Monday, July 13, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It’s odd that we’re getting to the meat of the Main Event, to the moments of high drama where incredible sums of money hang on the turn of a card, and yet it feels like someone let the air out of the room. The Amazon Room, specifically, which has been the center of the poker Universe for seven weeks but now stands half-empty. Compare this shot, taken as the Main Event began…
…with this picture, taken as play started today:
You won’t notice the change when you watch the Main Event on TV because there’s still a lot of action at the tables for the cameras and spectators to follow. But there’s definitely a different vibe now, all that empty space swallows up so many people and so much noise that you can’t help but think that the World Series is almost over.
Almost. There are still 145 players fighting for the World Championship and tens of millions in prize money. That’s all that’s still at stake, life-changing riches and poker immortality. Just that.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Saturday, July 11, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The Main Event field has been reduced to 1,035 players, and if you needed any additional proof that the 2009 World Series of Poker is winding down you need go no further than the Brasilia and Miranda Rooms. Oh, the Amazon Room is still packed to the rafters, but over the last six weeks Brasilia and Miranda were always host to tournaments or satellites (or both). But no more–the entire Main Event field is now housed in Amazon and the other two rooms lie fallow after weeks of non-stop use.
It’s a bit melancholy to walk over to Brasilia, where the 5pm tournaments usually kicked off, and find the room as empty and quiet as a tomb:
And in Miranda they’re ready to pack up the chairs and tables:
And before too long they Amazon Room will start to empty out, and the staff begin the long process of breaking down the spare tables and carting them away. That’s still a day or so away, but when it comes that’s the signal that we’re getting close to the end. The end, except for determining who will make up the second November Nine, and take their shot at winning poker immortality.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Play has just begun on Day 2B of the World Series of Poker Main Event, the largest restart in the history of poker. A total of 2,924 players returned to the Rio to play today, and to accomodate them the WSOP staff extended the playing area and eliminated most of the roped-off walkways through the Amazon Room. And so, for the time being, no spectators are allowed in the room, though they’ll be granted admittance one some tables break and the walkways are re-established.
Here’s what the Amazon Room looked like from Media Row 20 minutes before play began…
And what it looked like about 30 seconds from “Shuffle Up and Deal”:
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
The Amazon Room, at 10AM:
The room still isn’t completely empty, there are a half-dozen cash game tables still in play, but for the most part it’s quiet right now. That’ll change in about an hour, when the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event kicks off. And then at 2pm it’s the resumption of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold-Em event, where Phil Hellmuth will return to an 88,100 stack and with just a few eliminations standing in the way of his 71st career WSOP cash…and perhaps more.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Phil Hellmuth, ub, ultimatebet, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Saturday, June 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Phil Hellmuth will not be making his 42nd final table (nor winning his 12th bracelet), at least not today. Phil was eliminated at the very end of play last night in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event, and in an especially filthy way. After seeing his stack thinned to just around 30,000, Jim Geary moved all-in from the small blind and Phil, holding pocket sixes, called from the big blind. Geary had Jc-10h, the flop came Queen-high, the turn was a King, and Geary hit an Ace on the river to make Broadway and send an irritated Phil to the rail. Still, he finished in 25th place, good for his record 70th WSOP cash and a $14,828 payday.
Michael Binger, however, is still alive in the prestigious $10,000 Mixed Game event. Michael is one of the shortest stacks but a lot can happen with just 20 players left in the field. That event will play down to the final eight before seating the final table and chances are they’ll play deep into the night to crown the Mixed Game champion.
And in just a few minutes we’ll be starting the $5,000 No-Limit Hold-Em tournament, and then later this afternoon the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event kicks off. Just another marathon day of poker here at the Rio.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Michael Binger, mixed game championship, Phil Hellmuth, phil hellmuth record wsop cashes, Rio, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Thursday, June 4, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
So that’s one week down for the World Series of Poker, six more to go. Approximately. It’s always hard to keep track of time in Las Vegas, especially so during the WSOP. I guess we’ll know to leave when they throw us out.
