a popular winner, as Eugene Katchalov took the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event at the first weekend. He defeated 376 other players on his way to pocketing $122,909 at the fifth official tournament on this year’s schedule. If you can’t get to Vegas, you can still get involved with the games and have a bet on the winners. Pinnacle are offered “Will Patrick Antonius Cash in the Main Event?” at 5.080 (Yes) and 1.188 (No), they also gave odds on the same for Doyle Brunson (Yes 7.540, No 1.102), and there’s Chris Moneymaker at 7.550 (Yes) and 1.103 (No).

For the ladies they offer Annie (no surprise there) Duke making Cash in the Main Event; Yes at 7.590 and No at 1.103, and there’s Annette Obrestad making cash at 5.500, and failing to make cash at 1.167. With so many players it’s a real tough go to try and pick the overall winner. Patrick Antonius (+8000), Tom Dwan (+10000) and Daniel Alaei (at +12500) but the odds go all the way up to Nedad Medic and Isabella Mercier (both at +35000) all odds with bet365, but I’d be very wary of trying to picking the first amongst those equals.

More interesting are the “Who will last longer in the Main Event” matchups including Phil Hellmuth vs. Tony G (-130, EVEN respectively); Greg Raymer vs Joe Hachem vs Joe Cada vs Jonathan Duhamel (all getting +250), with Bodog. I prefer following the ladies (that’s not stalking) I’ll be having a side bet on Who Will Be the top Female in the WSOP Main Event 2011. The names to watch are Vanessa Selbst (+1000), Jenifer (my own personal favourite) Tilly at +2000, Tiffany Michelle at +3300 close to being favourites are Annie Duke, Annette Obrestad and Vanessa Rousso at +1200