The Blot is a huge fan of Texas Hold'em, and today is my favorite day of the year for poker. While the
World Series of Poker may have started a month ago, today is the start of Event 54 - The World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em $10,000 Buy-In Tournament, a.k.a. The Main Event. I’ve been consciously trying not to follow the 2008 World Series of Poker as closely as I have in years past because I found myself not enjoying ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP last year having known too much about each tournament’s results. And so while I am going to try my best not to follow the day to day goings on at the Rio, I broke my rules last night and took a peek at many of the list of tournament winners so far.
If you are like me and were trying to not find out this year’s 2008 WSOP results then I’d suggest not reading any further. This year sounds like it was an extremely exciting World Series of Poker and a great year for the “sport.” With many of the game’s best professional poker players doing extremely well this year, it seems like more pros than ever won bracelets. Finally, it seems like the Moneymaker effect is wearing off and the domination of the WSOP by amateurs is slowing down. Along with the resurgence of pros at the WSOP, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the exciting win on Sunday by the Prince of Poker,
Scotty Nguyen.
Scotty won Event 45, the $50,000 Buy-In H.O.R.S.E. Tournament, and took home a purse worth $1,989,120 as well as the inaugural Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, which was created to honor the poker legend who died last December. (
link) With this win Nguyen now owns five WSOP bracelets. What’s even more impressive is that Nguyen has now becomes the first World Series of Poker Main Event Champion to also win the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a really amazing feat considering the best players in the world enter the World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event every year.
This tournament win, combined with his 11th place finish in last year’s Main Event, just goes to further solidify his place as one of the greatest poker players of all time. It would be hard for The Blot to bet against this poker legend making a strong showing this year to win his second WSOP Main Event tournament, especially after his amazing play last year. If only he had been able to hold on to his substantial lead with only a handful of players left, he might have made it to the 2007 Main Event final table and then who knows what might have been. After all this poker talk, I am now anxiously awaiting the call of “shuffle up and deal” at the Rio to start the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.
The Blot is a huge fan of Texas Hold'em, and today is my favorite day of the year for poker. While the World Series of Poker may have started a month ago, today is the start of Event 54 - The World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold’em $10,000 Buy-In Tournament, a.k.a. The Main Event. I’ve been consciously trying not to follow the 2008 World Series of Poker as closely as I have in years past because I found myself not enjoying ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP last year having known too much about each tournament’s results. And so while I am going to try my best not to follow the day to day goings on at the Rio, I broke my rules last night and took a peek at many of the list of tournament winners so far.
If you are like me and were trying to not find out this year’s 2008 WSOP results then I’d suggest not reading any further. This year sounds like it was an extremely exciting World Series of Poker and a great year for the “sport.” With many of the game’s best professional poker players doing extremely well this year, it seems like more pros than ever won bracelets. Finally, it seems like the Moneymaker effect is wearing off and the domination of the WSOP by amateurs is slowing down. Along with the resurgence of pros at the WSOP, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the exciting win on Sunday by the Prince of Poker, Scotty Nguyen.
Scotty won Event 45, the $50,000 Buy-In H.O.R.S.E. Tournament, and took home a purse worth $1,989,120 as well as the inaugural Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, which was created to honor the poker legend who died last December. (link) With this win Nguyen now owns five WSOP bracelets. What’s even more impressive is that Nguyen has now becomes the first World Series of Poker Main Event Champion to also win the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a really amazing feat considering the best players in the world enter the World Championship H.O.R.S.E. event every year.
This tournament win, combined with his 11th place finish in last year’s Main Event, just goes to further solidify his place as one of the greatest poker players of all time. It would be hard for The Blot to bet against this poker legend making a strong showing this year to win his second WSOP Main Event tournament, especially after his amazing play last year. If only he had been able to hold on to his substantial lead with only a handful of players left, he might have made it to the 2007 Main Event final table and then who knows what might have been. After all this poker talk, I am now anxiously awaiting the call of “shuffle up and deal” at the Rio to start the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.