Day 2A: Will a Pro Ever Win Again?They're Falling Like Flies, But Some Are Still in Hunt |
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The 2003 main event attracted 839 players. Only three years later 8,773 people came out to play in 2006. This explosion in popularity is frequently attributed to "The Moneymaker Effect." When unknown amateur Chris Moneymaker parlayed an online satellite victory into $2.5 million, thousands of other amateurs thought maybe they could duplicate his success. This brought an influx of participants, creating the poker boom. Since then each of the main event champions has been a relatively unknown amateur. The question that has been on many minds is if a pro will ever win the big one again? With 6,358 players this year, the established pros have a better chance of coming out on top on a purely statistical level than they did last year. They are still the minority, though, and with so many people to outlast, even the best player cannot hope to survive without some luck.
Some of the best in the game were eliminated on day 2A. Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Mark Seif, Dan Harrington, Jeff Madsen, "Miami John" Cernuto, Tom McEvoy, Doug Kim, Paul Wasicka, and James Van Alstyne have all found themselves taking their last walk from the tables at this year's World Series of Poker.
Joe Sebok was another pro who found difficulty weathering the amateur obstacles of the championship event. Sebok came into the day shortstacked but was able to mount a number of small comebacks, even making it to above $80,000. He kept running into complications, however, twice playing big pots with pocket queens against opponents who held A-K. In one pot, Sebok's queens made a straight on a K-9-10-3-J board. In the other ,he was not so lucky. After complete blanks hit the flop and turn, Sebok was a strong favorite to eliminate his opponent. An ace hit the river, however, and Sebok was knocked back down once again. Eventually Sebok's struggle to get back to a point at which he could play comfortably came to an end with his elimination in the tenth level. He, like many other pros, will have to wait for next year for another go at the biggest prize in poker.
A number of pros are still in the running for the bracelet and the $8.25 million first-place prize. Huck Seed, who won the main event in 1995, ended the day with roughly $280,000 in chips. Cliff Josephy and Jared Hamby are two players with phenomenal online and live success, and both ended with around $250,000. Card Player's own Diego Cordovez closed out the night just short of $300,000. A number of other pros are alive, and as the field shrinks, the edge that the pros gain from skill advantage grows. The last pro to win the big one was Carlos Mortensen, who in 2001 overcame a final table dominated by big names: Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow ,and Dewey Tomko. Since then, the main event final table has made more big names than it has played host to.
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