Trying to Find a Final Table

Still doesn’t feel like the World Series of Poker has really gotten going as yet. I don’t say that because I’m not there -- it’s the rhythm of these early events, I think, that seems somehow out of whack.

Event No. 1, the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em event, was supposed to be a two-day affair, but they stopped the event shy of a finish with the final two players coming back yesterday to finish their heads-up battle.

Meanwhile, Event No. 2 is a “mixed-max” event, meaning there’s no final table per se since the tourney concludes with heads-up matches. And Event No. 3, the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event, rushed down to the final nine yesterday and then continued on, stopping with six players left to continue on today’s scheduled final day of play. (Pic above from PokerNews from the start of things in that one today.)

In other words, it’ll be Saturday before there’s an actual “final table.” In fact, I guess given how the schedule is being maintained it may be even longer until there is an event in which they specifically play down to a final nine (or six or whatever the format is) and thereby have a final day of play devoted to an “official” final table.

I know in some ways it’s probably better to stick to playing a set number of levels and ensuring against inordinately long nights, but I’m in that camp that misses being able to count on “final table days” in WSOP events.

Sure, they’re good for family members and friends wanting to rail players, but they also help create excitement among the rest of us following the action as fans. Also a little better for the poker news cycle, I’d say, as morning stories about the action to come can focus on upcoming final tables, with player profiles and such (not that that is such a huge issue).

I guess I’ve been conditioned a little by poker television, where “the final table” is often presented as the sole focus of an event with the long lead-up to that point often omitted almost entirely from the narrative.

We’ll see how it goes from here, final-table-wise. In any case, follow them updates of all the events on PokerNews, which continue along regardless of where the action starts or stops.

A Four-Way Stop in the Canada Cup

See the final hand of that Canada Cup event at the Playground Poker Club? Hear about it?

I know we’re all locked in on the World Series of Poker getting underway this week, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of you missed this one. But check it out... it’s worth it.

This was a PokerStars event, a $3,000 buy-in tourney that drew 578 entries which meant a bit of an overlay as it had a $2 million guarantee. They’d played down to a final table yesterday, and with four players left a player from Toronto named Robert Notkin had the chip lead.

I believe Notkin is just a part-time player. He hasn’t many results, and from what I remember hearing on the PokerStars.tv live stream he seemed to be playing the amateur’s role when at the feature tables.

I remember James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton talking at length on one of the latter days about how many of Notkin’s relatives were heading to Montreal to watch the tourney once the elder player got a big stack and appeared headed for the final table, with Stapes noting the irony of his last name and the number of kin coming to see him.

Anyhow, I wasn’t watching the final table yesterday, but woke up today to see the tweets and some reference to what had happened. Here the video of the entire final table -- jump ahead to the 8 hour, 46 minute-mark or so for the start of the final hand:

For those not wanting to watch a video, you can read Lane Anderson’s write-up of the tourney and final hand over on PokerNews.

But really, you should watch. Impossible to do so without a big, dumb grin. Four started the hand, and just one survived. Nuts!

Cards, Bills in the Air

The WSOP is well underway with the first three events now in action and one -- the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em (Event No. 1) -- careening toward a finish later tonight. Found that amusing the WSOP’s firing one-dollar bills into the air to rain over the first event’s players yesterday (pic of the resulting scramble at left via PokerNews).

Event No. 2 earned most of the attention yesterday, of course, a $25,000 buy-in “mixed-max” NLHE event that ended up drawing 131 entrants.

The tourney attracted all the big names as the first high-profile, high buy-in event of the summer, and it seems likely that Friday’s tourney-concluding heads-up matches will provide some of the bigger first-week headlines. Indeed, when it comes to those WSOP Fantasy pools I was discussing yesterday, most of the top finishers in Event No. 2 will likely have been drafted.

It’s the only $25,000 buy-in tourney on this year’s schedule, and indeed $25K is a fairly unique buy-in at the WSOP that has only cropped up three times before.

