The 40th anniversary WSOP celebration
by Tuscaloosa Johnny, Jul 9, 2008 | 1:44 pm
The comments made at the press conference and the fact that our esteemed WSOP commish is reading and posting comments on our humble blog has got me thinking…what could Harrah’s do to recognize the occasion?
Pardon me Jeffrey as I throw out some ideas. What do you think of these?
- A party/celebration honoring all living main event winners. Maybe give them some additional token (trophy, special bracelet, two-hour massage from Hilga)
- A “History of Poker” special tournament that would contain a rotation of historical WSOP games that haven’t been played recently (or in some cases decades). Possible choices inclued Five-Card Stud, Five-Card Draw, Ace-to-Five Lowball and Chinese Poker.
- Make the entry fee on all events a mere $40 in honor of the occasion!
- Whatever happened to that event you had pondered where only non-bracelet winners could enter? You could call it the Amateur Extravaganza.
Other thoughts, dear readers?
BJ Nemeth says:
July 9th, 2008 at 2:02pm
The first suggestion sounds like a winner. They’ve spent the past three years building up the brand, and now they can take a breather and really celebrate the history of the event. (Which serves to further build up the brand.)
I’d go a step further, and honor all of the previous bracelet winners. Not necessarily with an extra prize (I’d save that for just Main Event champs), but some kind of extra recognition would be appropriate.
Keep in mind that every bracelet winner in WSOP history just received top-dog status from Harrah’s, which is a pretty big deal actually. It’s too late now, but if they saved that announcement for next year, that would have been a very cool gift to all prior bracelet winners. (Of course, next year, they can just re-announce the same thing, and maybe publicize it more.)
traction says:
July 9th, 2008 at 3:12pm
Please bring back the Chinese poker event. I want to usurp Stevie Z.
DanM says:
July 9th, 2008 at 5:43pm
While y’all’s baiting of Pollack is shameful — seriously, don’t you think he’s got more important stuff to do, and even if not, shouldn’t we be writing to George Bush with suggestions of how to run the country? — I actually like TJ’s second idea, bringing back the old games, even if they only draw like 12 players.
I also wouldn’t mind seeing a tourney of champions kinda thing again — perhaps one open to ALL winners of any WSOP event … indcluding bracelet events and all circuit events. That might shut the pros up about the quality of “amateur” play.
BJ Nemeth says:
July 9th, 2008 at 11:18pm
The problem with the second choice isn’t that it would draw 12 players — it’s that it would draw 200+ (depending on the buy in). It would become just another tournament in the 55-game blur.
Now, if they restricted entry to prior bracelet winners, *that* might be cool. Maybe do it as a freeroll, with a good blind structure. Not quite the Tournament of Champions, but sort of an Exhibition of Champions. (Not millions of dollars at stake, but perhaps thousands and a cool trophy/title/bracelet.)
DanM says:
July 10th, 2008 at 4:12am
Exhibition? Booo!
How ’bout a $100k buy-in tourney limited to only bracelet winners (and maybe circuit main event winners, even though none of them would probably buy in for that) … held six months opposite the WSOP. Can you imagine how sick the single-table satellites would be?
Either that or a million-dollar freeroll for bracelet winners where you can give up a finger for rebuys.
BJ Nemeth says:
July 10th, 2008 at 5:17am
The million-dollar freeroll is called “The Tournament of Champions.” The hard part is finding a sponsor willing to put up the money. I have to assume that’s the primary thing holding back the TOC these past two years.
(For the record, the 2004-2006 TOCs have featured a $2 million prizepool, but still.)
DanM says:
July 10th, 2008 at 11:31am
The Tournament of Champions with Rebuys.