The first weekend of the 2010 World Series of Poker is in the books and there’s been plenty of action so far.
Hoai Pham took down the opening event, for casino employees only, to become the first bracelet winner of the 41st annual World Series of Poker. That event drew 721 players, slightly down on last year’s turnout, but still whet the appetite nicely for things to come.
The final table of the $50,000 WSOP Player’s Championship is looming large on the horizon, with just three tables remaining. The standard of this year’s event is as high as ever and of the 21 remaining players, almost every one is a well known face in the poker world. The likes of Andy Bloch, John Juanda and Erik Seidel are still in the hunt, while big guns like Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and Chris Ferguson have all busted.
The final table of the event, which now goes by the name of “The Chip Reese Memorial Trophy” and has switched from a HORSE format to Eight Game, will be No Limit Hold’em this year, in order to secure television coverage. Former winner David Bach was amongst the highest profile players to complain about the WSOP’s decision to tinker with the structure, as he feels poker games like Pot Limit Omaha are too high in variance, which “takes some of the skill out of what is supposed to be the most skillful tournament”.
Day 1B of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em “Stimulus” tournament didn’t live up to the billing, as a disappointing 1,755 players turned up, pushing to the total number of competitors to 4,356. That figure fell far short of the record set at last year’s WSOP Stimulus event, which stood at 6,012. Poker pundits had expected the field to break 6,000 again and were talking about record numbers for the $1,000 event, but it wasn’t to be.
As last year’s event was so popular, World Series officials decided to add a number of extra smaller buy-in tournaments to the WSOP schedule, which may go someway to explaining the dip in numbers, as potential players with a smaller bankroll now have a selection of similar events. There is of course the ongoing world economic situation, which may also explain the slight reduction.
WSOP event number four is now underway, with 818 players buying into the $1,500 Omaha 8-or-Better tournament, including star names such as Barry Shulman, Mike Matusow and Huck Seed. Prop bets are already being discussed, most notably by Tony G and Barry Greenstein and the prize pool for the tournament stands at $1,104,300.
Stay tuned for all the latest World Series of Poker news.
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