By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV
The first event of the 2008 WSOP was pro-heavy since it was the $10,000 PLH World Champion event. The field of 352 runners arrived on Friday ready to kick off the highly anticipated WSOP. The final table was finally set early on Sunday morning and it was a deep final table... one of the deepest non-50K HORSE final tables that I had seen in a long time at the WSOP.Mike Sexton. Patrik Antonius. Andy Bloch. Kathy Liebert. The Unabomber. Chris Bell. SowersUNCC. amak316. Nenad Medic.
It reminded me of a final table from 2004 or 2005. And not like the final tables of the last couple of years where it was a bunch of unknowns, internet pushmonkeys, inbred nits, and the odd assortment of guys who said they were pros but who were really broke-ass mofos.
Mike Sexton cashes in a ton of events and his WSOP resume included a slew of final tables. However, Sexton couldn't close the deal and win his second bracelet. He took fourth.
Kathy Liebert finished in third and added more money to her career earnings. She's number 1 on the All TIme Female Money List with almost 5M. Sure Annette_15 will eventually catch Kathy, but right now, she's the Queen.
Andy Bloch finished in second place for the second time in three years at the WSOP. I was really rooting for Andy... one of the nicest guys in poker, one of the most brilliant guys I had ever met, and one of the best players in the world who never won a bracelet. The guy instills fear into pit bosses since he was a member of the MIT blackjack team. And that's why he's been banned from playing in casinos all over the world. I thought Andy had a great shot at winning a bracelet on his birthday of all days. Alas, he came up short and Nenad Medic took it down.
Medic won his first bracelet and joined an elite group of players who have won a WPT title and a WSOP bracelet. And yes, a Canadian won the first bracelet of the WSOP.
Canada 1, USA 0.
I have a feeling that this is a year when there will be a lot of non-Americans winning bracelets. I can't decide who will dominate the WSOP this year? Online players or European players? How about online players from Europe?
This is gonna be a big year for the Scandis. If you want to be a professional poker player, don't move to Las Vegas. Learn Swedish and then move to Uppsala to play in local games, and since its a college town there's a bevy of hot Swedish chicks with heaving breasts and icy lips.
One of the biggest stories so far of the 2008 WSOP was Patrik Antonius signing with Full Tilt to become their 14th member of Team Full Tilt. I heard rumors about it a couple of weeks ago, but then I heard another rumor that Poker Stars was trying to sign him at the last moment. You never know who to believe in poker... yet I ran with the wrong story like a donkey.
The Finnish boy toy is the best player in the world who was not affiliated with an online poker site after he and Martin's Poker parted ways. I thought Poker Stars picking up Daniel Negreanu was a big blow to FT, but they snagged the biggest shark around.
During the first few days of the WSOP, in the pivotal battle for the hearts and minds of poker players, Full Tilt took an early lead.
Full Tilt 1, Poker Stars 0.
Lieben sie poker? Download PokerStars! Ja spreche ich deutsches wenig.
I have been getting a lot of great gossip and material for future posts over at smoking porch that the dealer's use in the back. That's where I overheard this gem... "Oh my God! I cant believe you fucked your girlfriend's mother!"
I love the smoker's porch. Amy Calistri used to hang out there which was one of her many sources of WSOP gossip.
On Sunday afternoon, two dealers chainsmoked Reds and swapped bad beat stories that they put on players since the WSOP began. One dealer dealt satellites the night before. Two players were all in preflop. One of them had A-A and the other 8-8. The Aces flopped top set. The turn was an 8. The dealer said, "I knew it was coming. Bam! Eight on the river."
The funniest thing I saw all day was involved the Chiquita banana chick. I spotted her earlier as she who wandered around the WSOP in the hallways in that funny dress and a bowl of fruit on her head. Four hours later I saw her on the back smoker's porch. She sat slumped in a chair, with her head dress off, and she was puffing hard on a cigarette and chatting in Spanish with another dealer. My Spanish is not good, but I swear that I heard her the Chiquita banana chick tell a bad beat story.
Original content written and provided by Pauly from Tao of Poker at www.taopoker.com. All rights reserved. RSS feeds are for non-commercial use only.
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