Mark’s Las Vegas Blog - Your Source for Vegas Info

The final table for the 2008 WSOP Main Event is set. After the final 27 participants were set the other day they played down to the final nine last night.

Here’s the final nine and their chip counts:

1 Dennis Phillips 26,295,0000
2 Ivan Demidov 24,400,0000
3 Scott Montgomery 19,690,0000
4 Peter Eastgate 18,375,0000
5 Ylon Schwartz 12,525,0000
6 Darus Suharto 12,520,0000
7 David Rheem 10,230,0000
8 Craig Marquis 10,210,0000
9 Kelly Kim 2,620,000

There’s no “name” players at the final table this year. The highest finishing big name was Mike “The Mouth” Matusow who busted out in 30th place. The highest finishing female this year was Tiffany Michele who finished in 17th place.

Each player is guaranteed at least $900,670 in prize money with the winner getting $9,119,338 and the coveted bracelet.

As previously discussed the final table will he held on November 9. The ESPN coverage of the other tournaments will begin July 22 and lead up untill the final table, which will be on a 2 hour tape delay of the heads-up finale.  

Today’s the big day! The $10,000 buy-in World Championship No Limit Hold’em tournament starts today. It’s also more well known as the main event. I’m really not sure how many people will be in this year, although I’m thinking it’s gonna be less than the 6,358 that entered last year and awarded $8.25 million to the winner. As I previously wrote about here, they’re gonna delay the final table till November. Hopefully I’ll get down to the rio and check out some of the action!

It’s pretty much the biggest prize you can have in poker. The main event winner is more or less considered the king of poker. With the explosion in online poker the last few years what’s been called the “Moneymaker effect” the numbers of entries has skyrocketed! So named for Chris Moneymaker, who was the first main event winner to win his entry online back in 2003, the effect really kicked the popularity of poker into the stratosphere!

Although the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 pretty much took a lot of the wind out of the sails of online poker from the US players. It really didn’t make the act of playing illegal, it just doesn’t allow the transfer of money from a US-based bank account or credit card. I played mostly for fun online (I have about as much luck online as in the brick and mortal casinos, which is either none or less than none depending on the day) so it didn’t affect me very much but it really put a damper on millions. Plus they also made it against the rules to directly transfer your tournament buy-in from your online account which thousands of online players had been doing.  

It’s might seem weird to newer fans of poker but the crowds weren’t always this big, but realize the year Phil Hellmuth won in 1989 there was only 178 people in the main event! I remember the last year they held the whole thing at Binions, when it was still the Horseshoe, in 2004 and you couldn’t even move in there! They had poker tables jammed in every corner you could imagine! The whole thing almost got shut down by the fire marshalls too. Now they have the tournaments in one of the convention center rooms in the Rio.

Ok that’s enough rambling about the WSOP for now. I’ll update when the final table is set in a few days.

Today starts the 2008 WSOP. It kicks off a little different this year with a $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em for the first event, instead of a $1500 no limit like the last few years. This year they wanted to have a couple of more “pro” events and some other games that have fallen out of favor, such as a 2-7 lowball bracelet event. Most of the focus has been on no limit hold’em the last couple of years and it’s good to see some of the other games get some more attention.

It’ll be interesting to see how the main event final table pans out. I made my feelings known about that situation previously with this post. With the internet gaming ban still in effect I’m predicting another drop in the total players in the main event. Before the ban the online poker sites would let you directly transfer the buy-in to the WSOP. But after the ban you can’t do that anymore, making the aquiring of the $10,000 buy in a lot more complicated. in 2006 before the ban the Main Event had 8,773 players. In 2007 there was 6,358. I’m predicting 5,600 this year. We’ll see how things pan out.

One thing I, among other people “in the know” have been touting for quite a while is the value of downtown Las Vegas. As prices have escalated on the strip and many of the older more reasonable places have closed, the notion is that there’s no more places for the “average” person anymore here.

Well, I’m happy to report that downtown is looking up. I had some family out here this week. My parents came out from Florida along with my aunt & uncle from Massachusetts. My parents had been here before but it was the first trip for my aunt & uncle. I shuffled my work schedule around so I could spend some time with them. They really enjoyed their trip here. They confessed they really didn’t know what to expect and me, being the Las Vegas “expert” (hey my business card says so) made sure they had a good time.

One thing I insisted they get to see was the Fremont St. Experience. So one night we all piled in my truck and headed on down. They really enjoyed the whole deal, even though we didn’t see all of it.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised at just how many people were there. And it was on a Wednesday night, typically not a real busy night. Along with the kick ass light show, they had 2 different bands playing on the stages set up.

They really have tried to fix up downtown the last couple of years and it looks like they’re succeding. For people that say they miss the ”old Vegas”, well, it’s alive and well right where it all started. Downtown. You have several casinos all within a short walking distance, plenty of good food, free entertainment, and better (as in lower) limit gambling than the strip. Try to find $5 blackjack at the Venetian or the Wynn on a Friday night! You wanna stay in a nice place? The Golden Nugget is as nice as any casino on the strip. (I’ve had the buffet recently and it’s excellent)

So next time make it a point to come downtown. I’m sure you’ll have a great time. We all did!

