Surprises at the World Series of Poker
Surprises have become the norm over the last few years at the
World Series of Poker, but this year has been extra special.
Day one produced the biggest shock of all. A whole bunch of people turned up at the Rio, apparently with the intention of playing a little bit of poker. This caught Harrah's completely off guard, so the would-be poker players had to stand in line for up to six hours to register for the $1,500 no-limit hold'em event. If somebody was going to pay me 135 bucks vig, I'd send a taxi around to collect it, but maybe that's just me.
I was shocked to see Jeffrey whatever-his-name-is, who's apparently the chief bottle washer for the
Series, say in an interview that he hadn't slept a wink the night before the start of the event. If my plans involved making thousands of players stand in a line for half the day, I'd be too afraid to sleep until the last player had left town.
The next shock was
USA Today's preview of the event. It tipped 13 players (a few of whom are probably lifetime losers in
WSOP events) to do well this year. The only non-American was Gus Hansen, but inasmuch as he's one of the boys,
USA Today probably thinks he's one of its own. I'm sure it'll sort this out for next year. My depression at the thought that Europeans had no chance here didn't last very long, because when I looked at the front page of the news section, I spotted that the main news story of the day centred around the fact that the world's top golfers were now involved in designing golf courses. I'm not making this up.
World Series of Poker tips
My first night in town, I got a fortune cookie, which was empty. Luckily, the significance of this wasn't that I wasn't going to wake up the next morning (I did), so it obviously means my
WSOP short-term future isn't all that I'd like it to be. So, I'm reduced to betting on other people if I wish to pay my hotel bill. Obviously, the Americans are favourites to win the main event, as they have won it four years out of the last eight (the score stands: USA-4, Rest of the World-3, Lawyers-1), but their price is too short for my liking. Inasmuch as this event has a history of back-to-back winners, I'd strongly advise an investment on the Lawyers to triumph again.
My up-to-date betting tips and views on the
World Series can be found on Jesse May's website: www.luckbox.tv.
Keep it to yourself
I recently was involved in the 888.com poker boot camp in London. The most entertaining part of the weekend, apart from my own contribution, obviously, was a talk given by Neil Channing on tells at the poker table. He told a story involving a couple of Irish players that touched on the subject. Several years ago, a few Irish players were hanging around the Griffen Club, later the Merrion, waiting for the game to start, which generally occurred about 10 minutes after chucking-out time in the pub next door. Player A bounced in the door in a state of frenzied excitement. There was nothing unusual about this, as he was generally in this state from when he woke up in the morning and remembered that there was a poker club in Dublin. He announced that his life as a poker player was about to change forever as a result of a poker book he spent the day reading. This caused great surprise, as none of the assembled players were aware that such books existed, and if they did, that player A had found the time in his other career as a slot machine expert to read it. Apparently, the book in question was Mike Caro's
Book of Tells, and player A explained that you could tell what a guy had or didn't have by studying his body language. One or two of the assembled players could tell you what their opponents had by the more traditional method of taking a quick peek, but that's for another day. Player A was quite happy to share his newfound knowledge with anyone who cared to listen, and with several people who didn't. In his excitement, he even gave a brief demonstration of how guys who are bluffing often covered their mouths while their opponents were deliberating. A short time later, the game began with player A wondering how much he was going to win as a result of his newly acquired knowledge, and everyone else wondering how much player A had in his pocket, because book or no book, if steaming was an Olympic sport, player A would have been an absolute certainty for the gold medal. After about half an hour, player B - who'd been busy studying potential investments in the sports-betting field while player A had been lecturing - hit a flush on the river in a heads-up situation with player A. Inasmuch as player A was winning a few quid at the time, player B didn't really fancy his chances of getting paid off here, but he bet 800 anyway. Player A shook his head, player B covered his mouth with his hand, and player A called instantly. I don't think another poker book was sold in Ireland for another decade or so - which explains a lot.
Padraig Parkinson is well-known on the European poker scene, both for his poker prowess and sense of humour. He was one bluff away from winning the 1999 World Series of Poker, but unfortunately got called.
