At the 2009 WSOP a one-off $40,000 tournament started the longest running poker festival in the world to celebrate the series’ 40^th anniversary. That particular event attracted 201 players and was eventually won by Vitaly Lunkin of Russia who netted $1,989,120.

This year Harrah’s, owner of the World Series of Poker, have introduced the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship which will see some of poker’s elite battle it out over eight different poker variants. The games to be played are fixed-limit Hold’em, fixed-limit Omaha hi/lo split, Razz, Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud hi/lo split, no-limit Hold’em, pot-limit Omaha and 2-7 Triple Draw. Games will rotate every eight hands although the final table will be solely no-limit Hold’em.

Harrah’s have decided to use this tournament to replace the $50,000 HORSE event which attracted only 95 entries last year, down from 148 in 2008. Much of the blame for the reduced figures must go down to the decision to not air the final table on ESPN so many of the player’s sponsors refused to buy their players into the tournament. This mistake will not be repeated in 2010 as the final table of the $50,000 event will be broadcast by ESPN who have the rights to the WSOP for the next couple of years. Tournament poker videos of the event should also be available.

Another new tournament that is sure to draw in the crowds, especially the internet tournament specialists, is Event #52 – the $25,000 6-max no-limit Hold’em tournament. Each of the players will start with 75,000 chips and play to blind intervals starting at 150/300/25, increase every hour. The short-handed format should generate a lot of action and the coverage of the event should boost ESPN’s viewing figures as thousands will tune in to see some super-aggressive poker.

Parker and Serock had a great heads up battle, but when the pots were big, Parker was the one that was holding onto the winning hand. This was pretty much the same thing that happened in Event 14 as he didn’t want all the hands, but he won the ones that shifted the chips. Here is the recap of the final hand.

Brock had just won a big hand and had Serock on the ropes. Serock was on the button and raised it to 200,000. Brock came right back over top of him to make it 1,000,000 and Serock pushed all in. Brock made the immediate call and turned over QQ to Serock’s 1010. The board came out 7sAs2cKc and a Qc on the river just added insult to injury. Brock takes down the tournament, the bracelet and a huge payday of $552,745.00. Serock will get $341,783.00 for second place.

In other tournaments…

Event 20, $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, has finally achieved their final table. Someone that we have not heard much from lately in the world of poker is still alive in this and the res t of the table better watch out. Eric Seidel is sitting in third place with about as much as the leader, but he is easily the best player left at this table. The players will pick it up at 2:00pm on Thursday to decide the bracelet winner. Here is your final table:

John-Paul Kelly – 627,000
Jason Dewitt – 476,000
Eric Seidel – 337,000
Kyle Carlston – 320,000
Marc Tschirch – 268,000
Andrew Radel – 250,000
Kirk Steward – 231,000
Aaron Virchis – 191,000
Ravi Raghavan – 145,000

The $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event still has 21 players remaining and Gavin Smith (121,000) is still alive, but far down the board. The leader at the end of the day was Zac Fellows (471,000). These guys have a long day ahead of them as they will play till they have a winner on Thursday. There are coming back a little earlier to get it going and will start play at 1:00pm.

Event 22, the $1,500 NL Hold’em Shootout was a pure bloodbath with 900 of the 1,000 entrants hitting the rail on day one. Day 2 will start with 10 tables and everyone is at 45,000. If you are unfamiliar with how the shootouts work, they must play down to a winner at each table before the next round wins. Once this round is over, we will have our final table and everyone will have 450,000 in chips when they start play.

Event 23, the World Championship NL 2-7 Draw Lowball has also gotten underway and it is packed with pros. Featuring the smallest field of any event, only 96 players, everyone wanted in for a bracelet shot. There are still 60 players remaining and they should have no problems making a quick day of it down to the final table. Roland de Wolfe leads the way with 180,300 in chips.

This is great news for poker fanatics as the wait to see the live action is often delayed until well into the summer when all of the action is over. Unless you are in Vegas, you would not have the opportunity to see the hands as they are unfolding. Now instead of reading about them, you can actually see them live.

This is so much better than actually reading about the tournament the day after it happens. What we see on television is the edited down version. It is no secret that television has changed poker forever, and this may actually get some sanity back into the game. Seeing the grind of the table and the set up of a bluff as it happens is much better for poker than showing randomly selected hands.

While all of the events may not be shown, there is a significant portion that is already scheduled. Between the two sites, it looks like close to two dozen of the tournaments are going to get air time on the internet. Included in these are some of the biggest events of the series. The $10,000 Heads-Up event on June 15th will be shown on ESPN360.com and on June 30th, the $50,000 HORSE event will air on the same site.