2013 - No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed (175 entrants)

2011 - No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up (128 entrants)

2010 - No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed (191 entrants)

The field of 131 for the Mixed-Max tourney probably represents a number somewhat below expectations for the event, although a $3.11 milly prize pool is nonetheless notable (and will be one of the bigger ones all summer).

By the way, check over at PokerNews each morning for recaps and “What to Watch For” articles, of which I’ll be writing some this summer. Still feels like the WSOP hasn’t quite gotten started, though, perhaps because the Casino Employees isn’t an “open” event and the $25K Mixed-Max is kinda sorta exclusive, too, in a way.

In other words, everything still feels up in the air.

Action Seekers: The WSOP $25K Fantasy Draft

Was following that $25K Fantasy Draft last night, the one organized by Daniel Negreanu. This is the fourth year running for the WSOP fantasy league, meaning it has developed a tradition of sorts as a kind of “preseason”-type bit of hype-building to occupy poker fans eager for the World Series of Poker to get started.

Had a little bit of an extra interest in the proceedings this time around thanks to the “Team Media” entry among the 12 teams, one managed by my friends and colleagues Donnie Peters and Rich Ryan who drafted players for a team backed by some poker pros with deeper pockets than theirs.

Was a little surprised Donnie and Rich were willing to spend more than half of their allotted $200 salary for Phil Ivey, ultimately bidding $101 to obtain him. They then spent another $66 on Stephen Chidwick, leaving themselves just $33 with which to fill their last six spots. In the end they wouldn’t even use all of their salary, picking up several players for the minimum $1 to round out the team.

Rich wrote in detail today in his “Five Thoughts” column about the pair’s thought process for bidding on selecting players, including reporting which eight players they ultimately picked. Here’s a link to a Google doc with all 12 teams’ rosters and showing how much was paid for each drafted player, and here is the website where the scoring will be tracked once everything gets uploaded and cranked up.

Going “all in” (so to speak) on Ivey hinged somewhat on his big bracelet bets, I believe, including a much-rumored multi-year one that ends in 2014.

Last year Ivey was the most expensive player selected in the $25K Fantasy Draft (with Daniel Alaei’s team spending $110 for him), and he ended up only finishing 63rd of the 112 players taken in points earned. But in 2012 Ivey was also the most expensive pick (going for $99), and ended up earning the most points of anyone for Brian Hastings’s team.

At first glance it feels like an especially high variance strategy to have bet so much on just a couple of players, but in the end having just about any eight players all whom will be playing many events and who all can be expected to do well -- which “Team Media” has, I think -- gives a team a shot.

The 96 players taken by the 12 teams this year will all earn a little extra attention as the WSOP progresses. Might be interesting also just to see how many undrafted players finish ahead of these 96 in the overall POY race.

I was joking with Rich how the whole idea of selling action for a fantasy team that will be made up of players themselves selling action -- not to mention in a lot of cases selecting each other for their own fantasy teams -- gives me a little knot between my eyes.

Kind of what poker is, though, a game existing at the center of a complex knot of negotiations mostly confined to the table but capable of extending well beyond it, depending on how the players play it.

2014 World Series of Poker Schedule (Day-by-Day)

The 2014 World Series of Poker starts tomorrow, if you can believe it. That picture is from the start of 10-handed play at the WSOP Main Event final table last year, not too long before Carlos Mortensen went out and the November Nine was set (click it to embiggen). Seems like it was just a few weeks ago.

As I’ve done the last several years, I’m posting here a daily schedule for all of the bracelet events as a kind of reference. I’ve done this before for myself, mainly just so I have a ready place to check just to see what’s coming up on a given day since the schedule gets pretty thick, pretty fast. This year the 2014 WSOP Media Guide actually included something similar, although with the “Deep Stack” tourneys and satellites mixed in, too, so I thought I’d still sort out just the bracelet events here.

I mentioned on Friday how I’ll be following it all from afar this time around, although I will be charged with a lot of daily recapping and so on that’ll probably make it even more important for me than usual to have an idea what the whole schedule is on each given day (since I won’t be locked in and covering just a single event at a time).

