The most obvious thing to learn is simply, how the game is played. You can pick up the rules (and customs) of the game just by watching. We all have to start somewhere and where better than the Formula One of Cards. Look a bit deeper and you’ll see how players maximize the potential of their (good) hole cards. Check out the early raises, reflecting the higher percentage of winning the pot. It may be Poker Rules Page One to you, but the WSOP shows you how you really make your money work for you. Sometimes the TV producers give you a heads up display on the screen as to what percentage each player has of winning the pot. Take a god hard look at these, and if you find yourself thinking, I’d have stayed in on that hand (when it shows a 12%) chance think again. ESPECIALLY if staying in would have rivered you a straight (respect the odds). Similarly Take note of rounds expert players folding (seemingly) strong hands listen to the to the commentators as they explain the psychology and reasoning, they know what they’re talking about. If you don’t have your own table character watch the pros at The World Series of Poker, as they are some of the finest tight and loose players in the game. Watch the way players play and work out what would work for you.

The next one is a great free tip for playing poker. This is something that is a lot easier to do when you’re off the table. Sit and quietly watch how those pros act when they’re playing. Because of the glass topped tables you’ll be able to know when they’re bluffing. Is there a twitch, a tell, do they look scared do they look overly confident. You may never have the chance to sit opposite them and bankrupt a pro working on his tell till the sun comes up, but in more general terms they will show you how to be “the Grey man” that’s an unreadable slate who could be holding the nuts of garbage. Look at their body language and the way they carry themselves, particularly when they are bluffing.

Once you’ve done your learning and feel that you’ve had enough schooling for one day, crack open a cold one, watch and enjoy some of the best games players on the planet ply their trade at the highest of high tables.

Nine is the magic number

The final table was decided in the early hours of Wednesday 27th July and already bookies are quoting odds on the players. Hailing from the Emerald Isle is Ireland`s Eoghan O`Dea. Who is no stranger to cards as he’s the son and heir of poker legend Donnacha “The Don” O`Dea. Pappy O’Dea must be beaming with pride as his little boy is tied for joint-favorite to win the most prestigious of bracelets at odds of 9/2. It ;looks like we’ve got a top pair at the table already as Junior O’Dea  shares co-favorite spot with the man with more chips than Ronald McDonald, that’s chip leader Martin Staszko who is also at 9/2. If you like your horses dark check out this Czech, as he’s a relative unknown on the scene. What is certainly known is that he’s sitting on a stack of over 40million and that alone gives him a great chance to win the first prize, of $8.7 million (real) dollars.

Next up is Ben Lamb offered up at 11/2 to win his second bracelet of the series. Ben has had a stormingly good WSOP this year, he managed a second place finish in the $3,000 PLO, a twelfth place in $10,000 NL/Six Handed Championship, eighth in the $50,000 Poker Player`s Championship and rounded it off with a first place in the $10,000 PLO Championship. He’s definitely a player to watch, both by poker fans and the eighth he shares the table with. Can you hear it coming in the air tonight? Lamb shares 11/2 with Phil Collins, a Las Vegas local with a weighty online poker reputation, who is now turning to the live poker arena.

The third and final US player at the table is Matt Giannetti, who’s third in chips with 24.7 million. Giannetti is mostly a cash game player and is well respected in poker circles, yet an unknown quantity to Joe-public, he’s quoted at best odds of 15/2.There seems to be a baby at the table as Day 7’s chip leader (possibly worth an outside bet) is 21 year old Ukrainian Anton Makievskyi if he wins he will be the fifth player from the Ukraine to win a bracelet this year, but is out at 9/1 to do it.

There’s also a first at the table as Pius Heinz has become the first German to ever make the November Nine. It looks like turning up will have to do for Herr Heinz as he’s at 11/1 to win it, not surprising as he’s sitting down with just $16.4 million chips. Even worse off is Britain`s Sam Holden he’s the shortest stack at the table and is left out in the cold with odds of 12/1 to turn it around and beat the best, and travel back to the U.K with a bracelet.

Last (and possibly) least we have the oldest player at the poker table and longest in the odds that’s Badih Bounahra. He is still one to watch as he’s the only amateur in the final nine players (possibly an unreadable quantity) and he’s the first player from the Belize to ever make the final table of any WSOP event. He is available at best odds of 14/1 to win the WSOP 2011 Main Event.

Whatever happens it’ll certainly be worth watching come November.

It’s been said many times before that this year’s WSOP was in danger of being a runt with Black Friday, causing some nay-sayers to claim that the 2011 WSOP would be thinned down as Poker players the world over would have the assets unavailable leading to Spartan tables on  the floors of the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. But it was a case of “No way Jose!” 2011 WSOP might just’ve been the best yet!

There was no excuse to not watch as  55 of the Bracelet Tables were streamed live (ish) on a five-minute delay via the internet on WSOP.com and the remainder (the $25K Heads Up, $50K Poker Players Championship and the Main Event) were streamed on ESPN3. Plenty watched as the average number of viewers watching the live WSOP Main Event was a stonking 416,000; a double digit increases over last year’s WSOP coverage on ESPN.