The highlights for BluffMagazine.com would appear to be the $2,500 Mixed Pot Limit Omaha/Hold’em tourney on June 5th, the $1,000 Ladies NL Event on June 9th and the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event on June 25th. For a complete rundown of the online schedule, you can go to either BluffMagazine.com or ESPN360.com and see all tournaments that will be aired.

If you are looking for a huge field in a lower buy in, you are going to want to get out there early and play in the first open event or you will want to wait until the end and play in the buy ins that are close to the main event. The first event typically has one of the largest fields of the event. The later events also get big fields as everyone is scrambling for the last shot at a bracelet.

Something else to consider is how long and how many days do you or can you play for. If you are going after one of the events that are mentioned above, you can expect to be in the chair for about 12-14 hours during the first day and another marathon session on the second day. A lot of these early events go for 3 days and that is a huge time commitment that you have to be ready for if you are really going to compete.

If you are looking for a legitimate opportunity to take down a tournament, you may want to consider more of the ones that start about half way through the WSOP. More specifically, you want to look at tournaments that are the day before or day after some of the larger buy ins that you know the professionals are going to be in. For instance, the HORSE Event is something that they all look forward to. However, the price of the event dictates that only the best of the best and the richest of the richest are going to be in it. This means the tournaments that are bookends to that will be lacking professional players and therefore you can have an easier time of it, hopefully.

Another reason you may want to look at coming into some of the tournaments that are scheduled during the middle is because a lot of the players that are there for the whole stretch begin to get a little wary and if they aren’t cashing, they also get very frustrated and start to make sloppy plays. Coming in fresh will give you an added edge over them.

We all know that everything has to be lined up perfectly in order to cash in one of these tournaments, let alone make the final table. You need to make sure you can get everything possible to fit your style of play and put you in the best scenario. Study the formats and schedules thoroughly to decide which tournament will actually give you the best chance for win. That little edge may just get you some new jewelry.

Play progressed somewhat slow to begin with but soon picked up as the structure for this even seems a little fast. Phil Ivey took down a nice three way pot during a stud 8 round against Jason Newitt and Thomas Bihl. Ivey led the action on fourth and fifth streets. Bihl caught a pair of queens on sixth, and bet out showing a board of (X-X)Jc-9s-Qd-Qc. Ivey raised showing a board of (X-X) 6c-5s-6s-Jd. Newitt folded. Seventh Street was dealt face down and Bihl checked to Ivey, who fired out a bet. Bihl made the call. Ivey showed 6d-5c for his down cards for the full house and Bihl mucked. At this point in the event, Ivey was around 18,000 in chips.

Several tables had very strong lineups but none compared to table 8. Table 8 had Doyle Brunson, Chad Brown, Max Pescatori, Thor Hansen, John Juanda, Chris Bjorn, Jean-Robert Bellande, Robert Wiliamson III, and some unknown guy. Oh wait, the unknown guy is the dealer.

Chad Brown ended up being the first big name eliminated from today’s H.O.R.S.E. event. In an Omaha 8 or better round, Chad Brown made it two bets to go on a flop of 5h-2c-7h. Both Robert Williamson III and Jean-Robert Bellande made the call. The turn of the Qc and the river of the 10h were checked down. Williamson showed 8h-6c-3s-Ac for the nut low and Bellande showed 6d-3h-2h-Kc for the flush. Brown mucked his hand and headed out of the tournament area.

Andy Black was the next big name to hit the door. During a stud round, Black made a raise on Fourth Street showing a (X-X) Jd-4h. The original bettor, Ivo Donev, made the call showing (X-X) Jh-5s. Black caught a 3c on fifth and Donev caught the 3s. They both checked. On sixth, Donev fired out a bet after catching an Ah. Black only had three 25 denomination chips and made the call after catching the 2c. Donev showed Js-9h for a pair of jacks. Black showed A-Q for a wheel draw. Donev caught a nine on the river for jacks up and Black only caught a king, and Andy faded to Black.

Phil Hellmuth has been really holding his own today. He has been near the top of the chip lead for most of the session. In an Omaha 8 hand between himself, Layne Flack, and Neal Friets, Hellmuth bet out on a board of 5h-6s-4h-6d and Flack moved all in. Hellmuth and Friets called along. The river fell the Jd and Hellmuth bet out. Friets made the call. Friets showed 2s-3d-9c-7s for a seven high straight and a 6 low. Hellmuth then flipped over Ac-3c-6h-6c for quad sixes and second nut low. Flack commented, “Quad sixes and the second nut low, is that all you got?” He then mucked his hand and departed from the tournament area.

