Tournament News 'n' Views From My Side of the Fence

As a change of pace from my usual strategy-oriented columns, I am focusing on several news events in the world of tournament poker in this column. First on my personal agenda is the news that I will be directing the World Series of Poker in 2002. As of Sept. 12, my duties at Binion's Horseshoe shifted from managing the poker room and directing the WSOP to acting as a consultant for the "big one" and personally running the tournament, while Bob Dunning has taken over the responsibility of managing Binion's poker room.

From my point of view, this is a change for the better, because being at the helm of the WSOP is what I always wanted to do more than anything else. With the help and support of Becky Binion Behnen and her son, Benny Behnen, I believe that next year's World Series will be the best in its long and revered history. And to add some icing to the cake for all of you who like to play games of skill other than poker, Binion's Horseshoe also will be hosting the World Championship of Hearts and the World Championship of Gin in April, just before the WSOP begins. From time to time, I'll keep you posted on other new things that are in the works for the 2002 WSOP.

Between then and now, of course, several tournaments of note are scheduled across the globe. I'll be departing soon, with a large contingent of American poker players, I hope, for Casinos Europa's tournament in Costa Rica Oct. 22-26. The "celebrity" tournament host is Howard "Tahoe" Andrew, who has more friends from his decades of playing poker than he can count, and the tournament director is Dave Lamb, who so ably directed the supersatellites at the 2001 WSOP. I've always had a great time at Casinos Europa's tournaments, in part because of the awesome scenery and beaches in Costa Rica, and in part because the tournaments are such good values for cost-conscious players. For example, the four $10 buy-in no-limit hold'em events (with multiple – and I do mean, multiple-rebuys) have $40,000 guarantees, and the $500 buy-in championship event has a guarantee of $100,000. Nick Gullo, casino director, also has a terrific deal on rooms and airfare. Casinos Europa will provide hotel rooms and will reimburse up to $500 airfare for those players who log either 20 hours of play in the casino or 50 hours of play in the poker room (tournament and satellite time included).

Another notable tournament that just ended is the Four Queens Classic, newly rejuvenated by Bonnie Damiano and directed by the popular, on-and-off-again-retired, and frequently "roasted" Jack McClelland. From my point of view, Damiano is to be congratulated for reintroducing a dormant tournament venue and bringing it back to the Las Vegas tournament scene. Turnouts were good for the main events and the evening tournaments as well. Damiano added a bit of flair to the schedule by offering a varied mix of $100 and $200 buy-in evening events, with games ranging from no-limit hold'em to multigame and tag-team formats. The mixed-game events proved to be quite popular, and as a result, I will be devoting my next two columns to strategies for winning multigame tournaments. (As a side note, Damiano and I won a tag-team event a couple of years ago at Crystal Park, thanks to her expert play in the seven-card stud segment.) Congrats to my writing partner, T.J. Cloutier, who bested a field of 152 in one of the $100 buy-in no-limit hold'em evening events to take home $18,158.

In another view from my side of the fence, I am particularly happy for Byron "Cowboy" Wolford, who just published his new poker book, Cowboys, Gamblers & Hustlers. Cowboy is much more than just a talented and colorful tournament player, he is a classic in and of himself. I especially enjoyed reading his stories about Benny Binion in the old days, and his account of the bluff that he pulled off against Jesse Alto at the final table of the 1984 World Series. I was there, and can tell you that its precision and magnitude caused gasps throughout the room. And then there was the episode when he booked the events at the big rodeo at Madison Square Garden and came close to losing his shirt. Cowboy's life reads like fiction – he's been in and out of more scrapes playing poker and rodeoing than probably anybody in the universe. Sadly, he is one of a diminishing breed of old-time road gamblers. But happily, Cowboy has preserved a major part of poker history by writing this classic book.

That's it for now on my news 'n' views front. Until next time, I hope to see you in the winner's circle.

Editor's note: Tom McEvoy is the author of Tournament Poker and the co-author with T.J. Cloutier of the Championship series of poker books. McEvoy and Cloutier are billed as "Poker's Leading Team of Winning Authors." Their books are available through Card Player.