It was two years ago that I wrote my first opinion piece about the WSOP ladies-only tournament. After I received a sufficient amount of hate mail, I wrote a follow-up piece. I skipped the subject at the 2008 WSOP except for a few snarky comments, and now it slaps me in the face yet again as I sit on media row in front of a sea of women. In lieu of a rant or reiteration of my previously-stated feelings on the issue, I’ll just relay a few notes.

• When your practice game isn’t at a casino but in a home game with your husband and your dad, you might be in trouble at the WSOP.

• When your first instinct at the table is to introduce yourself to everyone and ask where they’re from instead of sizing them up and concentrating on your own strategy, you’re giving off a big tell.

• If you have to apologize for knocking another player out of the tournament, you’re not cut out for tournament poker.

• When the floor staff is openly yawning while observing the tables, the play is not exactly top-notch.

• When tables full of women squeal at every mention of finishing a level or moving to a new table, this is clearly not a room full of pros.

• When the tournament announcer says that another event’s restart will be in the other room to “make room for all these beautiful ladies,” they’re talking to you like you’re “special people” and you shouldn’t smile about that.

Media row is half empty today and will be until the 5pm start of the World Championship O8 tournament. And those of us who are here are praying for the men to arrive for other events so it evens out a bit. For me, add some women-tilt that came from a phone call attempting to convince me not to write anything negative about the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and I’m simply trying not to write something that will get me bitch-slapped I may regret later. I’ll be staying out of the hallways on breaks, that’s for sure.

Oh yes, Nelly is here again! He is playing in the $1.5K NLHE today at the WSOP, rocking the gray hoodie again and sporting his biggest accessory – a massive bodyguard on the rail. Thus, the lack of a new photo from today’s event. Honestly, I am not prepared to be reported to security or have a “chat” with his bodyguard, so I decided to keep my legally required distance.

Please refer to my previous Nelly post for stalking goodness.

Nelly was in the house today. He played the $1K Stimulus Special, and I will not make a play on the word, despite every inclination. As soon as a friend tracked him down for me, I began the stalking and snapped a few photos. When his bodyguard gave me a look, I gave it up and walked away.

Soon after, Nelly went busto, and his crew escorted him out the back door. And yes, it took every ounce of restraint not to follow them, but I did not. The stalking stopped at the Rio doors for now.

Welcome to Cali Jen’s 2009 WSOP.

This post answers the question: What have we learned from the $40K?

1.       There is a definite need for a “high roller” No Limit tournament at the WSOP each year. This is obvious because 201 players ponied-up the cheddar to play in the $40K, generating a monster prize pool and a $1,891,102 first place prize. This shows that there are plenty of players willing to participate in this type of event and the field might grow larger if Harrah’s starts running satellites online and makes it a yearly tradition.

2.       Television cameras are still a big deal to poker players. It is obvious poker pros are still trying to get endorsement deals and promote their sponsors. There is no easier way to do that than by making an ESPN final table. With no television coverage slated for the $50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament this year, the $40k’s coverage could be the main reason why there may be a smaller field in the big buy-in mixed games tournment.

3.        No Limit Hold’em puts asses in the seats. Since the majority of the mainstream poker fans have spent the last couple of years watching No Limit on television, it is only logical that the $40K would bring the railbirds out in droves. Kudos to Jeffrey Pollack and company for packing the isles with the first “major” tournament.

4.       With arguably the toughest No Limit field in WSOP history, this event brought out a sizeable number of players that would traditionally avoid the $50K H.O.R.S.E. tournament. The reason for this is that there is a strong contingency of players whose expertise lies strictly in No Limit whereas there are only a small percentage of players who feel genuinely comfortable playing mixed games with the best  players from around the world.

5.       Always make sure to follow the mantra of “Start with a bang.” Granted the $1,000 Stimulus special has sold out, but in the end, only a few will care who won this donkfest, but plenty of people will pay attention to the winner of the $40K thanks to ESPN’s coverage and the incredible level of talent in the field.

6.       Despite the fact that all WSOP bracelets are supposed to be considered equal, you have to admit that it sounds much sexier to say you beat the world’s top players in one of the biggest buy-in tournaments on the planet instead of saying that you outlasted 5,999 punters in a $1K bloodbath. ‘Nuff said.