Shortly afterwards Mike “the Mouth” Matusow started razzing Hellmuth about the fact that Hellmuth has not won a bracelet in a non-holdem event. This is actually true. Hellmuth has 11 gold bracelets, but all in one form of holdem or another. Norman Chad has been quoted as saying, “He is a one trick pony, but boy, what a trick.”

H.O.R.S.E. is not the only thing being played today. During the breaks Mike Matusow, Doyle Brunson, John Juanda, and Phil Hellmuth decided to play some $1,000 a point Chinese Poker. Unfortunately for Matusow, he didn’t win a hand. The crowd could hear his tirade across the room after the break.

Thor Hansen again could not summon help from Odin and busted out from today’s event, although we do not have the details of his bustout. Dave “DevilFish” Ulliott busted out shortly after losing a big stud pot against Gary Jones “ace high.” Michael Binger was eliminated by David Williams when Binger’s buried queens could not outdraw Williams split aces. Chris Ferguson and Mike “Timex” McDonald were also casualties of the last level.

After a 12 and ½ hour session, the first day of the H.O.R.S.E. event concluded with Phil Ivey in the lead. This should come as a shock to noone since Ivey is considered by many to be the best overall poker player alive. In a shocking development to all, Phil Hellmuth is in second place with 54,200 chips. Woody Deck is third in chips at 37,500. Daniel Negreanu and Howard Lederer are both hovering around the 30,000 chip mark. At present it appears that Richard Ashby is the short stack at 3,200 in chips. For some unknown reason, Mike Matusow did not report the amount of chips he had remaining, but he is indeed still in this event. It also appears that Doyle Brunson busted somewhere around the end of the day, but we do not have any information on how this occurred.

56 players survived Day 1 of this £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. Tomorrow promises to be a long day as we are expected to play to the final table. With the fast structure of play, expect a lot of early bustouts and then play to slow to a grind as we approach the money bubble. Only 16 players will be paid in this event with 16th place paying £4,812. The winner of this event will take £76,999 and the coveted gold bracelet. Day 2 of this event will start Sunday at 2 p.m.

First, let’s explore single table satellites.  Most of the single table satellites at the WSOP are 10 handed no limit holdem.  Each player starts with the same amount of chips and plays until a winner is determined.  Many times, players will chop one of these satellites when they reach heads-up.   A $125 satellite will win you an entry into a $1,000 event.  A $175 will win you entry into a $1,500 event.  The $225 satellites will cover a $2,000 event.  $325 satellites win your entry into a $3000 event.  The $550 satellites will win your way into a $5,000 event.  Finally the $1,000 satellites will win you an entry into a $10,000 buy-in event.

No limit holdem satellites are not the only type offered, but they are the most plentiful.  With the exception of stud based games, satellites are 10 handed.  Stud based games are 8 handed.  The floor staff claim that they will offer any type of satellite desired, but unless you have a group ready to play now, don’t expect satellites for any game other than holdem except the day before and the day of a mixed event.

Next, let’s look at multi table satellites.  Multi table satellites are usually for the Main Event.  Players put up either $500 or $1,000 each and a certain number of Main Event seats are offered based on the prize pool.  These satellites are referred to as Mega Satellites.  They are scheduled at specific times in the day.

For those wanting to play in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, your only viable option is the $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. mega.  The same rules apply as the mega above, but the game is H.O.R.S.E.  This is one type of satellite that you should expect to see even top named pros enter.  I have watched names such as Layne Flack and Andy Bloch try to win their way via this option in the past.

The type of satellite you will want to play obviously will depend on what event you are interesting in playing.  You may even want to play a couple of different satellites to win your way in.   My first year at the WSOP, I chopped two satellites to win my way into the $1,500 stud event.  I paid a total of $300 to enter my way in.  I then later on won my entry into a $1,500 Limit Holdem event via satellite.

Starting with this past World Series you will find the single table satellites in the Tropical Room.  Multi table satellites are held in either the Brasilia room or in the Amazon Room.  The HORSE satellite is almost always held in the Amazon room so that they can attract a crowd.

Whichever satellite you play, play to win as there is typically one winner.  Satellites can be an inexpensive way to win your way into the big dance, so give them a shot.  Good luck to you at the tables.

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