Part III

The Moneymaker effect is profiled in Pokernews third installment of the history of the World Series of Poker. Mike Sexton and Gavin Smith recognize the moneymaker effect even if the term still feels foreign to Chris himself.

Chris's story, is a fairy tale that couldn't have been scripted. Playing heads up against the ultra-smooth Sammy Farha, the picture of a regal professional gambler, a shark in a nice suit, and Chris is anything but intimidated. He knocked off Phil Ivey on his way to the final table and his run basically ignited the poker boom in the United States.

Maybe Joe Hachem in Australia can empathize a little bit, but Chris' story is a global one. He's as much a Cinderella as any underdog in sports and certainly the biggest in World Series of Poker history. To his credit despite his success he seems to be a first class guy even with the burden of expectations weighted on his shoulders.

His journey from everyman to The Man, is mirrored by the explosion of a niche game into a global past time. A qualifier through a poker website, online poker has Chris to thank for billions of dollars earned. The top youngsters in the game all cite Moneymaker as one of their influences in picking up the game, and online qualifiers represent everybody's dream. His poker school was the main event and his bluff on Farha has gone down as one of the biggest of all time.

Doyle Brunson delivers some insight that might be a little surprising, same with Amarillo Slim, who outright admits he "resents" what poker has become in particular the online game. Brunson who padded his wallet in side games laments only their disappearance as the tournaments have taken over the game.

It's a far cry from a gambling conference that the World Series got its start as. Even though Phil Hellmuth closes talking about the game like it's still a reunion, these days it's anything but, rather the game has become unbridled growth.

I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!

The WSOP this year has had a celebrity element to it. Not the Matt Damon/Ed Norton photo op appearance after the release of Rounders (your DVD probably has that covered) but a saturation and merging of celebrity with a fondness for poker and the pseudo-celebrities that poker players are. The bad thing is, both are beating the other at their own games.

Phil Hellmuth has defined making a spectacle of himself. His entrance was more over the top than any before it. Remember when a Hellmuth late main event entrance was when he'd awkwardly climb over some ropes at Binions and squeeze into a seat at that dump. Now, he's regaled as Caesar with an entourage bigger then the bubble at some WSOP circuit events this year.

Meanwhile, the celebrities are dipping their toes into the Main Event pool, yet, nobody cares, there is no extra media attention. Maybe if they won it, but so far the media coverage is mostly the poker media, and I include Andrew Feldman of ESPN.com as poker media. George Costanza is going deep in the Main Event? Didn't see that on CNN or on the cover of the magazines by the counter at the grocery store.

So, besides the fun of it, why are celebrities participating if they aren't making a spectacle of it. For most of them, whether they won't to admit it or not, it's all about getting into the next tabloid. Remember when Spiderman tried to play in abstract anonymity (okay, I'll grant him that by not using his real name) yet everybody could tell Peter Parker was in the field. Was that because he took poker seriously?

Now, the yahoos who we didn't watch on Bravo's Celebrity Poker are going deep in the Main Event. What happened to Jason Alexander he went from being astounded his pocket aces got cracked (like that never happens) one year, to sitting on a mammoth chip stack for part of this year.

The awful dreck that is "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" which tried to capitalize on the ratings of Celebrity Apprentice, which were attributable to Annie Duke's war of words and wills with Joan Rivers, sent multiple players to the Main Event. Torrie Wilson, John Salley, Lou Diamond Phillips, were obscure before NBC decided to low budget another reality TV show, and their performances at the Main Event seems to bump their celebrity quotients just as minorly as sharing a camp with two Baldwins, three Pratts, and super model that steals granola bars in Costa Rica.

Okay, the b list stars and the stars of poker, who at best are b-list themselves, treat each other with reverence and both groups feel like somebody when recognized by somebody equally as mediocre in public stature. Notice when the big stars play it's like they hide from the camera.

There are several top online pros that nobody knows who they are. Maybe it isn't super users in covert mode but big time A list stars like Clooney and Pitt who don't want the Q rating to go down by being associated with poker. Wonder if they sit around at home and play mac poker. Are they tethered to an online feed like all those 18 and 20 year old future stars in their parents basements. Maybe Lou Diamond Phillips who is on the money bubble right now was right there with them. Perhaps he can play himself in Oceans 111 if he wins the main event.

Poker Island Promotion

Therre is a an old question if you could have any two items on a deserted island what would they be?

Some poker players could probably manage with a solar laptop with internet connection and unlimited food. If the island wasn't entirely deserted it might even be a paradise on earth.

Now, some poker players are trying out that answer. Luckily for them, the island isn't deserted, they have an internet connection, and they have all the food they can eat. Plus, accommodations aren't a Gilligan's Island style hut it's a luxury villa. Then throw in cards, chips, and live opponents and you have to wonder why anyone would ever leave this paradise.

