The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

All the preliminary event in the World Series of Poker have come to an end, and the $10,000 buy-in main event has started, the first day commencing this past Thursday.

They are expecting roughly just under 7,000 players, and it will be a gruelling 11 days...before they decide on the final nine players. The WSOP producers are going to experiment a little when the final table isn't played until November 9th. You read that correctly: November. They're planning to feature the WSOP main event almost like a TV show, where they'll have a new episode each week up until November, where they'll have the main event table running live (supposedly on pay per view), and by then the viewers will have gotten a chance to know the players and pick their favourites. It's an interesting idea (although you could argue after the four months between playing can significantly change the player you are) and I think it's worth seeing how it will pan out. If anything, it gives a real "Superbowl" feel once the actual final table is played.

A Brad update: Out of about 2700 players, Brad figures he finished in the top 500 (270 is a money finish) on Monday's event. With a starting stack of 3000, he brought up to 15,000 before it started to slide. He mentioned a key hand where he lost a fair amount of chips...the dealer had accidentally revealed a Queen while dealing to the players and it became the burn card. One small stack pushed all-in and a slightly bigger stack called it. Brad looked down at Jacks, and although he wasn't desperate, felt the need to accumulate chips. Figuring the likelihood of facing pocket Queens or Ace-Queen was low as a Queen was already exposed, and the other stacks could have felt desperate enough to call with a medium pair, he pushed with his Jacks but unfortunately he was up against those ladies ("That's the second time you played the b*tch of spades on my ass!" - Rounders). It was survival mode from there and he busted out. Overall, he's happy with his play and is looking forward to the main event which for him will start on Monday.

I'll take the time now to quickly send my thoughts and well wishes to Kerri, Alex and Finn as they say goodbye to Kerri's dad Dave who died of cancer Thursday night. I've played cards with Dave a few times, and whenever he decided to continue on with his cards he'd remark, "I'm a player!" before putting some chips in. It started to enter my poker lingo not after, although I stopped since I think it may have annoyed some others. But I think I should take it up again.