Good News for Change

Enjoyed following the coverage of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event final table Saturday night on ESPN2. Was disappointed (again) that I couldn’t see any of action from the first few hours when the show was online only, given that my ISP is not an affiliate of ESPN3.com and the PokerStars.tv stream wasn’t watchable from the U.S. But once it finally made it to air on my teevee I was impressed.

It did very much resemble the EPT Live streaming of final tables we’ve seen in the past (especially with James Hartigan on the mic), although revealing the hole cards definitely made for a different experience. (The final table was shown on a one-hour delay, making it possible to show the players’ cards.)

And while hours and hours of hands -- including all of those over and done with a preflop raise -- being played on a relatively sterile-seeming, hushed set certainly doesn’t make for the most exciting viewing, the show probably did bring in at least few new folks. And might even make some curious to see more. In any event, it was an interesting experiment that I imagine will likely be tried again.

Of course, I’ll admit that while Galen Hall’s comeback to defeat Chris Oliver heads up in the PCA Main Event was fun to watch, I wasn’t nearly as riveted by them I was earlier in the evening when reading reports on the progress of my friend Change100 in the PCA Women’s Event.

A couple of weeks ago, Change wrote over on Pot Committed about how she had satellited her way into the event. Took her a few tries, and what sounded like maybe $100 (or even less) worth of buy-ins to win a seat in a $215 satellite which she then made it through in order to win her package. Included the $1,100 tourney buy-in, travel and lodging, some extra cabbage for expenses, and a ticket to a boot camp conducted by Vanessa Rousso, winner of last year’s PCA Women's event.

Was cool enough just to read about Change winning the trip. Discovering she was chip leader after the first day of play on Friday was pretty nifty, too. Was positively thrilling Saturday, though, to follow Dr. Pauly’s tweets reporting her surviving all of the way to win the sucker as Ricki Lake (of Hairspray fame), Victoria Coren (another great writer-slash-player), and Lauren Kling (a tough tourney pro) all fell short.

In the end, Change managed to turn the $100 or whatever it was into $29,798! That’s a sweet ROI. You can read about the final day of play on the PokerStars blog, and here’s the neat video of her being interviewed by Gloria Balding afterwards.

I love Change’s laughing response to Glo’s question about turning pro. “No,” she smiles, “I like doing this for fun.” The winnings, she explains, will help give her some space to work further on a screenplay she began last fall.

Of course, the story of her trip to the Bahamas will also make for a pretty nifty feature. Change has already written a short note on her blog about her victory, though tells us a longer account is coming.

Looking forward to that, too. I knew Change was a great player, having played with her before. But you know how tourneys go. Being great doesn’t guarantee success.

However, I also know Change is a great writer. And that really is a skill game. So I know the story of her trip will be a winning one. As will the others she writes.

(EDIT [added 1/20/10]: As promised, Change100 has written an account of the tournament over on Pot Committed: “Beyond Fairy Tale: The 2011 PCA Ladies Event, Part 1 & Part 2”)

Partisan Politics in Poker

Like a lot of you, I imagine, I’m giving a bit of attention this afternoon to the start of that $100,000 buy-in “Super High Roller” event down at the Atlantis Resort and Casino, the big kick-off to this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Appears they’ve attracted a larger field than many had anticipated. Registration remains open through the fourth level, but after a little over an hour of play it looks as though more than 35 players have bought in. Heck of a line-up, too, as one would expect, with just about every single entrant sporting a recognizable name.

Among those playing today are Humberto Brenes, Bill Chen, Antonio Esfandiari, Hoyt Corkins, David Benyamine, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Eugene Katchalov, Bryn Kenney, Vivek Rajkumar, Scott Seiver, Ashton Griffin, Jason Somerville, Andrew Lichetenberger, Tobias Reinkemeier, Phil Laak, Andrew Robl, Nick Schulman, James Obst, Bertrand Grospellier, Tom Marchese, Sorel Mizzi, and Jonathan Duhamel.

Cirque du Soleil ringmaster (and everyone's favorite whale) Guy Laliberte is also there. So, too, is Mike "Timex" McDonald, whom you might recall announced last spring that he was taking a break from poker. Both David Bakers are there, too! And it appears Viktor Blom, a.k.a. the man who would be Isildur1 -- has sat down during the last couple of minutes as well.

Of course, one notices pretty quickly when skimming the list of entrants how none of the Team Full Tilt pros (Ivey, Dwan, Antonius, etc.) have signed up. One imagines some or even many of those players might’ve wanted to take part in this one, the final table for which will be televised on ESPN2. But unless something changes before registration closes, it is possible their affiliations with FTP have made it impossible for them to participate.

I’m reminded of Tony G’s comments near the end of his SuperStar Showdown match with Isildur1 this past Sunday. Tony G, a PartyPoker-sponsored player, noted in the chatbox how he appreciated being allowed by his site to play an “away game” (so to speak) at PokerStars. It’s a point he elaborated further during his interview on this week’s TwoPlusTwo Pokercast.

I suppose I understand in a general way the need for sites to segregate themselves (and their players) amid such a competitive industry, but from a fan’s perspective it still kind of stinks. Sort of recalls some of the stubborn, partisan politicking we are used to seeing in this country whereby a given legislator’s party affiliation sometimes rules out any form of negotiation or compromise.

Guess I’ll just have to watch the Full Tilt guys on “Poker After Dark” (where the PokerStars players can’t go). Meanwhile, I’ll follow everyone else at the PCA Super High Roller by checking PokerNews’ live reports as well as the PokerStars blog.

(EDIT (added 1/8/11): Ultimately two players from Full Tilt did eventually participate in the PCA Super High Roller -- David Benyamine [Team Full Tilt] and Andrew Lichtenberger [Red Pro])