I Still Get Excited

I still get excited about poker these days, and what gets me as excited as anything are the strides being made in poker betting. I'm not talking about playing the game, but betting on other people playing poker. And from my skill standpoint, it's probably a better idea.



I'd given up becoming a poker world champion when my dreams were crushed at the age of 23 when I played against Johnny "World" Hennigan in a side game and he ran circles around me. This was further confirmed in my one shot in the World Series of Poker main event when I let Amarillo Slim talk me off a pair of tens. Slim talked me off several things, actually, including my tens, my seat, and all of my money, but I've always fancied that if I can't play poker very well, I sure can spot another guy doing it. This conviction has cost me quite a bit of money so far, but then backing my judgment always has done that.



Yes, poker betting is the new sport. And it's not just one sportsbook anymore, with ridiculous lines like 25-1 on the favorite winning in a field of 600 runners, although those lines do exist, so keep a close eye on your wallet. What's happened over the last year is that poker is changing from novelty betting to real sports wagering.



I doubt there will be a sportsbook in the world that won't be offering lines on the World Series of Poker, but for Europeans, my suggestion is to start with Betfair, check out Pinnaclesports, compare prices with Ladbrokes, and don't forget Stan James. Competition is starting to keep lines fair and prices attractive. Some sites are even running markets on internal online tournaments.



And with the British Poker Open final live on television in May and Matchroom's Poker Den starting to air this month live every Friday night, stand back and belly up to the betting window.



I check the Pokerpulse site from time to time to keep abreast of what's happening in the industry. Last year it seemed like the trend was all about online skins, but now it seems the new wave is all proprietary software.



Do you know how many "top level" online poker rooms there are, proprietary poker networks? I was staggered to learn that there are now 52 different "poker rooms." That's a lot of poker rooms, and that's not even counting the hundreds of "skins" that these networks have.



Although cash games are shared by all skins on a network, tournaments typically are not. And since the better skins give value to their members via added-value tournaments, anybody with the slightest interest in playing in the WSOP this year should get cracking and get looking online.



If you fancy going for the $10 million first prize, I would highly recommend securing the $10,000 entry before leaving home. And if you can't grab one of the 3,000 or more online qualifying seats that are estimated to be available for this World Series of Poker, try harder.



I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Mike Sexton last month. Mike's on the inside of the heartbeat of poker.



Two young women PartyPoker interns were working the tournament in Maidstone. They had been on the job only a few months, and when they heard Mike Sexton was coming to town, they blushed and gushed, "Mike Sexton! He's a god! His picture hangs on the wall of our office!"



Mike may not be a deity, but he is darn close, as there's not a person in the world who has been more instrumental over the last five years in the development of poker as a sport.



We were sitting in the bar, and between the beer, the onion rings, and the Masters golf tournament on TV, things could have been worse. Our talk was of the World Series of Poker, with Sexton saying that it might not be the same anymore, that this year he might just spend June in Tahiti.



Now, Sexton is a guy who has lived for the World Series of Poker. Winning a bracelet in 1989 was probably the proudest moment of his career, and getting knocked out just off the final table of the main event in 2000 is something he still thinks about three times a day.



Padraig Parkinson, who's no stranger to being close himself, looked Mike up and down and smiled. "You might, Mike, you just might. But it's a long way from talking to actually doing it." They then laughed long and loud, because the truth was plain that every poker player in the world will be there, helpless to resist.



No matter how they change the World Series of Poker, two facts will always remain: It's the championship of the world, and you have a beating heart.