One of my favorite promotions in online poker, the bwin Poker Island is happening right now and players are getting that type of an experience of a lifetime. This isn't an episode of Gilligan's Island, where everybody wonders why the Professor can't just build a boat if he can build a coconut radio and bamboo TV, any Professor on this island will be more Howard Lederer than comic straight man.

Poker island sounds like dream but it is a reality. What's at stake for these poker players? Just an oportunity to win a huge prize package to next year’s Aussie millions. Even better as Melbourne, the host of the Aussie Millions, is another paradise on the other side of the world. Can you imagine if they had a perverse sense of humor and offered a prize package to Tunica, Mississippi? The cliche the journey is better than the destination would never have been truer.

On Poker Island players from around the world will be playing in around the clock poker games. If it sounds like a made for TV special, it kind of is, Survivor meets the World Series of Poker. All the drama will take place June 15th to July 14th on poker island.

No need to take a three hour tour under the incapable hand of a skipper to crash in the island. No, all it takes to get to this poker island is to win a couple of online poker tournaments. The best part is the first step in the ladder can be won for free. Doesn't matter the size of your bankroll as freerolls give anybody with a bwin account an opportunity to win.

Unfortunately, this years qualifers are over, (www.bwin.com/pokerisland) completed June 23rd, but now all the winners are on the ilsand settling who will be this year’s king of the island and Aussie Millions prize package champion. Each week a weekly champion is crowned and qualifies for the grand final. The grand final takes place July 14th and pits each of the weekly champions verse one another. The champion of the grand final wins a VIP Package for the “Aussie Millions 2010” poker tournament in Australia worth $25,000. To get a better idea of what's going on at poker’s paradise island visit www.pokerisland.tv right now.

New Poker Interface

Bwin's online poker site just released an upgraded poker software with a ton of new features. They are significant upgrades which make the interface easier to use and navigate and are already earning rave reviews.

They include:

Tables and functions you can resize - Now you can conviently multi-table with tables the size of your interest. Playing different buy-ins when you play online poker? Make the bigger buy-ins bigger size do you can make decision easier in regards to your bankroll.

You can also control three separate fields of table information. Chat, the virtual table, and promotions each have resizable fields of their own, so you can set up your table exactly as you like it.

The Lobbies have more table and tournament information - No longer do you have to go to each specific table when you want to play online poker to find out the table information. You can browse all the tables at once from the main lobby. Compare one to another and make your best game selection.

Also, there are filters on the poker lobbies that you can preset to your liking. In the respective tournament lobbies their are excellent up to the moment bits about ranking, add on and rebuy information, real time table information, all in one place.

As always there is a Mac Version - We've touted bwin's Downloadable Mac client in the past, and the new Mac online poker version has everything the window's version does so even Apple heads can sit down and play poker online.

The playing experience has already been topnotch at bwin but these new features will make it even easier. Some of them are exactly what players have been asking for, but most go one step beyond. Definitely some cool, user friendly upgrades, and tweaks in all the right places.

PokerNews Video about the history of the WSOP

Pokernews does an excellent story on the history of the World Series of Poker's origin. Although, there is still an air of mystery or a gloss of history over many of the early events the birth of how people first began to play poker tournaments. The first aspect that's weird is they never mention the name of the man that used to host the gambling convention that preceeded the WSOP. Doyle said they (the Binions) asked if they could steal the idea and the "man" in Reno said they could. He was done with hosting it. I guess technically you could say the WSOP is older than 40 years old OR if you just measure it based on the history of hosting poker tournaments less than 40 years old.

The next year, they played poker for three days and voted the best overall player. Depending on which source you listen to it was either a unanimous vote for Johnny Moss, or a unanimous vote (of Moss being the second best player with each voter voting themselves best player). Amarillo Slim and Doyle Brunson almost make it sound like at the time, Moss was a bit of a fish, and the title of best player was granted just to keep Moss coming back. Doyle gives the man credit where is due saying Moss was the best No Limit player he's ever seen, but if you read between the lines Moss wasn't the same player at the beginning of the WSOP. Interesting.

Another aspect of the history that is still not 100% clear is the tentative acceptance that Amarillo Slim was the first to suggest the freeze out poker tournament. Ironically, because he's most whistful about the old times, and the state of the game he played a huge role in creating. Without freezeouts or tournaments there is no Moneymaker explosion, no poker explosion, and no giant WSOP in the sprawling RIO convention center.