Times are Pacific, natch (and p.m., unless noted). And the links take you to the structure sheets for each event.

Tuesday, May 27th
12:00 -- #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em ($500), 1/2
4:00 -- #2: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($25,000), 1/4

Wednesday, May 28th
12:00 -- #3: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em ($500), 2/2
2:00 -- #2: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($25,000), 2/4

Thursday, May 29th
12:00 -- #4: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #3: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #2: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($25,000), 3/4
4:00 -- #5: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw ($10,000), 1/3

Friday, May 30th
12:00 -- #6: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #3: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #4: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #2: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($25,000), 4/4
2:00 -- #5: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #7: Razz ($1,500), 1/3

Saturday, May 31st
11:00 a.m. -- #8: No-Limit Hold’em / Millionaire Maker ($1,500), 1a/3
1:00 -- #4: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #6: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #5: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #7: Razz ($1,500), 2/3
5:00 -- #8: No-Limit Hold’em / Millionaire Maker ($1,500), 1b/3

Sunday, June 1st
12:00 -- #9: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #6: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #8: No-Limit Hold’em / Millionaire Maker ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #7: Razz ($1,500), 3/3
4:00 -- #10: Omaha Hi-Lo ($10,000), 1/3

Monday, June 2nd
12:00 -- #11: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #8: No-Limit Hold’em / Millionaire Maker ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #9: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #10: Omaha Hi-Lo ($10,000), 2/3

Tuesday, June 3rd
12:00 -- #12: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #9: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #11: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #10: Omaha Hi-Lo ($10,000), 3/3
4:00 -- #13: 2-7 Draw ($10,000), 1/3

Wednesday, June 4th
12:00 -- #14: Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #11: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #12: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
1:00 -- #13: 2-7 Draw ($10,000), 2/3

Thursday, June 5th
12:00 -- #15: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($3,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #12: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #13: 2-7 Draw ($10,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #14: Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #16: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 1/3

Friday, June 6th
10:00 a.m. -- #17: Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #14: Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #15: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($3,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #16: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #18: Razz ($10,000), 1/3

Saturday, June 7th
11:00 a.m. -- #17: Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($1,000), 2/3
12:00 -- #19: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #15: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($3,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #16: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #18: Razz ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #20: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($3,000), 1/3

Sunday, June 8th
11:00 a.m. -- #17: Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($1,000), 3/3
12:00 -- #21: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #19: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #18: Razz ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #20: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($3,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #22: H.O.R.S.E. ($10,000), 1/3

Monday, June 9th
12:00 -- #23: No-Limit Hold’em / Turbo ($1,000), 1/2
1:00 -- #19: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #21: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #20: No-Limit Hold’em / Shootout ($3,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #22: H.O.R.S.E. ($10,000), 2/3

Tuesday, June 10th
12:00 -- #24: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($5,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #21: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #23: No-Limit Hold’em / Turbo ($1,000), 2/2
2:00 -- #22: H.O.R.S.E. ($10,000), 3/3
4:00 -- #25: Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo ($2,500), 1/3

Wednesday, June 11th
12:00 -- #26: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #24: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($5,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #25: Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo ($2,500), 2/3

Thursday, June 12th
12:00 -- #27: H.O.R.S.E. ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #24: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($5,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #26: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #25: Omaha Hi-Lo/Stud Hi-Lo ($2,500), 3/3
4:00 -- #28: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 1/3

Friday, June 13th
12:00 -- #29: No-Limit Hold’em ($2,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #26: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #27: H.O.R.S.E. ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #28: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #30: Stud Hi-Lo ($1,500), 1/3

Saturday, June 14th
12:00 -- #31: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #27: H.O.R.S.E. ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #29: No-Limit Hold’em ($2,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #28: Pot-Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #30: Stud Hi-Lo ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #32: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($10,000), 1/3

Sunday, June 15th
12:00 -- #33: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #29: No-Limit Hold’em ($2,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #31: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #30: Stud Hi-Lo ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #32: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #34: Stud ($1,500), 1/3

