Foxwoods and Becoming a Celebrity

Once again, Foxwoods Resort Casino hosted a wonderful tournament. Along with all of its usual events in the World Poker Finals, it also hosted the first PPT (Professional Poker Tour) event. In this $500,000 freeroll, John Juanda won out against a tough final table of Chris Bigler, Ron Rose, Dan Harrington, Jennifer Harman Traniello, and Casey Kastle.

The $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship of the World Poker Finals, a World Poker Tour event, had the fourth-largest prize pool in the history of poker. Only the 2003 and 2004 World Series of Poker championship events and the 2004 WPT Championship event featured more prize money. Why is Foxwoods so successful at getting players into its championship events? Satellites. There are one-table satellites (online players refer to them as sit-and-goes), supersatellites with great structures, and smaller satellites that put the winner into a larger satellite. Of course, you can now get into major championship tournaments by winning a seat online. All of these options give players a more affordable way of playing in a $10,000 buy-in event without having to cough up the serious cash.

A total of 674 players qualified or bought into the event. This resulted in a $6.765 million prize pool ($25,000 was added). Tuan Le won and cashed in for almost $1.55 million. Others at the final table were: Temperance Hutter, Humberto Brenes, Bradley Berman, J.C. Tran (he is on fire), and David Pham.

With prize pools getting this big, players can no longer use the excuse, "If this were the World Series of Poker, I would have played the hand differently." Championship events these days are all like winning the World Series was a few years ago. Sure, you are a "world champion" if you won the WSOP championship in the past, but the marketing and fame of winning a televised event these days gives the players more opportunities. Take Carlos Mortensen, for example. He won the WSOP championship in 2001 for $1.5 million, and won $1 million a couple of months ago at the Doyle Brunson North American No-Limit Hold'em Championship. (Note: Doyle and Carlos are the only two winners of the WSOP championship who have also won a WPT event.) Anyhow, my point is that Carlos will get far more exposure from his latest win (when it airs on TV) than he did from winning the WSOP championship in 2001, even though he won $500,000 more in 2001.

Those players who make the TV final tables today and either win or present themselves well are becoming celebrities. Like other celebrities, there may be more long-term money in endorsements than in playing. Thus, if you are good/lucky enough to win, you will have a bright future if you market yourself properly. Just watch out for the paparazzi.