Imagine that you had played poker for 4 or 5 straight days and then at the end of a marathon 14 hour day, you finally win your first bracelet. You have been waiting for this your whole poker playing and as you snap the bracelet into place, you hear the thundering applause of all 10 people that stayed up to watch the tournament until 3am.
The WSOP is finally addressing something that has had many people scratching their heads since the poker boom. Tournaments have lasted longer and longer into the night and bracelets were being won and there was barely a picture to capture the moment.
When the WSOP gets rolling later this month, the bracelet ceremony will now be conducted under all of the pomp and circumstance of the Olympic Medal Ceremony. At 2:20pm on the afternoon after the bracelet has been won, there will be a brief ceremony to include the playing of the National Anthem of the winning player.
The players will now be brought to the forefront and presented with an opportunity to get some pictures taken and take any questions that the press may like to ask. In essence, their 15 minutes of fame is going to get extended by a few more minutes. It is a nice touch and allows the players to get a little more exposure with the media to acknowledge their achievements.
Some will say that they may be taking things a little too far, but those individuals have probably never sat in a chair for 14 hours a day, 5 days in a row trying to play cards. No, this is not the Olympics, but it is a special accomplishment and should be treated as such at the venue. It will make winning the bracelet all that more exciting!
At one of the final events of the WSOP Circuit, Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi walked into the casino as the chip leader. Having been absent from a major leader board in quite some time, you could feel the crowd rooting for the charismatic player. While he failed to take down the tournament, his second place finish proved to everyone that he is back on top of his game.
Mizrachi started the day on a mission and that mission was to take out as many players as he could and continue to eliminate players and keep his stack growing. The first player to meet his demise at Mizrachi’s hand was Matt LaGarde. He stared the hand way ahead with a AQ in the hole, but fell quickly behind with a flop of KJ2. Both the turn and river failed to improve his hand and Mizrachi’s K10 took down the all in.
Play was heating up all over the tables after that and slowly but surely, one player after another got their chips in with the worst of it and quickly met the rail. As each player got knocked out, Mizrachi was one step close to taking down the championship.
The final table had an impressive lineup, especially considering that amount of talent that was across the pond at the EPT Monte Carlo event. Again, Mizrachi proved to be too much on more than one occasion and continued to eliminate players. His most notable victim was Men “The Master” Nguyen, who went out in third place.
While the final table seemed to fly by, the heads up action was anything but faced paced. Apparently seeing all of that money on the table tightened up both players a bit and it took well over 3 hours for the tournament to be decided. It was actually some of the most remarkable play that we have seen in quite some time in heads up action.
The final hand had both players looking down at paint, unfortunately for Mizrachi, his was not quite as formidable as Justin Bonomo’s. Mizrachi moved in with J9 and had the unfortunate luck to be looking across the table at KQ. The flop immediately lessened his hopes as it came out K-10-9. He got a little help on the turn with an A, but was reduced to a 5 outer on the river. Needing a Q or one of the two remaining 9’s, he was disappointed with a 3d. Both players ended up making a flush, but Mizrachi was on the short end of it with his only being J high to Q high.
He may be disappointed that he did not manage to hold on, but the $143,512 probably made that a little easier to take. Not only that, but he has some stake money for the WSOP that is right around the corner. Bonomo took down $237,692 for first place and also gets to wear the coveted ring. We can expect to see big things from both of these guys at the WSOP.
Day 1b proved to have a few more players than day 1a, 151 in fact, but it does make you wonder why this event was broken up over two days in WSOP fashion. Surely less than 300 players could have sat down in the same room to play. However, this is a topic of discussion for another day. This is about who managed to get through the day and get in on the field of 62 that will fight it out to the final table in this year’s tournament.
A quick glance throughout the room makes it obvious that there is going to be some serious and at times annoying Poker being played in the second session. Joe Hachem led the list of previous WSOP winners sitting down on this day and that means anyone at his table better be ready to play some serious poker. Hachem is one of the few recent amateur winners that has proven he has the game to play as a professional. While he is at one end of the spectrum, you have the Jamie Gold’s and Chris Moneymakers on the other end.