Monday, June 16th
12:00 -- #35: No-Limit Hold’em / Eight-Handed ($5,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #31: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #33: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #32: No-Limit Hold’em / Six-Handed ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #34: Stud ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #36: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 1/3

Tuesday, June 17th
12:00 -- #37: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #33: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #35: No-Limit Hold’em / Eight-Handed ($5,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #34: Stud ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #36: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #38: Stud Hi-Lo ($10,000), 1/3

Wednesday, June 18th
12:00 -- #39: No-Limit Hold’em ($3,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #35: No-Limit Hold’em / Eight-Handed ($5,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #37: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #36: 2-7 Draw ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #38: Stud Hi-Lo ($10,000), 2/3

Thursday, June 19th
12:00 -- #40: No-Limit Hold’em / Heads-Up ($10,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #35: No-Limit Hold’em / Eight-Handed ($5,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #37: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #39: No-Limit Hold’em ($3,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #38: Stud Hi-Lo ($10,000), 3/3
4:00 -- #41: Dealer’s Choice / Six-Handed ($1,500), 1/3

Friday, June 20th
12:00 -- #42: Pot-Limit Omaha / Six-Handed ($5,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #39: No-Limit Hold’em ($3,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #40: No-Limit Hold’em / Heads-Up ($10,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #41: Dealer’s Choice / Six-Handed ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #43: Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3

Saturday, June 21st
12:00 -- #44: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #40: No-Limit Hold’em / Heads-Up ($10,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #42: Pot-Limit Omaha / Six-Handed ($5,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #41: Dealer’s Choice / Six-Handed ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #43: Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3

Sunday, June 22nd
12:00 -- #45: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #42: Pot-Limit Omaha / Six-Handed ($5,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #44: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #43: Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
4:00 -- #46: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000), 1/5

Monday, June 23rd
12:00 -- #47: No-Limit Hold’em / Ante Only ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #44: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #45: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
2:00 -- #46: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000), 2/5

Tuesday, June 24th
12:00 -- #48: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #45: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #47: No-Limit Hold’em / Ante Only ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #46: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000), 3/5

Wednesday, June 25th
12:00 -- #49: No-Limit Hold’em ($5,000), 1/4
1:00 -- #47: No-Limit Hold’em / Ante Only ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #48: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #46: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000), 4/5
4:00 -- #50: 8-Game Mix ($1,500), 1/3

Thursday, June 26th
12:00 -- #51: No-Limit Hold’em / Monster Stack ($1,500), 1/4
1:00 -- #48: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #49: No-Limit Hold’em ($5,000), 2/4
2:00 -- #46: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000), 5/5
2:00 -- #50: 8-Game Mix ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #52: Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 1/3

Friday, June 27th
12:00 -- #53: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($10,000; $1K for women), 1/3
1:00 -- #49: No-Limit Hold’em ($5,000), 3/4
1:00 -- #51: No-Limit Hold’em / Monster Stack ($1,500), 2/4
2:00 -- #50: 8-Game Mix ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #52: Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #54: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 1/3

Saturday, June 28th
12:00 -- #55: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #49: No-Limit Hold’em ($5,000), 4/4
1:00 -- #51: No-Limit Hold’em / Monster Stack ($1,500), 3/4
1:00 -- #53: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($10,000; $1K for women), 2/3
2:00 -- #52: Limit Hold’em ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #54: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 2/3

Sunday, June 29th
12:00 -- #56: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 1/3
12:00 -- #57: No-Limit Hold’em / Big One for One Drop ($1,000,000), 1/3
1:00 -- #51: No-Limit Hold’em / Monster Stack ($1,500), 4/4
1:00 -- #53: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship ($10,000; $1K for women), 3/3
1:00 -- #55: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #54: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 3/3

Monday, June 30th
12:00 -- #58: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($1,500), 1/4
1:00 -- #55: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
1:00 -- #56: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 2/3
1:00 -- #57: No-Limit Hold’em / Big One for One Drop ($1,000,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #59: Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 1/3

