Eight Players Chasing Eight Figures

Following them Big One for One Drop updates this evening, where Daniel Negreanu keeps knocking out players and looks as though he’s got a good chance of possibly winning the sucker. If he does -- or if he finishes runner-up, even -- he’ll zoom past Antonio Esfandiari on that mostly-out-of-whack all-time tournament earnings list.

Poor Tom Hall busted right away today, leaving the final eight players to share the $37,333,338 prize pool and gun for the $15,306,668 up top.

With all of the “high rollers” and “super high rollers,” as well as the One Drops and WSOP Main Events, that list has long become a difficult one to parse.

The debates over what the list really signifies have always been around, with the observation that it shouldn’t be mistaken for some kind of unambiguous indicator of poker ability an obvious one. But now there’s a pretty stark division between those in the top two dozen spots or so and the rest, with all of the seven-figure scores (and eight-figure ones in the One Drops) creating a different tier of results.

Kind of reminds me a little of how the statistics in baseball got all screwy during the height of the steriod era in the 1990s, especially with regard to home runs. Even now with the policing of PEDs being much more vigilant, it’s hard to take some of the numbers as seriously anymore or be tempted to pursue hard-to-make comparisons across eras.

Still, I’ll admit to being a little fascinated by all of those millions, even if most of the players are only playing for a tenth of themselves.

Was disappointed at the lack of a live stream for this event -- not the WSOP’s decision, but one dictated by ESPN -- as this event was probably the only one all summer that casual poker fans might have wanted to watch. And while I know ESPN will be packaging the event quickly to start airing an edited version in late July, I can say right now I won’t be all that intrigued to see it then after knowing the outcome.