I can only imagine those that had to sit next to the Brenes clan. Umberto’s displays have become some of the most annoying things in Poker over the last few years and having to deal with his idiotic routine every time he wins a hand is enough to make someone push with 27o. Having to deal with three of them must seem like a day in poker hell. Luckily for the players, they did not fair very well during the first session and we will all be spared the chomping shark on day 2.
Unfortunately for Hachem, the cards would not come on this day and he was not really able to make anything happen. Every time he made a move it seemed as though his opponent was sitting on the cooler cards. His final hand of the tournament was more of the same as he was short stacked and forced to push with KQo and ended up getting called by AKo. The lady never came and Joe was forced to the rail.
All in all, 35 players move on from this session to join the 27 from day 1b to have 62 players vying for 9 seats at the final table. There is still plenty of firepower left at the felt and the next 2 days should be fun to watch.
The World Series of Poker has become a massive event, that attracts thousands upon thousands of poker players from around the world. You sit at home and you watch the events unfold, and if you are like me you wish you could get into the action. We all can’t afford to put up the $10 000, to play in the main event, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t play in some of the smaller events. You may not be aware that there are some events on the schedule that are much more affordable, you can also play in qualifiers and try to earn your way in. Come Series time you will see a lot of online sites offering up satellites to get into the big event, but that can be just as taxing as paying the money up front. Here is a few events that were played last year, that can provide players with an excellent opportunity to live out there dreams. And who knows if you do well in one of these you could be playing in the main event in no time.
$1,500 No-Limit Holdem – Last year this event was second on the schedule and ended up with almost 4000 entrants. That is right 4000, which made the prize pool a whopping $5.3 million. As it was early on the schedule the big names showed up eager to get the WSOP under way. Grant Hinkle was the eventual winner taking home more then $830 000, but notables like Chris Ferguson finished third, and Theo Tran finished at the final table in fourth. Making the final table of this event guaranteed you $83 000 and we can all agree that can be a life changing amount of money, even for finishing in the top 100 you could $5 000 plus.
$1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem – If no limit is not your thing, you can try your hand a pot limit game, last year they were back to back on the schedule. The pot limit event will have a much smaller field, 713 players last year, with less players comes a smaller prize pool. But you can still win a great amount of money, last year established pro David Singer won the title and $200 000 plus. You might see a lot of big names, but last year the likes of Tom McEvoy were in the field.
$1,500 No-Limit Holdem / Six Handed – If you like to play short handed games this might the tournament for you, there will be a maximum of 6 players at each table. Once again the field was relatively small last year, with just over 1200 players, but the eventual winner did take home more then $370 000. Commonly this would be a three day event and would appear early on the WSOP schedule, last year it was the ninth event.
$1,000 Ladies No-Limit Holdem World Championship – This ones just for the girls out there, but if you like the idea of matching yourself up against the best women in the world here is your chance. Over a thousand women played in the event last year, making the prize pool $1 million plus, with a winners take of close to $225 000. There is no doubt you will see some of the biggest names in women’s poker in attendance, ladies like Kathy Liebert, Evelyn Ng and Jennifer Tilly. This is World Championship event and will carry a lot of pride and prestige for the women who takes home the bracelet.
$1,500 Seven Card Razz - Well if you would prefer to expand upon your poker knowledge you give this game a try, although I don’t suggest it. If you are not familiar with RAZZ basically the low hand wins, and if want to try go right ahead. 453 players decided last year to invest there money in RAZZ and a poker super star came away with the bracelet, and that man was Barry Greenstein. If you actually enjoy playing RAZZ then this might be your way to get into the World Series of Poker for a cheaper price.
This is just scratching the surface, this list can go on and on. You see there is more then just the main event, your dreams can become a reality, for a much lower price tag. Not only that, but if you choose you can play in some satellites and try and gain entry the long way. We have all heard the stories of amateurs who make it big in the poker world, from Chris Moneymaker to Jamie Gold to Gerry Yang, you could be the next name on this list. Lets face it $1000 – $1500 is still a lot of money, but with some long term planning you can chase your dreams and sit along side the pros for your chance to win a World Series of Poker bracelet.