Tuesday, July 1st
12:00 -- #60: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 1/3
1:00 -- #56: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #57: No-Limit Hold’em / Big One for One Drop ($1,000,000), 3/3
1:00 -- #58: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($1,500), 2/4
2:00 -- #59: Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #61: Stud ($10,000), 1/3

Wednesday, July 2nd
12:00 -- #62: No-Limit Hold’em / Little One for One Drop ($1,111), 1a/4
1:00 -- #58: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($1,500), 3/4
1:00 -- #60: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 2/3
2:00 -- #59: Omaha Hi-Lo ($3,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #61: Stud ($10,000), 2/3
4:00 -- #63: 10-Game Mix ($1,500), 1/3

Thursday, July 3rd
12:00 -- #62: No-Limit Hold’em / Little One for One Drop ($1,111), 1b/4
1:00 -- #58: No-Limit Hold’em / Mixed-Max ($1,500), 4/4
1:00 -- #60: No-Limit Hold’em ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #61: Stud ($10,000), 3/3
2:00 -- #63: 10-Game Mix ($1,500), 2/3
4:00 -- #64: Pot-Limit Omaha ($10,000), 1/3

Friday, July 4th
1:00 -- #62: No-Limit Hold’em / Little One for One Drop ($1,111), 2/4
2:00 -- #63: 10-Game Mix ($1,500), 3/3
2:00 -- #64: Pot-Limit Omaha ($10,000), 2/3

Saturday, July 5th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 1a/9
1:00 -- #62: No-Limit Hold’em / Little One for One Drop ($1,111), 3/4
2:00 -- #64: Pot-Limit Omaha ($10,000), 3/3

Sunday, July 6th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 1b/9
1:00 -- #62: No-Limit Hold’em / Little One for One Drop ($1,111), 4/4

Monday, July 7th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 1c/9

Tuesday, July 8th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 2a & 2b/9

Wednesday, July 9th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 2c/9

Thursday, July 10th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event, 3/9

Friday, July 11th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 4/9

Saturday, July 12th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 5/9

Sunday, July 13th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 6/9

Monday, July 14th
12:00 -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 7/9

Monday, November 10th
TBD -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 8/9

Tuesday, November 11th
TBD -- #65: No-Limit Hold’em / Main Event ($10,000), 9/9

World Series of Poker Tips and Take-Aways

I mentioned about three weeks back how my plans this summer will be a little different from the past half-dozen. After spending either all or most of the last six WSOPs out in Las Vegas, I’ll be sticking close to the farm this time around. Am working with PokerNews again, but will be doing so from home by writing articles and helping in other ways besides live reporting.

As the kickoff approaches (the first events come next Tuesday) and folks start tweeting about their trips into the Nevada desert, I’m starting to feel a little misgiving about not going out. Gonna miss reuniting with everyone and working alongside all of the great folks.

I’ve said it before here in various ways, but when it comes to work environments, those summers at the WSOP have been among the best I’ve had the good fortune to experience. The hours are crazy long, and there’s a significant degree of monotony when it comes to certain elements of the job. But the excitement of being part of it all is real, as is the level of mutual we’re-all-in-this-together support among colleagues and others that exceeds any other work situation I’ve known.

Meanwhile, as I also mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m finding myself paying a lot more attention to the WSOP this time during the lead-up than has been the case the last few years. Kind of paradoxical, perhaps, but I feel like I’m more tuned in to the schedule and more ready to follow things closely once they get underway.

