"I feel like the late George Michael. He’s not dead. He’s just never on time." If you’re not following the Chris Olaafson story, get on the bus. I’ve been hearing rumors about this king of online players for years, but now he’s revealing himself. A legend of the virtual felt.
I am in fact, still here. Right now, here is the Adirondack mountains in New York, and when is the turn of the New Year. I mean, isn’t August when the poker world turns its leaf, turns the new page and makes a new start? And the poker world looks different than it used to. I mean, for one, the Brits are in charge.
I was out in Vegas for the Series. I guess it was the most culture shock I’ve ever had in Las Vegas. It took me three days, in a sense, to find anybody I knew. Many people that were out in Vegas for the Series, I either saw them once, by chance, in a hallway or at a bar, or not at all. People were just so spread out this year. I’ve done Vegas for the WSOP so many different ways, and I think I finally figured out the way I want to do it for next year. Go out two days before the Main Event; play the Main Event; give the rest a miss. Undoubtedly, that is now the best way to manage the World Series of Poker. There’s nothing else there. Just a whole bunch of sickies obligated to play every event they can in the quest for a bracelet, outstanding value in the donkfests on the weekends, and Harrah’s with big smiles and a Hoover vacuum cleaner the size of an alien spacecraft.
But watching the Main Event was fun. Even the most jaded of poker players still get the buzz having made it through Day 1 or 2 of the Main Event of the WSOP. People spend their whole year trying to convince themselves they don’t expect much or it’s not special and then you see the awesomeness of the event as the field reduces, and I thanked the stars that Main Event fever is alive and well. I stepped into the room during Day 5 and Day 7 and the crack was tremendous. You should have seen the agents slithering around like eels, trying to gobble up unsuspecting players. It was actually kind of gross. At least one third of the spectators on the morning of Day 7 had business cards coming out of every orifice.
Vegas has taken a tremendous knocking. One charm of Vegas has always been the relentless newness of the place, everything always in a constant state of redone and remodelled. But this year, something was worn, whether it was the reduced staffs at many casinos, a couple worn signs and same menus in places you wouldn’t expect them, the lack of building crews and cranes who should have been humming on the strip at 4am. It just wasn’t there. But I still managed to enjoy myself, courtesy of some great meals hosted by Neil Channing over at the Wynn. The Wynn is probably the de facto place to go for European poker players in search of their own, with many managing a $99 per night poker rate during the week. Great value, although you need to avoid the $9 coffees and $27 club sandwiches. A car is essential.
I had a great time standing on the patio at the Palms during the Pokerstars Party slash Snoop Dog concert talking to the lifers, those bloggers and media reps who were finishing up their eight week stints in the Vegas trenches. Apparently the party of the summer had been the night before at the house of the PokerListings crew, with scenes as diverse as Todd Brunson doing shotguns and Dutch poker players in a coed brawl. Most of the bloggers had that look that you see in Vietnam War movies: work numb, play hard, don’t realistically think it’s ever going to end. There was plenty of good journalism that came out of Vegas this year, but not enough considering how much talent was actually on the ground. Something needs to change for next year, but the reality is who is willing to pay for anything except for corporate lip service?
Aside from Phil Laak, I didn’t hear anyone talk about how great the cash games were during the Series this year. Quite the opposite, in fact. Makes me think there may be better uses of people’s time than having to do Vegas for so long every summer. And speaking of better, the new poker year is about to begin. I’m flying back to Europe next week via Edinburgh which kicks off the festival of fun for British poker. My prediction is that field sizes will be way up all over the UK as we see a massive influx of Scandinavians desperate to play inside of EU tax free confines. I talked to a Swede in Vegas who basically said the Scandinavian poker community is under siege from their governments, and the chances of most of them playing tournaments in the US in the future is nil. Great news for any tours in Europe, though.
Something that happened during the WPT at the Bellagio could well end up being the most significant poker innovation of the next year. Maybe it’s not a big deal, and maybe it is. Basically, they let everybody buy into the tournament up until halfway through Day 3. Over half the field was already out. Players that came in at the end had about 20 big blinds. But here was the thing. The big names loved it. Durrrr, Ivey, and Hellmuth all showed up to play in an event they would have given a miss almost all of the time. All sorts of discussions were had between players about the value of time, ICM’s, and optimum strategy. I witnessed Prahlad Friedman stare at Phil Laak for about five minutes with an open mouth while Phil waved his arms and tried to get to the bottom of the concept. I got both Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson talking about it, but they lost me at the word EV. Either way, I think buy-ins will get later and later. That envelope will be getting pushed out a lot in the next year.
It’s not just that poker players were spread out for the WSOP, it’s that the poker world is completely spread out, at a time when I feel like it needs cohesiveness more than anything else. Everybody is out there rattling in their own cage. Full Tilt runs their own deals and nothing else, PokerStars players are all doing PokerStars things, the smaller sites are banging the rafters from Banyan trees, and there are not enough things that present the poker world together, in just one light. I used to think the PGA tour of golf was the model for poker in the future, but now I see that it has to be like NASCAR or Formula One. Poker needs a constructor’s championship. I’m tired of three organizations and four different belts. Aren’t you?