But it’s been another long busy day that’s turning into a long busy night. Steve Sung won his first bracelet tonight, as did Jason Mercier, and coming on the heels of wins by Vitaly Lunkin and Thang Luu (both of whom won their second bracelets) this Series might eclipse 2008 as the Year of the Pro. Longer structure and deeper stacks should translate into the best players having more time to display their skills. So far that’s been the case.
The Seven-Card Stud World Championship is now heads up, with poker legend Eric Drache battling Freddie Ellis for the bracelet (and if you don’t know who Eric Drache is, then shame on you). And four other tournaments are winnowing their fields one by one toward final tables of their own tomorrow or the day after. It’s been a long day, it’ll be a long night, and we’re gonna enjoy six more weeks of the same.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, jason mercier, Rio, steve sung, vitaly lunkin, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (3)
Monday, June 1, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
I wrote a post the other day trying to explain how BIG the World Series of Poker is. The Amazon Room is the nerve center of the WSOP but it’s hard to get a photo that shows how massive it is. Between the banners and flatscreens hanging from the ceiling it’s hard to see from Point A to the very distant Point B, plus it’s kinda dark in here. But this pic might give you a bit of perspective:
Room enough to hold three or four tournaments, dozens of cash-game tables, a poker stadium and smaller spectator-friendly feature table…heck, they even have an elevated two-tier media row for we humble poker scribes. It’s definitely the most unusual office I’ve ever worked in.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, how big is the amazon room, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (0)
Friday, May 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When folks ask me what the World Series of Poker is like, the thing I struggle with is describing the sheer size of it. A lot of people think that the World Series = the Main Event, and when I tell them I’m going to be in Vegas for seven weeks they gawk and say “The tournament takes SEVEN WEEKS?” No no, there are 57 different tournaments during those seven weeks. Even Dick Cheney would consider a single seven-week long poker tournament inhumane.
Then there are those who think that the WSOP conducts one tournament at a time, that the Amazon Room empties and grows quiet as the final table plays out. Uh, no, as one tournament field is thinned a brand-new event is shoehorned into the abandoned space. Once the WSOP spools up there are always multiple events going on at the same time, and at times this year there will be seven different tournaments simultaneously at play. The logistical challenge of keeping all these balls in the air is a daunting one, and Harrah’s has done a very good job of making sure dealers rotate through the room, chips are properly colored up, tables break according to schedule, etc. Add the fact that poker players aren’t known for their even-keeled acceptance of unforeseen changes and it’s a miracle things run as smoothly as they do.
And helping to smooth things along even more is the expanded room the WSOP has this year. First and foremost there’s the Amazon Room, the biggest of the tournament areas and where the final tables are held and bracelets awarded. It’s a big, big place, too big to wrap my camera around in a single shot. This is long-wise:
And this is, uh, width-wise:
Damn, those overhead lights are bright. Anyway, these two shots don’t even give you a proper perspective on how big the Amazon Room is. Nor, alas, does this photo of the Brasilia Room, which was used during last year’s Series and is back in heavy duty this year:
This pic also doesn’t show the scale of the space–across that wide aisle to the right is another cluster of tables just as big. Between Amazon and Brasilia that’s a great whopping bunch of tables in use…and that doesn’t even include the Miranda Room, just across the hall from Brasilia and in use at the WSOP for the first time. No more will poker players be exiled to the Rio poker room or the empty space outside Buzio’s restaurant. Instead players will have the wide open spaces of the Miranda Room to do battle:
There are two tournaments going on right now–the $1,500 Limit Omaha/8 event and the restart of the $40,000 No-Limit event. Piece of cake. Tomorrow is the $1,000 Stimulus No-Limit event, and they’re expecting a field perhaps in excess of 5,000 for that one. Tomorrow is when we’ll really start to feel the pressure of the poker masses pressing at the Rio’s seams.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, brasilia room, miranda room, Rio, rio world series of poker, world series of poker, WSOP
Comments (3)
Monday, May 25, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
Covering the World Series of Poker was one of those things I dreamed about but never thought I’d actually do. Some people dream about winning a bracelet and millions of dollars; I dreamt about taking pictures of that guy and writing a story about it. Yes, I’m not a well person. Anyway, in June of 2007 I found myself sitting behind my laptop in the Amazon Room, waiting for the $5,000 Mixed Hold-Em event to begin. I grooved on the nervous energy buzzing through that enormous room, waiting for Jeffrey Pollack to finish his welcome speech and hand the mike over the Jamie Gold. The 2006 World Champion said, “Shuffle Up and Deal!”, and we were off.
