$40,000 Hold’em Event Debuts at the World Series of PokerNew Event Has Garnered Some Criticism |
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Whether or not the $40,000 no-limit hold’em event will be considered the “new main event” of the World Series remains to be seen. But today marks day 1 of the new, prestigious event.
“I think it’s a great way to bring together the best no-limit hold’em players in a concentrated field, probably resulting in one of the best final tables anyone has ever seen,” said Jeffrey Pollack, WSOP commissioner.
Harrah’s announced the creation of the new event in January. It is the second-most-expensive tournament in World Series history, behind the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament.
Immediately, Harrah’s distanced itself from expectations that this would replace the main event in terms of prestige.
“We made it clear that this is not intended to be an annual event,” WSOP Communications Director Seth Palanksy said soon after the announcement.
Pollack seemed to soften on that stance in an interview earlier this month.
“Whether or not we continue [this tournament] beyond this year, we’ll see,” said Pollack. “Right now, it’s just for this year.”
Although the tournament will likely attract the biggest names in the game, some pros are less than pleased that it will be happening, especially so early in the Series.
“I think it’s asinine. I’ll be playing in it, but I think it’s asinine,” Mike Matusow said on his Card Player TV show, The Mouthpiece. “Why would they possibly want to break everybody on day 1?”
Still, Matusow expects the tournament to attract a large field.
“All the Internet kids and anybody who can come up with 40 grand is going to play in this tournament,” said Matusow. “If they’ve got $60,000 to play [with]…they’re putting up $40,000 for this tournament, because they know it’s televised and they know that the winner of this tournament is going to be considered the world champion over the main event.”
This isn’t the first time that Harrah’s has been criticized for a major adjustment to the World Series. The company was “vilified,” according to Pollack, when it announced its final-table delay for the main event last year.
“We were willing to take the risk, and it paid off,” said Pollack. The TV ratings for the 2008 final table were up 46% over 2007.
Card Player will publish live updates from the $40,000 tournament and several other events over the next two months.
The $40,000 event marks the first open event of the 2009 WSOP.
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