Harrah’s announced the other day that they will be delaying the final table of the world Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event final Table for…..16 weeks???? Are you kidding me? 4 months??? I’m sure someone at Harrah’s thought this was a good idea, but I’m not so sure. Could you imagine this happening with other sports? Like football for example. The Super Bowl is always a couple of weeks after the Championship game, in late February or early March. I couldn’t see the NFL going “OK this year the Super Bowl will be held the first week of July, 4 months after it should be played.”

Harrah’s has a couple of reasons for this. For one thing it has to somewhat do with the TV programming. It usually takes a few weeks to edit the telecast and have it ready for broadcast. There’s several bloggers and publications posting hand-by-hand updates from the WSOP and the results are known to anyone with an internet connection almost immediately. Harrah’s wanted more control over the way the results are known as far as I can guess and that’s one of the reasons behind the change.

But let’s think of all the possibilities. For one, it takes away from the mental and physical toughness that’s required to pull off a WSOP win these days, which is even more so with the huge fields we have nowadays. It’s a bit different trying to outlast 8000 people rather than 800! Also, it gives someone a lot more time to work on their game, hire a coach, study past broadcasts (hopefully) of their opponents. And lets be extreme about it. What if something happens to someone? What do they do if someone’s unable to return to finish the tournament? Take away their chips? If so, are their chips taken out of play, distributed equally among the remaining players? Do they forfeit?

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s a silly idea. I can see maybe, maybe a week or two inbetween. But four months is just nuts. I feel it’ll take away too much from the integrity of the game and there’s just too much that can happen in that kind of time frame. But hey, maybe I’m wrong. You tell me.

So this time I’m gonna show what it’s like to be a high roller & win millions! (well maybe dozens!)

The game of choice for us locals is predominately video poker. Really the only ones that play slots are tourists.

One of the weirdest things about moving here was seeing video poker machines basically everywhere! Yes, they’re in the airport as anyone whose traveled here has seen, but it took some getting used to seeing them in the 7/11, the grocery store, the gas stations, and especially all the local bars.

Anyone that’s played knows that you drink free while playing, just be kind and tip the cocktail waitress at least $1 per drink. It works the same at the local bars.  As long as you’re playing drinks are comped and tipping well keeps the drinks coming (and stronger too!)

Anyway I was out at my usual haunts over the weekend and was playing some video poker. Usually I don’t have the greatest luck but got lucky and hit this awesome hand on a Friday night:

That’s right folks. A royal flush! The very best hand you can hit playing video poker! It’s only the second one I’ve ever hit.

Remember before when I said I’m gonna show you how to be a high roller. Well look closely at the picture. That’s right folks. I was playing a nickel machine. 50 cents a hand. HUGE stakes! the hand payed a whole $200! American dollars thank you very much! (Of course worth about $17 with the devalued dollar these days!) Ehh I can’t complain it got me some new shoes and a nice dinner!

The very next night (that’s Saturday for those of you keeping score) I was out yet again (2 nights in a row! Somebody stop me!) and was playing some more VP and somehow managed to hit this beauty:

4 aces! That’s the second best hand you can hit on VP. Again notice the high roller here playing nickels. I’m like butter baby, I’m on a roll!

(Hey now! Be sure to tip your bartenders & waitresses they’re working hard for you. 2 shows on Sunday, try the special!)

Ok sorry I got carried away & thought I was a comedian again. Anyway just wanted to show you that anyone can hit it big in Vegas. Even me!

Poker legend David “Chip” Reese died this week at the age of 56.  While he wasn’t as well known as players like Phil Hellmuth or Daniel Negreanu he was one of, if not the most, respected players in the game. He purposely shunned the spotlight, prefering to focus on cash games instead of tournaments. He was a frequent player in the “Big Game”, a semi-regular high stakes cash game played by the biggest names in poker, usually at the Bellagio. To have poker giants like Doyle Brunson & Barry Greenstein to say you were the best ever, well, you gotta believe it.  He was also the youngest inductee in the Poker Hall of fame.

His shining moment was his winning the $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament in the 2006 WSOP.

A little background about that. In 2006, several of the top pros suggested another tournament. With the WSOP having been flooded with all the new internet players, they wanted something that appealed to the pros a little more. What was different was 2 things:

1. A much larger buy-in than the $10,000 that the Main Event has.

2. It’s a mixed game. Most of the poker boom has focused strictly on Texas hold ‘em and other games such as Stud & Omaha have falled out of favor. In HORSE the games are Hold’em, Omaha 8 or better, Razz, seven card Stud & seven card Stud 8 or better. The games are rotated every few hands.

Chip’s winning of this prestigious tournament was just icing on the cake of his reputation. It was also the longest heads-up match in WSOP history, clocking in at over 7 hours!

Reports said he had gone to the hospital that night and was sent home. He died in his sleep. It’s a huge loss to the poker world & my condolences to his family & friends.