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| World
Poker Tour |
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The World Poker Tour, now
in its second season, is a weekly televised ( USA only ) series of thirteen
poker tournaments that are united under one banner for television. What makes
the WPT different is that it will film the most prestigious tournaments in an
arena specifically designed for television and air them during a regularly
scheduled season. |
| Day
Zero |
| WPT Championship, APRIL
19-23 2004 Bellagio Las Vegas, NV |
 Jesse May, our venerable raconteur and columnist, writes from Vegas
on this years championship event, the $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Holdem event.
Welcome to the World Poker Tour Championship. |
Do you remember the
Superbowl? Do you remember the stories about Superbowl week - the parties, the
women, the players out drinking, how it was everything and anything except for
football? Whether New Orleans or Miami, the angle on the game was who had what
curfew and who were the ones breaking it. And there’d always be some hung
over lineman with bleary eyes and a bellyful of ale getting shot up with a
needle as he slouched into the locker room fifteen minutes before kickoff.
Remember the good old days of football and move over Houston, hello Las Vegas,
because poker is the prime sport right now and while today may begin the
biggest poker tournament the world has yet seen, last night was the day before
the Superbowl, and poker was out to play.
I’m not sure when
I’ve realized that poker has arrived. But it’s probably at midnight
on Sunday evening from my vantage point at the Bellagio’s Race Book Bar,
when a man standing next to me with an earring in his eyebrow drags hard on his
cigarette, tilts his head and offers, “He sure his much taller than I
thought!” We were staring across at Ben Affleck locked in conversation
with Howard Lederer, and I had no idea which one he was talking about.
If I was playing in a $25,000 buy-in tournament on a Monday at noon, a
tournament in that I hoped to last for five grueling days and make me a million
dollars richer, then the last place I would want to be on a Sunday is anywhere
in the vicinity of a casino or poker room. I’d hope to spend the day by
the pool, I’d do my laundry, I would have dinner and a jog and a large
glass of whiskey and hope to get some sleep. And no matter what, the last thing
I’d do is play any poker. But the way players attacked the supersatellites
on Sunday, you would have thought that the object was just to get into the
tournament, forget being fresh for the duration. 3pm and Jack McLelland comes
on the mike and says, “If you’re planning to play tomorrow,
don’t get shut out. We only have room for five hundred fifty.” I
believe he was serious.
 The party was ferocious.
I’m fronting the tournament area with Light (The Bellagio nightspot) on my
left hand side, and as a pretty regular said, “Sundays in Vegas are for
God and Light.” The parade of stars was fast and furious. Affleck was
hopping back and forth between chatting and a poker game, encircled by Howard,
by Annie, by the Devilfish and friends, with a hundred more watching their
every move. Mimi Rogers showed up in a long blue gown, chatting with the likes
of Sexton and Mel Judah. Layne Flack was in jubilant form, laying three
thousand dollar chips on his arm and trying to catch them in one motion, like a
juggler from Barnum he was saying, “No one ever believes I can do
this!” The thousand chips are scattering all over the bar area and
he’s laughing his head off.
Layne’s my hero, and the man
actually seemed in fantastic form, ready to play. At least he wasn’t stuck
in eight supersatellites all day Sunday, and whoever priced him at 500-1 to win
the WSOP should have their head examined. But you have to be hard nosed if
you’re thinking about backing players, and Sunday is usually my day for
crossing. I’m a Sunday crosser outer, and I was clutching my sheet of
Pinnacle Sports head up matches, and going on the theory that I’ll take
the one who’s home sleeping over the one who’s here talking. Juanda
vs. Scotty Nguyen, for one. It’s one am and Scotty has gotten head up with
Men the Master in a one table satellite. I’ve been in Vegas a week and
never seen Juanda. That’s a bet. Baxter vs. Tomko. Dewey was in the room
since 11 am, Billy Baxter was nowhere. Check. Leonardo DiCaprio strode by, with
a buddy, a bodyguard, and a gaggle of girls. TJ was everywhere, in his gray
T-shirt and constant action. Amir Vahedi was gulping water and heavy on his
unlit cigar, drinking in the scene with a bemused smile. And I’m thinking
to myself, has it all got so big now that $25,000 doesn’t even raise their
blood?