And then it took about ten seconds for all hell to break loose. You may recall that Harrah’s decided that year to use a different style of playing card, one that had tiny numbers and suits in the corner (so you could peek at your cars just by lifting them an inch) and then large numbers and suits mirroring each other in the middle. Many of the players had never seen these cards before, and they didn’t like them. No siree. Mike Matusow leapt out of his chair and said, “Did you see these cards? You can’t see the cards? Where’s Jeffrey Pollack?” Players started standing up and walking around the room raising a ruckus. Johnny Chan threatened to quit the tournament. Doyle Brunson (Doyle Brunson) took one look at them and said, “What the hell are these?”
I tell this story to illustrate that when you go to the World Series of Poker, chances are things aren’t gonna go as you expect. Heck, when we all went back to Vegas in 2008 the big story going in was, “What will be the big problem this time?”. The registration lines, the food, the structures? And it turned out that the big story was that there WEREN’T any big problems. Harrah’s ran an outstanding event from start to finish, and even the decision to delay the Main Event final table until November translated into a 50% boost in TV ratings. Everyone is expecting the 2009 World Series of Poker to be even better, with players getting 50% more chips to start with, additional levels added to the structure, and more room in the convention center area (meaning no more players exiled to the space outside Buzio’s Restaurant). Heck, Jeffrey Pollack has even promised that the food will be even better this year (oh please, bring back the soup kitchen, it was SO good).
Of course that doesn’t mean that there won’t be periods of profound weirdness and the extremes of the human condition to enjoy. If you’re a poker fan and you’ll be in Vegas between May 28th to July 15th you simply must stop by the Rio and check out the scene. You don’t need to stay long, Vegas is too fun a town for you to spend six hours railing a poker player (unless you’re backing him), but take some time to walk around the Amazon Room, see if your favorite players are in the field, and listen to the never-ending sound of chips shuffled by the thousands.
If you’re playing in an event, especially if it’s your first WSOP tournament, I’d also recommend paying the Rio and the Amazon Room a visit before your event. Learn where to park, learn where the bathroom are. Walk around the Amazon Room and get a feel for the vibe. There’s a chance you won’t be playing in the Amazon Room, so learn where the Brasilia and other tournament rooms are. You don’t wanna walk through the door at high noon and realize you have no clue where your seat is, and I can’t tell you how many panicked players have run up to me asking where the hell they’re supposed to go. Most folks play their best poker when they’re comfortable with their surroundings, so a quick reconnoiter of the Rio can ensure you’re calm and collected when the cards are finally in the air.
If you’re going to be at the World Series for the duration, then God help your soul. Well, actually it isn’t THAT bad…so long as you don’t try to make every day in Vegas like your LAST day in Vegas. No one can survive 50 days of non-stop poker and full-bore partying, the human body wasn’t designed for that sort of abuse. My friend Nicole Gordon wrote a piece with her Top Ten Tips for Surviving the World Series of Poker, which I heartily recommend your read and put into effect. You will need to sleep. You will find planning ahead saves you endless headaches. You will find that Vegas is dangerously hot in July. When people ask me how I survive seven weeks in Vegas I sum it up this way–I keep both hands on the steering wheel. If you get into a nice routine, where you’re sleeping and eating like a normal person and drinking in moderation, you’ll be fine. If it’s June 7th and the bouncers on the afternoon shift at the Spearmint Rhino know you on a first-name basis, you may be in trouble.
I can’t believe it’s already WSOP time again, my mind is having some trouble getting around that fact. It hasn’t helped that I’ve been sick as the dog with the flu and spent the last ten days staring at the wall and losing weight. Good times, good times. I’ve been thinking of what I’m most looking forward to…
- Walking through the Rio and hearing the “Penn & Teller….doin’ tricks…” jingle by their theater 15,000 times during the Series.