Over on Learn.PokerNews we’ve been running a series of articles for players heading out to play at the World Series of Poker for the first time. I’ve enjoyed reading these and I think they contain a good variety of advice with very little overlap. Here are those articles with links:

Five Tips for Playing Your First WSOP Event (Rich Ryan)

Make a World Series of Poker Day 2? Study Those Table Draws (Rich Ryan)

It Gets Better: The Story of a Not-So-Successful WSOP Debut (Robert Woolley)

3 Important Points to Consider When Making Your First WSOP Trip (Nate Meyvis)

Preparing To Play the World Series of Poker (Chad Holloway)

Five Tips for Playing Single Table Satellites at the WSOP (Carlos Welch)

Playing in the WSOP? Be Psychologically Prepared (Dr. Tricia Cardner)

Alson’s Advice to WSOP First-Timers: Let the Game Come to You (Peter Alson)

Like I say, there’s a lot of decent -- different -- tips in those articles, and a lot of them apply not just to WSOP events but to any live tournament, especially for those who haven’t experienced playing live tourneys before.

Hard not to get excited about the WSOP while reading them, too -- even for those of us who aren’t going to be there.

Details, Details

The day is nearly over and I’ve barely got time to post, so I’ll just share the most curious thing I saw while passing up and down the poker aisles today.

Apparently Ben Mezrich, he of the highly-blinkered book Straight Flush that weirdly whitewashes the Absolute Poker scandal-ridden saga, is making television appearances and writing op-eds in support of online poker, perhaps not coincidentally in concert with the publication of his book in paperback. “I’m out there in the trenches trying to get online poker legal again,” he tweeted, adding an obligatory happy-face emoticon.

A piece in the Boston Globe by Mezrich yesterday argued in favor of Massachusetts considering legislation to legalize online poker in the state. Regarding Mezrich’s op-ed, Steve Ruddock wrote an interesting response over on the Online Poker Report titled “Misinformation in Massachusetts Gives False Hope to Online Poker Expansion.” Ruddock explains how Mezrich’s op-ed appears to have been largely based on outdated information, referring in particular to a Massachusetts budget amendment that was already voted upon and rejected a year before.

Read Ruddock’s piece for the full skinny. It looks like the Boston Globe piece was subsequently edited to remove the archaic element of the argument, and in between appearing on MSNBC and other running around Mezrich defended his editorial and its argument as still current (although now I’m having trouble finding that tweet in his timeline).

Like I say, I’ve run out of time today to explore this further and so don’t really want to comment too much on it. After all, details are important.

(Photo: “Goed Zoekveld” by Bart van de Biezen, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0.)

Gentlemen Do Not Bet the Nuts

In 1864 The American Hoyle; or Gentleman’s Hand-Book of Games by William Brisbane Dick (writing/editing/compiling as “Trumps”) was among the first titles to spell out in detail rules for draw poker. It wasn’t the very first, but it did expand significantly on the “laws” of the game, the terminology employed while playing it, and hand rankings.

Interestingly, as explained here, straights are still up for debate. The earliest versions of poker (including the 20-card variety) didn’t count straights or flushes, and the 1864 Hoyle explains how it remained the case that “straights are not considered in the game, although they are played in some localities.” Flushes weren’t part of the earliest variants of poker, either, but here are part of the line-up of possible hands.

Since straights aren’t universally accepted, neither are straight flushes, although a footnote to the hand rankings does explain that when they are counted they should be considered as ranking higher than four of a kind. “It is strongly urged by some experts that the strongest hand at Draw Poker should be a Straight Flush, for the reason that it is more difficult to get than four of a kind.”

The “experts” are right. A 52-card deck produces 2,598,960 possible five-card combinations, with only 40 of them being straight flushes (1 in 64,974) as opposed to 624 being quads (1 in 4,165).

There’s one other point made in the footnote in favor of counting straight flushes I find kind of intriguing, namely, that doing so “removes from the game the objectionable feature of a known invincible hand.”

Without straight flushes, any hand containing four aces would be known to be unbeatable, as would a hand containing four kings with an ace. With straight flushes there still exists, of course, the “invincible” hand of an ace-high straight flush (or royal flush), which could theoretically be equaled. (This possibility is explained in the footnote.) But there’s only four of those (1 in 640,974), making it exceedingly unlikely for the invincible-hand situation to arise.