Many speculated that it would happen, but the last seat was sold just after 10am this morning, and the number is official: 6,000 entrants for Event 4. Another 2009 WSOP record was set with the final number, and it became the largest non-WSOP main event tournament ever to be held.

Players are already gathering in droves outside the Amazon Room for the first of two starting days of the $1,000 NLHE Stimulus Special. The madness will begin shortly!

See the official word after the jump.

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(Warning: Sarcasm-free blog post. Enjoy it or hate it while it lasts.)

It was one of the best ideas that Commissioner Pollack and crew implemented in years. Starting yesterday, the bracelet ceremonies are in full effect to honor every event winner with a moment in the spotlight. Instead of winners like Andrew Cohen being given his bracelet in the wee hours of the morning when exhaustion mixes with emotion for a sometimes unfulfilling chaotic moment in time, he was honored as the Event 1 Casino Employees World Champion in the middle of the Amazon Room where the eyes of the fans, media, and fellow players were on him. Call me a sap, but it was a touching moment.

Every 2009 WSOP bracelet winner will receive the same treatment. And in a sea of players and tournaments and Day 1’s and Day 2’s and cash games and fan-filled aisles of people, the 2:20pm ceremony each day will be a refreshing few minutes that reminds everyone of why we’re all here.

The final numbers for the big $40K NLHE event were released just after the first break of the day:

Number of Entries: 201
Net Prize Pool: $7,718,400
First Place Prize: $1,891,012
Total Spots Paid Out: 27

The vast majority of big names seems to be here – Scotty, Phil, Jesus, Annie, you get the picture. But one player who was specifically invited by Jeffrey Pollack to come to the WSOP anytime to play any event was not in the field. President Barack Obama evidently had more important things to do than spend the day at the Rio, despite his ownership of a new personalized WSOP jacket. Pollack talks about it about around the 3:45 mark on this Raw Vegas video from the May 27 “Sucking Out on the Rivers” charity tournament hosted by Annie Duke.

Watch Annie Dukes Sucking Out On The Rivers Charity Poker Event on RawVegas.tv

[Speaking of Duke, is there a reason that her opinion about things like American Idol matter so greatly now? I'm not sure I like understand the trend.]

That’s right. I’ve got picks. I didn’t participate in any official draft or betting pool, just chose players to watch this year and listed them here. That makes them official, Pokerati-style.

The purpose of picking a team of players at the 2009 WSOP is that it gives me a variety of players to stalk follow and track results. Some of them are well-known on the poker tournament circuit, while others are just beginning to make their marks and may not garner much publicity from the major media outlets. Here? They’re all stars because I dub them so. I’ll be trying as best I can to keep up with them.

Daniel Negreanu – While some argue that he is not particularly focused this year due to the health of his mother and other factors, I contend that the grind will lock him into place at the WSOP and that he will be looking to score big to bring some extra smiles to his mom’s face.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier – He is a given. He has been on fire for several years and will undoubtedly be a force at the Series as he looks to add a WSOP bracelet to his list of serious poker accomplishments.

Terrence Chan – Not only is he a friend of friends of mine, but he caught my eye when he won two PokerStars SCOOP tournaments on the same night a few months ago. It was impressive, and with his motivation to do well this summer, his momentum/skill combo might be enough to get him there.

Kara Scott – She recently placed second in the 2009 Irish Open main event, and her list of tournament successes is growing consistently. Add to that a relationship with a certain poker pro, with whom intimate discussions of flops and raises can only help. And after a deep run in the 2008 WSOP main event, I look for her to do well in numerous events this year.

Luca Pagano – My favorite Italian player has also had some significant finishes, though 2008 was a better year for him than 2009. Even so, his game has been improving, and he appears due for a big finish this summer.

Jonathan Dull – His record shows that he has accumulated nearly $455K in his career. The young player has potential, but how did he make my coveted list? He is my dentist’s nephew, and my dentist is awesome.

Dwyte Pilgrim – The guy is on fire. Over the past year, he came onto the poker scene and began tearing up WSOP Circuit events, posting 13 cashes overall over the past season, many of which were final tables and one – Harrah’s Rincon – championship victory. Seems he does well in any tournament with WSOP in the name.