So who am I backing? I like the little round man, Kaseem Freddy
Deeb. 7pm and he strides up to the bar and orders a coffee. “Forget
that,” he says, “Give me a brandy and I’m straight up to bed. I
need a good night sleep because I plan to win.” I’m lumping on
Seidel. The man took 41st place in a Saturday Super handing out 41 seats, a
good indicator of survivalist form, and he was nowhere to be seen on the day of
rest. I’ll take Negreanu. He’s on the vegetarianism, he’s on the
exercise, and he must be resting. Paul Darden, 145-1. Enough said. And please,
oh please, give me some of that Dan Harrington at 125-1. Some say he was the
only sane man to win the WSOP, but I just say he’s scary good, and a
specialist in big-buy in tournaments.
What are the facts about this
tournament? The structure is similar to the World Series of Poker, but with two
and a half times the chips. Deep stacks to start. Deep. Anybody going out on
Day 1 can either blame the dealer or themselves, and I’ll take the latter.
Day 1 is not the day for the before the flop specialists. If you don’t
know where you are come turn time, I pity your chances. On the Internet the
betting is all over on the flop at the latest. On Day 1 at the WPT
Championship, there’s a whole different set of skills in play, and aces
are dangerous. I imagine it’ll be some good TV. I imagine it’ll make
for a great game of poker.
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Players
entered
Mickey Appleman, Billy
Baxter, Joe Beevers, David Benyamine, Lloyd Berkowitz, Lyle Berman, Andrew
Bloch, Barney Boatman, Ross Boatman, Humberto Brenes, Richard Brodie, Doyle
Brunson, Todd Brunson, Joe Cassidy, Johnny Chan, David Chiu, T.J. Cloutier,
Hoyt Corkins, Anthony Cousineau, Allen Cunningham, Paul Darden, Kassem Deeb,
Charidimos Demetriou, Mark Dickstein, Antonio Esfandiari, John Esposito, Ray
Faltinsky, Jon Favreau, Bob Feduniak, Maureen Feduniak, Bruno Fitoussi, Steve
Ford, Noli Francisco, Avi Freedman, Prahlad Freidman, Bill Gazes, Chau Giang,
Alan Goehring, Sharon Goldman, Stan Goldstein, Phil Gordon, Clonie Gowan, Barry
Greenstein, David Grey, Aurelien Guiglini, Russ Hamilton, Gus Hansen, Thor
Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Brian Haveson, Phil Hellmuth, John
Hennigan, Mohamed Ibrahim, Phil Ivey, Randy Jensen, Jesse Jones, John Juanda,
Mel Judah, Gabe Kaplan, Marvin Karlins, Richard Karn, Michael Kelly, Ronald
Kirk, Curt Kohlberg, Meng La, Phil Laak, Toto Leonides, David Levi, Kathy
Liebert, Rory Liffey, Erick Lindgren, George Marlowe, Mike Matusow, Jim
McManus, Carlos Mortensen, Abraham Mosseri, Dean Murray, Shane Muscarello, John
Myung, Ming Na, Daniel Negreanu, Men Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, John Olson, Paul
Phillips, Jason Pumo, Annan Ramdin, Chip Reese, Mimi Rogers, Ron Rose, Ali
Sarkeshik, Alan Schein, Huck Seed, Erik Seidel, Mark Seif, John Short, Barry
Shulman, Jeff Shulman, Fred Sigur, David Singer, David Sklansky, Dean Smith,
Bob Stupak, Dewey Tomko, Mimi Tran, Vadim Trincher, Amir Vahedi, Ram Vaswani,
Haralabos Voulgaris, Lee Watkinson, Herman Zango, Steve Zolotow. |
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