With so many mighty men of the cards in attendance it seems unfair to pick out just one of the stars, but one guy deserve it. Mr Ben Lamb. Lamb had a mythical run, at the 2011 World Series of Poker, with four in the money finishes, he also won a WSOP bracelet in the 361-player $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship and a prize of $814,436; he finished 2nd in the 685-player $3000 Pot Limit Omaha Event 31 pocketing a prize of $259,918, he finished 12th in the 474-player $10,000 No Limit Hold ‘em / Six Handed Championship Event 46 making $56,140 and finished 8th in the 128-player $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship Event 55 for a prize of $201,338.  Lamb won his first bracelet this year, but he’s hardly a dark horse, before that, he was runner up in a $3,000 PLO event and made the final table of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. He is the current leader in the 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year points standing, plus he’s certain of at least another $700k to add to the $1.3 million he’s already pocketed this summer, as one of the November Nine?

The big WSOP story is that we’re down to the last nine of the main event will get underway in November.  On that table there’ll be;  gong all-in for a full house.

• Seat 1 – Eoghan O’Dea
• Seat 2 – Martin Staszko
• Seat 3 – Ben (see above) Lamb
• Seat 4 – Phil (not the singer)  Collins
• Seat 5 – Pius Heinz
• Seat 6 – Anton Makiievskyi,
• Seat 7 – Samuel Holden
• Seat 8 – Badih Bounahra
• Seat 9 – Matt Giannetti.

If you have the desire to pick over the stats of WSOP2011, you should know that there have been 57 Bracelets awarded. Brian Rast continued the 11-year streak of someone winning multiple bracelets in the WSOP, (Ben Lamb has a chance to join him, if he picks up the most coveted of bracelets of all by winning the Main Event). Howard “Tahoe” Andrew made it 38 consecutive years played at the WSOP his is the longest streak of activity in WSOP history, as Tahoe has had a seat at every one since 1973.  Poker is truly an international joy, twenty-two of the bracelets winners were non-Americans this year, with the final nine showing just  how diverse the game has become. There were actually 105 different countries represented this year.

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

The WSOPC held one if its quieter events this week, with only 98 players caring about the Western Regional Championship that kicked-off last Sunday. The lowest turnout for a Regional Championship so far, the San Diego-based event trails behind Atlantic City (Eastern Regional Championship) and Hammond, Indiana (Midwest Regional Championship, held in Hammond, Indiana).

There was no lack of top-quality talent, however, as a considerable arsenal of world poker’s top guns came out on parade. The likes of Daniel Negreanu, Kathy Liebert, Jonathan Little, Scott Montgomery, Carlos “El Matador” Mortensen, Shannon Shorr.were joined by recently-crowned 2011 National Heads-Up Poker Champion Erik Seidel.

The final started and finished on Wednesday. Tim West, fresh off his Wynn over unpopular Norwegian Annette Obrestad at the Wynn Classic, held a respectable chip lead and this saw him through to the heads-up against Eslami in the battle for the $282,242 first place prize, the diamond and gold WSOP Circuit ring and the seat at the WSOPC National Championship in May.

The heads-up took two hours, with West and Eslami clashing heads in relenting style but neither being able to make any visible damage in the other’s stack. It appeared inevitable that a biggest-hand-takes-all finale would be forthcoming.

Eslami didn’t have to do much once West had gone all-in with a marginally smaller stack, but much worse hand and by the turn he had become the WSOP Circuit’s Western Regional Champion:

Darvin Moon

The HPT, founded in 2005 by Todd Anderson and Greg Lang, is a popular “minor league” poker tour that offers an alternative to centralized, expensive national tournaments, such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour, that require a great deal of costly travel and high-cost buy-ins. The HPT has paid out well around $20 dollars in prize money in the last 6 years and this year includes fifteen events in casinos all across the country.

One of the main reasons for the HPT’s success is its comprehensive system of “qualifier tournaments.” A series of satellites to the championship event of an HPT stop allow 20% of the field for each main event to qualify from the initial outlay of a very low buy-in. An additional factor – that a number of the tournaments are held in Indian casinos – means that poker players as young as eighteen are legible to participate. The HPT also has its own TV show, which is shown on comcast. The HPT has also signed a contract with the Disabled American Veterans that makes them our sponsored charity partner, the Tour supports the nation’s heroes by designating a portion of its prize pools to the nonprofit organization.

Moon, the first player to be branded by the tour, will be adorned by the HPT logo throughout the season as he plays several tournaments in its name. He was considered to be “un-signable” after refusing sponsorship during his run as a member of the November Nine, declaring: “I don’t want a boss. I’ve come this far on my own; I don’t want to answer to anybody now.”

His signing to the HPT marks a changed man and attitude: “I’m very comfortable with the HPT folks. They’re like family.” A sentiment which has been mirrored by HPT President, Todd Anderson: “Darvin is our kind of guy. He’s worked hard his entire life and now lives the dream that attracts so many to the game.”

Moon, a former logger from Maryland, made his fortune at the 2009 WSOP after winning through $130-satellite tournament and turning that into his second-place prize of $5.18 million, losing the heads-up to champion Joe Cada.

Notable HPT players who have gone on to bigger things, include: Cody Slaubaugh who has finished 2nd in a WSOP event this year, won a WSOP Circuit event and the PokerStars Sunday Million; Mike Banducci won a WSOP bracelet in the $1000 No Limit re-buy and has cashed WSOP Circuit events; Mike Simon, the 2006 WPT Reno World Poker Challenge champion; and Brook Lyter second at the 2006 WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.