Whitney Blanton – Not only is he a faithful Pokerati reader and patch-wearing “preferred player”, but also he’s my Facebook friend and has been having a good poker year. He hopes to bring a WSOP bracelet back to Texas this year, and providing he gets out to Vegas soon to play some events, he has a good chance.

For good measure, in addition to my top eight players, I will add Mekhi Phifer as a bonus pick. What fun is stalking without the man who feared my very presence at the 2008 WSOP? (Just kidding; security was never actually called.)

Day 1 of the World Series of Poker is a misnomer, really. Much of the Amazon Room is still being put together, as is the ESPN feature/final table area, and the media room was dark (well, awfully bright, actually, but without staff to hand out press passes). Many of the hallway displays were still being constructed or had not yet even arrived, and cash games were still being played in the Rio poker room in the casino. However, pre-registration was open as promised, and satellites were in full swing in the Convention Center area.

Players were anxiously getting their game on in the satellite room, looking to be some of the first to win their WSOP event seats via the mega-satellites. And there were a few excited faces walking down the hallway after having purchased their first WSOP seats. But the hallways were relatively empty, as they will not be again for the next 50 or so days.

Today is Day 2, when Event 1 allows the casino employees to get their games on before the madness begins. And that will lead us to tomorrow, which is officially noted as Day 3 but will offer up the first of the much-anticipated big WSOP tournaments – the $40K buy-in NLHE (Event 2) – as well as the first final table, which will award the first WSOP bracelet of the year to a casino employee.

The final table of the World Series of Poker is less than a month away, and the pressure is on to find sponsors to make a little more money than the $900K and the potential of more than $9 million. Yeah, life is hard.

Since the big name sponsors that they were hoping for aren’t beating down the doors of the members of the November Nine, it’s time to kick the efforts into high gear. Ylon Schwartz has proactively hired RecordWeb Communications to help with the marketing, and they issued a press release stating that sponsorship opportunities are available through eBay.

The eBay item already has one bid of $37,500 from f***2. (Would love to see what that proposed ad is…) Here is part of the page that lists what is being offered:

Ylon Schwartz is offering one lucky and smart bidder, the chance to place a 10 Square Inch patch on his arm, chest, hat or other mutually agreed upon location or a branded item to be placed on his chips or cards. Your brand will benefit from proven Nascar-style advertising as this patch or branded items will be seen by TENS OF MILLIONS of ESPN viewers…

As you can see the photos of Ylon at the poker table, his torso, head, arms, chips and cards are clearly visible to the viewer. Any time Ylon plays a hand in this event; your patch or branded item will be seen by millions of fans. Ylon is currently 5th in chips and will be in this event for a long time. The event will probably play for 15 hours more and then will be shown to a prime time viewing audience on ESPN on November 11th, 2008.

Michael Phelps made history at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics by winning a record eight gold medals. And his comments to the press about wanting to play some poker in the future garnered much attention from the poker community, as in offers from the Asian Poker Tour and Betfair regarding the WSOP Europe. Neither offer was accepted.

It seems that the swimming legend does things on his own terms. Phelps recently traveled to Las Vegas with some friends as guests of the Palms, and one of his wishes was to meet Doyle and Todd Brunson and Hoyt Corkins.

Photo courtesy of DoylesRoom.com

According to the most recent post on Doyle’s blog, he received a call and brought his son and Corkins, along with Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello, to meet Phelps for a dinner at Nine Steakhouse at the Palms. “What a nice kid!” Doyle wrote. “Phelps and some of his friends wanted books so I took Super System 1 and 2 to them and they asked all kinds of poker questions. Michael said all he wanted to do in life, was to eat, swim and play poker.”

Oh yeah… I can already see Phelps with a Doyle’s Room cowboy hat at the WSOP in 2009. Obviously, no deals have been signed at this point and Phelps has not accepted any invitations to play in tournaments thus far, but I can see an NBC National Heads-Up Championship and World Series in the kid’s future. Just a personal prediction…

Was just watching a little early Fox News, and the weekend hosts got visibly excited about the World Series of Poker. Their hedline: “Average Joes Taking Over.” Wha? Apparently the Fox reporters/interns aren’t reading Wicked Chops. Idiots But regardless, dead money is dead money, right?

