The Scoop -- Jack Effel

Jack Effel has been the vice president of international poker operations and tournament director of the World Series of Poker since 2007, and has years of experience running poker rooms and tournaments. As one of the main forces behind the modern WSOP, Effel has been a key part of the growth and development of one of poker’s most prestigious events.

Diego Cordovez: In regard to the tournament schedule this year, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event has been replaced by a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event with a final table incorporating no-limit hold’em, which certainly was in response to the fact that last year ESPN didn’t want to broadcast the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event because no-limit is what drives the ratings. The other big change is that the $40,000 high-roller event has been eliminated. It was interesting in that it almost guarantees a very high-quality final table, and it really reduces a lot of the luck element because of the structure and nature of the tournament. What was the rationale for not bringing that back? I know that it was a special 40th-anniversary deal, but it was such a success that any businessperson would say, “This was such a great success, let’s make it a $41,000 tournament.”

Jack Effel: You kind of asked two questions there. One was the response to the H.O.R.S.E. event in the past and the move to the “poker players championship,” and then the 40th-annual WSOP no-limit hold’em event that we held last year, and its replacement this year, which is the $25,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em event. So, let me speak to each one individually. Regarding the $50,000 poker players championship, when we first implemented that event in 2006, it was with the high hopes of determining who the best all-around player was. No-limit hold’em is a big part of that. So, we wanted to be able to showcase all of the great disciplines of poker and determine an overall champion, but also have that no-limit hold’em element. At that time, there weren’t really a lot of games in which they were playing this mixed rotation, no-limit hold’em and all of that. Over time, that kind of mixed game evolved. The game that Chip and Doyle were playing in evolved to incorporate pot-limit Omaha, deuce-to-seven triple draw, and, obviously, no-limit hold’em, so it actually became an eight-game mix. We took the no-limit hold’em element out after the first year because it’s not truly H.O.R.S.E. This is a limit format, so it should be played as limit. We basically changed it from how we originally said it was going to be. So, it lost a little popularity [as a limit final table] and is a little boring to watch on TV, but it still determined who the best all-around player was. But it was missing something. It was missing that element of pot-limit Omaha, no-limit hold’em, and deuce-to-seven. We’d love to bring no-limit hold’em back into the mix, but it wouldn’t seem right to have H.O.R.S.E. with a no-limit final table if it’s not played throughout the entire event.

Adam Schoenfeld: Right, because that’s not H.O.R.S.E.

JE: So, it made sense that if we are going to determine who the best all-around player is, let’s do it in the eight-game format, where they play all of the games.

DC: Now, is it going to be eight games all the way through to the end, or something different when they get to the final table?

JE: Now, they are going to play no-limit at the final table. But that’s OK, because they’ll have no-limit hold’em throughout the duration of the event.

DC: Yes, but it is still somewhat of a bastardization for TV, which I think is actually defensible, because you want to attract a bigger field and TV coverage. But it’s one thing to play the eight games and rotate all the way through and whatever happens, happens, and another thing to play to the final table and say, “Now that the prizes really matter, now that the big jumps are coming into effect, it’s going to be straight no-limit.” I don’t have a problem with this; I’m just saying that it certainly is a response to what people need to see on TV to justify the event.

JE: You can look at it that way, or you can look at it as no-limit hold’em being the true art form of poker and that it determines who the world champion of poker is, so it plays a huge part in the whole eight-game rotation.