Monster Stacks, Dealer’s Choice, and an Eight-Figure Prize

Snowgeddon is here. I mean hell... they canceled the Duke-UNC game, so it’s kind of a big deal.

Started coming down just after noon for us and hasn’t stopped since. The horses were mostly fine playing around in it today, although we gave them the option all afternoon to take cover if needed (which they did from time to time). They’re now in their stalls, though, where we’ll be checking in on them and our three barn cats as the night progresses and the temps dip.

Working at home I don’t really get to enjoy the same sort of “snow day” as used to be the case for me. Meanwhile Vera’s work shut down today and they’ve already announced they’ll be closed again tomorrow, so she’s liking having some time off.

My attention was taken up for part of the day by the release of the 2014 World Series of Poker schedule which puts me in mind of 100-plus degree days while sitting in the middle of this frozen snowscape. Haven’t given it a thorough look just yet, but am intrigued by what seem a number of changes from the status quo which should keep things interesting come summer.

That new $10 million guarantee for first prize in the Main Event is an interesting idea. My first impression of it is positive, although I’ve already heard some reacting with less favor to the idea.

That “Monster Stack” event (Event No. 51) is also an eybrow-raiser in which players participating in the $1,500 buy-in event will begin with 15,000 chips (instead of 4,500) with the blinds/antes starting at the same 25/25 level and increasing according to the same schedule as the regular $1,500 NLHE tourneys.

Finally, Event No. 41, the “Dealer’s Choice” tournament is another one that I’ve found myself thinking about more than others on the new schedule. I wrote a short item about it over on Learn.PokerNews today, kind of marveling at the menu of poker variants (16 of them!) from which players will be able to choose games.

That latter event would be especially interesting to cover, I think. Will players choose Badacy or Baducy? Five-card draw? Ace-to-five lowball? The final table in particular will be something to see, I think, with players’ game choices becoming a big part of the endgame strategy.

Setting all that aside for the moment, though, to go see how Sammy and Maggie are doing. Neither seem too fazed. Both have pretty solid poker faces, though.