Setting aside this quibbling, though, it’s kind of curious to think of “a known invincible hand” being an “objectionable” feature in poker. The variants popular today obviously include this possibility, and in fact it is hard to imagine poker otherwise. Players know fairly frequently in hold’em, for instance, whether or not they hold the “nuts” or an unbeatable hand.

Still wondering why this feature of the game might be considered “objectionable,” I continued on to read the last sentence of the footnote, which does provide an explanation of sorts.

“No gentleman would care to bet on a ‘sure thing,’” it is explained, “and we therefore think the Straight Flush should be adopted when gentlemen play at this game.”

Ah, right. This is a “gentleman’s hand-book of games,” imparting rules both for the games and for what it means to be a gentleman.

Now, of course, one can earn a penalty for not betting the nuts when last to act. And claiming you were just being a gentleman is no excuse!

Skill, Luck, and Testimony

James McManus (Positively Fifth Street, Cowboys Full) yesterday contributed a column to the BloombergView website titled “Good Poker Players Aren’t Lucky” in which he shares details of a recently resolved misdemeanor case in Idaho involving two defendants charged with illegal gambling for having played poker.

As McManus explains, the defendants pleaded not guilty on the grounds that poker is a game of skill and therefore not covered by the anti-gambling statute they were charged with violating. A pretrial hearing was held in April to consider the defendants’ motion to dismiss the charges, with McManus himself among the witnesses who testified on their behalf.

McManus summarizes his testimony in the column, including sharing how he introduced a couple of different studies confirming poker’s skill component. I wasn’t familiar with one of them, a 2012 study called the “Economics of Poker: The Effect of Systemic Chance,” although its methodology and conclusions seemed to resemble those of a different study put out by Cigital, Inc. that I wrote about here back in 2009, called “Statistical Analysis of Texas Hold’em.”

The other study McManus shared was one I have read before, the one Freakonomics author Steven Levitt wrote with Thomas Miles titled “The Role of Skill Versus Luck in Poker: Evidence from the World Series of Poker.” Click here for a summary of that one, if you’re curious.

The testimony of McManus and others proved constructive for the defendants, as the judge in the dismissed the charges late last week. Sounded like it wasn't even close, actually, either confirming the skillfulness of the defense or the luck of drawing a receptive judge. “The case nudges Idaho, and perhaps other states, closer to understanding that the skill-to-luck ratio of America’s national card game makes it much more like playing baseball or the markets than like hoping a craps or keno or lottery number comes up,” concludes McManus.

Of course, objections against poker aren’t entirely informed by the hard-to-maintain case that it doesn’t involve skill and/or its affinity to other gambling games requires it be legislated similarly. Many people -- including legislators and other adjudicators -- don’t like poker for other reasons, too.

It’s a game in which money is an essential element, and while most of our lives are determined by the various games we play with each other for money, a lot of people are just too darned uncomfortable with being so explicit about doing so as poker requires us to do.

One More Huge SCOOP

The 2014 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) at PokerStars finishes up tonight with the completion of the last two-day events on the 135-tournament schedule. There were a lot of two-day tourneys this time -- 51 of them, in fact -- to accommodate the ever-swelling fields.

The guarantees added up to $40 million for all 135 tourneys, and were bested in each and every one of them. In fact, the total of all the prize pools ended up surging way, way past that mark to total $81,222,158.66, a SCOOP record.

The “High” version of the $10,300 Main Event also bested the previous all-time high, drawing 657 entrants, better than the 615 who played the same event in 2010, the last pre-Black Friday SCOOP.

I’ve written posts occasionally over the last three-plus years remarking on the recovery of PokerStars following the site’s losing the ability to accept players from the U.S. In May 2012 I was already remarking on how the SCOOP series as a whole had gotten back to the 2010 totals after a one-year dip, and of course now it is bigger than ever.

Both the SCOOP and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) in the fall pretty clearly now rate as not just the most important tournament series when it comes to online play, but also among the most significant poker events overall, challenging the biggest live tourneys and series of the year, too.

Hard to imagine how much bigger it would all be with the U.S. involved, too.