Posted by Andrew Feldman
Auto companies are crumbling, banks hold too much debt and the unemployment rates are rising across the United States … so how in the world is the World Series of Poker breaking records in Las Vegas?
I joked the other night that the WSOP is recession proof. No, I have no factual data, but I do know that poker players love to take risks. They'll take risks when they have money, they'll borrow and take risks when they don't. To think that the $1,000 "stimulus special" tournament would get over 6,000 entrants is unfathomable in my mind, but what a great success it was for Harrah's and the WSOP. It's not often that the WSOP sends a note out to the media asking us to post on our sites that the event will sell out, but sure enough, it happened last week. ESPN.com's Bernard Lee almost missed out on the event, but managed to secure a final seat.
"The demand for the Stimulus Special could be felt the moment we announced it," said World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. "We welcome all the first-time players to the World Series of Poker and wish everyone good luck in their pursuit of a gold bracelet."
By the way, winning that bracelet will also come with a cool $771,106. Nice $1,000 investment for someone. The final table of Event 4 will be broadcast Tuesday on ESPN360.com starting at 5 p.m. ET.
Besides the stimulus special turnout of 6,012, the $40,000 no-limit hold 'em event (Event 2) managed 201 players all hoping to make poker history. The tournament, created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the WSOP essentially insured that prize pool records will be broken in 2009, and with Pollack's notion that the WSOP is considering increasing the buy-in in future years (next year's may be $41,000, etc.), these prize pools will continue to grow … as long as the players can afford it.
So what now? Events 2 through 4 have set records, and on Tuesday, another $1,500 no-limit hold 'em event will take place. Lee reported from Las Vegas that many players were still shut out of the $1,000 no-limit hold 'em event and are planning on playing Tuesday's event to make up for it. Will we see another sellout? All signs point to another 3,000-player tournament, and it seems the WSOP has given Las Vegas its pulse back.
"The cab lines are starting to form again," ESPN.com's Gary Wise said. "The Rio is full of lines of players waiting to register and the Vegas card rooms are full of players talking of their WSOP experiences. It's a great thing to see when there were so many concerned about the effect the economy would have on the WSOP."
Could this be the shot in the arm Vegas has searched for over the past eight months? Will everything be great moving forward and will more records continue to fall? I can't say that I'm completely optimistic. While the cheaper events manage these large numbers, the middle-level buy-in events have yet to be played. The $2,500 and the $5,000 events have grown over the past few years and I think how they fare will be the determining factor. I don't think as many players can spend that type of money in 2009 as they did the past couple of years, and I think entries in those events might stay flat or even drop by 1 or 2 percent.
In any case, congrats to the entire WSOP team on a great start. There are still 54 more bracelets to be awarded, but so far, so good.
Fantasy Poker Update
After the first day of the $40,000 event, I thought the competition was over! I had Justin Bonomo, Mark Seif and Nam Le sitting at the top of the chip counts and given that this was a double point event, I couldn't wait until the end of the tournament to update the standings. Three days later, I watched Bonomo be my lone survivor at the final table, earning an extremely respectable fifth place to give me the early lead. This might be the only time I'm at the top of the standings all season and I'm going to celebrate as much as possible.
Here's a look at the standings through three events:
Feldman: 59
Seif: 54
Chops: 12
Lederer: 8
Everyone else: 0
If you missed the draft and want to see all the teams, you can find them here.
Small blinds: The final table is set at the WSOP's first invitational championship event. Leading the way is Carlos Mortensen, while Phil Hellmuth is the severe short stack. The event started with 20 main event champions, including Greg Raymer, who was blinded out for the most part since he was playing at the final table of Event 2. … The winner of the invitational event will win a fully restored 1970 Chevrolet Corvette and the Binion Cup. … Best headline of the WSOP (so far) goes to the worldseriesofpoker.com: "Thang Luu Very Much." … Barry Greenstein chats with Sportsnation on Tuesday at 2 p.m. … Twitter has taken over the WSOP and many sites, including worldseriesofpoker.com and pokerroad.com, are offering cool ways to follow your favorite players. … According to Bluff's Lance Bradley, 4.36 and 4.39 players were eliminated per minute during the first two starting days of Event 4, respectively. … Doyle Brunson and Mike Caro are holding free poker seminars during the WSOP. … The WSOP main event will now count for the Player of the Year race.
Poker