“That’s why we like it so much, because the underdog can win!” cooed Ainsley Earhardt. Coming up is one of those Average Joes, Dennis Phillips. From there the Fox-branded morning sunshine went on to a story about cadaver dogs being called in to search for a two-year-old girl, and then the weather. My personal chills subsided.

Go delayed final table!

UPDATES/LIVE-BLOG

Interview starts with “This is wonderful stuff, the World Series of Poker”

Dennis appears, wearing STL ballcap and Pokerstars.net logo on his shirt. (Boo, St. Louis!)

He refused sponsor money for his cap.

“I’m a 53-year-old truck salesman, I’m not going to go around wearing a hat backwards. It’s just not going to happen.”

Headline under random, low-quality footage from the WSOP (as if the lighting situation in the Amazon room were new to them or something) — Poker-Palooza: Average Poker Guy Takes Vegas

The key to his success at the WSOP was having fun the whole way.

Dennis is not married and has no kids.

The Fox News staff is rooting for him.

After a break, the extended crew comes back and has a discussion about how amazing his poker face is. They all give impressions, then asks who plays — I’m shocked that the two dudes who are so excited about poker say they don’t — and then they turn to Courtney Friel. She says that while he was hostess of the World Poker Tour, she herself wasn’t very good because she gave away her excitement over big hands.

They end the show with: “Go All-in with Fox & Friends!”

Photo: Flipchip/LasVegasVegas

This seems as good a time as any to share with you another leftover bonus! episode of Tao of Pokerati … where Dr. Pauly chats with Change100 (his personal fashion yogini) about Tiffany Michelle’s attire before her Ultimate Bet patchwork became such a major wardrobe malfunction. It’s sickeningly cute as this pokerblogging duo draws the fine line between rocker-chick chic and Tijuana hooker — and further fashion analysis tries to differentiate between the new-money stylings of Alexander Kostritsin, typical “online douchebag” and Mean Gene, and the poker-prep ways of Shronk and Brandon Adams.

Tao of Pokerati
Episode 28.5: Fashion Report (feat. Change100)

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Pauly’s got up a great recount up of our whole Tao of Pokerati experience at the WSOP. But guess what, we’re not done yet … still have a few more episodes to share with you, and Brian Balsbaugh and Oliver Tse our agents are in negotiations with French authorities over possible continuation of the show.

Meanwhile, one leftover episode — actually it’s a 6-minute double-episode — that seems particularly timely with the benefit of hindsight was recorded from the dead-center of an emptied out Amazon room, shortly after Tiffany Michelle busted out in 17th place. Here Dr. Pauly and I survey the atmospheric damage as “the last hope” of the main event exits the building … and I argue that she was the only one of the final 27 players with true Chris Moneymaker potential — meaning her performance wasn’t so much about her own abilities to win big cash as it was about the future of poker. Comparisons to Scotty Nguyen and college basketball as well, before one of your not-so-gracious hosts goes through severe WSOP separation anxiety.

Episode 28: Exit, Stage Tiffany

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It’s been fun keeping track of the 2008 WSOP by city-nation-state … taught me a lot about something — what exactly, I’m not yet sure. But I did get a clearer picture of just how significant the main event really is compared to all other poker tourneys. Just a little more than a week ago, I wrote:

Unless something really funky happens in the main event, it looks like Nevada has the edge on California when it comes to home base for the best poker players in the world.

Well I guess something funky did happen, because even with the biggest prize-pool distributions TBD, California poker players absolutely dominated in the 2008 main event (93 cashes, 2 final tableists)… while the Nevadans (mostly Las Vegas-based, of course) seemed to be napping, or perhaps just resting on their laurels (49 cashes, 0 final tableists). Regardless, looking at the 55 events that comprised the 2008 WSOP, I think it’s clear that the visitors can stake their claim: California is the Poker Capitol of the World … at least for now.

GREAT DANES: Another big surprise (to me) — apparently the Scandis aren’t so overrated after all. Denmark in particular showed up at the main event ready to play, and not only did they get one of their own on the final table, but also they performed so well in the latter events that they scooched past a bunch of other supposed Europoker powerhouses in the money won. The best non-American players, according to these results, in order: Canadians, Brits, and then the Danes … who actually could move past the Brits come November … and if you add the Danish in with the rest of the Scandis, it’s clear that Scandinavia and the UK are like the California and Nevada of European poker.

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