This is an enjoyable video, even if I've covered most of its contents in the body of this text. It gives a better insight to the forgotten history of this game. Now poker is fueled by online poker tournaments. In fact, most of the Main Event and THE World Championship of poker is created by online poker tournament satellite winners. In fact, the easiest way for World Series hopefuls to get there is to play poker tournament online.

Surely, the future episodes of this series will cover the transition from live players to online players. And the changing dynamics of the game of poker.

Durrrr Challenge Update

Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius shocked online poker railbirds by getting together to continue the challenge. Not much changed. Actually Antonius padded his lead a little bit and perhaps more important chewed out another 874 hands. The Swede now leads the youngster by $447,684. If you factor in the odds of the bet, where Dwan is on the hook for 1.5 million if he is bested, right now Tom is looking at an almost 2 million dollar deficit to the Nordic one.

Thought things were going to slow down during the world series? So did we. Antonius thought better of dropping 40k into the big event, and Dwan thought nothing of it, and promptly was one of the first players out. Thus, the two had some time on their hands.

The Durrrr challenge is schedule for 50,000 hands. If Antonius is up even 1 cent over that span he wins 1.5 million from Durrr plus whatever he wins (see first paragraph). If Durrrr wins, he keeps his winnings plus 500,000. Things aren't looking so good for Durrrr as the challenge is now over 15,000 hands old. Meaning while there is still a lot of time to go, if Patrik keeps incrementally increasing his lead he may get too far ahead.

Due to the multi-tabling nature of the challenge, play is either PLO or No Limit Hold 'Em sometimes two big pots can happen at once. On one screen, Durrrr raised$1,200. Antonius reraised to $3,600 and Durrrr called. Antonius clicked bet $6,000 after the flop and Durrrr called. On the turn, the big guy checked and Dwan bet $19,200. After a moment, Antonius went over the top moving all in for over 52k. Dwan called. The river paired the board and Dwan took down the pot with aces up.

At the exact same time on a different screen. Antonius was busy opening for $1,200 and Dwan three-bet. Antonius four bet it, and Dwan five bet it to $32,400. Antonius called. Dwan moved all in on the flop for his remaining $28,800 and Antonius called. After the river, and seconds after scooping the other pot, Dwan won another huge pot.

More amazingly Dwan also won the biggest pot of the session. Yet, he still gave up ground. Has to be frustrating for the youngster. Only seconds after hauling in that last six-figure pot, he dragged another, worth 122.5k.

WSOP NOTES FROM EARLY 09

The 40th annual World Series of Poker is upon us.

Wait, did you come here for the latest High Stakes Poker update? Seems we feel into a bit of a lazy rut, just updating the episodes. That being said, we will get the 13th and final episode of the season up soon. However, in the meantime we should turn our attention to the WSOP

Players from all over the real and online world have congregated in Vegas and the online players will discover they got more chips than normal to play with. Sure, most of our ilk are fumbling the chips anyway, although if there were a prize for doing trips with your mouse or artistic points for tossing a laptop in the pool we'd win those for sure.

However the ratio of chips to buy-in has once again increased. It started at 1-1. Then doubled to 2-1 in '07 and this year it is 3-1. That means the players in the 40k special tournament got 120,000 in chips to start with. Course the blinds and antes didn't start at the same place. Do they really think we are that stupid. Pollack in the USA Today spins it saying they did it to "create more play and more value for everyone... You have a bigger gas tank, if you will." Who's buying this? Is anybody?

Effel, in the article, credited his wife with the idea for the 40k buy-in. Which will create a "final table for the ages" though many of the TV names are already eliminated except for Chris Moneymaker. Which would be a HUGE story but does anyone really expect him to final table this? If you do, bet it because you can get great odds, even now, with him second in chips and only 88 players left. For more on the 40k event go here.

The Binion Cup is another idea created to celebrate the history of the World Series. They are going to give the winner of the event a vintage 1970 Corvette, a trophy named the Binion Cup, and bragging rights. No, prize money.

If poker players had any balls or since of solidarity, these champions would make an example of themselves and get a piece of the TV money ESPN feeds to Binions. They should sit out and ask for a small prize pool to be added to the event. Most of the old champions are just that old, and probably could care less about a vintage Corvette. It'll be more a hassle selling it for them.

Not to get off on a rant here but it looks like I already have. Harrahs has a tidy deal with ESPN, yet the players still pay admin fees and have to tip out the dealers. The only way the casinos are going to give players a piece of the pie is if the biggest players make a stand. The Champion Cup is made for TV. Stage a sit out and don't give Harrahs or ESPN their made for TV event. They might stop squeezing the players so much if the biggest players make a stand.

It could only happen at an event like this, because right now the casinos know in any other event if Phil Ivy, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth don't show they'll still have a 1000 other players in search of a bracelet.