- The citrus “All-In” energy drink. That’s a tasty beverage.
- The floor staff telling spectators “No Flash Photography” 15,000 times during the Series.
- That first chicken salad wrap from the Poker Kitchen
- My old friend (and older nemesis) video poker.
And, of course, writing about all the excitement and madness for you to enjoy here at the UltimateBet blog. If you’re a UB player I will do my utmost to find you and track your glorious progress through the tournament. If you see me, and I don’t see you, please stop by and say hello, I want to meet as many of our players as I can during the Series and make them famous throughout the blogosphere. This is me, by the way, working in Aruba:
The 2009 World Series of Poker, just a few days away. Unreal. I get to Vegas Wednesday evening and I’ll hit the ground running as the $40,000 No-Limit event commemorating the WSOP’s 40th-anniversary starts Thursday at noon. And that starts 50 days of people making poker history and winning millions of dollars, day after day after day. It is one of the great sporting events in the world and I can’t wait for it to start.
Tags: 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Rio, ub, ub wsop, ub wsop blog, ub wsop coverage, ultimatebet, ultimatebet world series blog, ultimatebet wsop blog, world series of poker, world series of poker amazon room, WSOP
Comments (0)
Monday, April 27, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
There are 30 days until the start of the 2009 World Series of Poker–this I learned from the Twitter feed of WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. Yes, even the Commish is Twittering now, God help us all. A month until the Series starts, and then a 50-day marathon of bracelets and bad beats and Benjamins until the next November Nine is set. And for the third consecutive year I’ll be there providing gavel-to-gavel coverage for the ‘ol UltimateBet Blog.
Every year the WSOP seems to be better organized and better run–last year there were so few complaints that people were writing stories about how strange it was that no one was complaining. Lots of people expected the number of players to decrease, but instead there was a substantial upticks. There was an uproar when Harrah’s announced they would delay the final table for four months, but TV ratings for the November Nine were up around 50%.
And people are talking about the changes to this year’s World Series. No more rebuy events–the insane shove-fests that characterized the rebuy periods were deemed unfair to players who didn’t bring a bandolier of rebuys (and who perhaps found themselves at a table with half the chips as other tables). The opening event is a $40,000 Hold-Em tournament to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the World Series–how might that deplete players’ bankrolls just as the WSOP begins? And the rules about verbal abuse have been dramatically tightened–forget the “F-bomb” rule, just about any nastiness directed at another play could result in a penalty.
There’s also been a change in the TV scheduling. Only four events will be televised by ESPN–the Main Event; aforementioned $40K Hold-Em tournament; the Ante Up for Africa event, and a special invitational event for past Main Event champions. None of the other bracelet events will be televised and there is going to be even more Main Event coverage than before.
This year’s WSOP will be held in a world that’s in a serious state of flux. The current economic crisis is the worst the world has seen since the Great Depression, who knows how that might affect attendance. There’s also the potential for great change in the poker world as well, as Rep. Barney Frank is planning on introducing legislation that would legalize online poker (and perhaps online gaming in genera) in the United States. A repeal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) could trigger a new poker boom, one that might first make itself known at this year’s Series.
But all that will happen outside the confines of the Amazon Room. Inside, the game will go on as it always has and always will. Even if there are fewer players this year the World Series of Poker is still an event of staggering size. In 2008 a total of 58,720 players competed for prize pools that totaled a jaw-dropping $180,774,427. Peter Eastgate won more money as the Main Event champion than Tiger Woods (U.S Open), Roger Federer (U.S. Open), Ryan Newman (Daytona 500) and Scott Dixon (Indy 500) won, combined, for capturing their sports’ premiere events.
If you play poker and you’ve never visited the World Series of Poker, you really should make a pilgrimage to see it for yourself. Because once you see it, you’ll want to find a way to play in it. It is a sight to behold, and even if you spend 50 consecutive days and nights in the belly of the beast it’s still an awesome spectacle. And it’s just 30 days away.
Tags: 2009 november nine, 2009 world series of poker, 2009 wsop, amazon room, Ante Up For Africa, november nine, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, world series of poker, world series of poker main event, WSOP, wsop main events
Comments (0)
