In the words of Bruce Buffer, “It’s time!!”
Already? The greatest unfairness of aging is that time passes more quickly, or at least it sure seems to. Seems like yesterday I was getting out of my chair for the final time as I got KO’d from the 2016 Main Event, just short of the money. While I’m still not done reliving that series of hands, I’m also getting myself psyched up for this year‘s six-week slog of early morning and late night drives to and from the Rio, the unbearably high heat outside and contradictory chill inside, the 14-hour days of playing, the sleep-deprived nights of going over that day’s key hands and anticipation of the next day, and the inevitable physical and mental exhaustion.
So, why do I do it? Because I’m also preparing for the excitement of getting deep in events, of seeing old poker friends who nowadays I see once a year, of once again being part of the scene at the absolute pinnacle of the poker world, as I’ve done for the past 35 years. The World Series of Poker is part my personal tapestry, and, while it’s getting harder and harder on my body and mind as I get older, I’m not done yet.
The WSOP is ever evolving, and this year is no different. Some changes:
-The big one is that the November Nine is now the late July Nine. The final table will be played on July 20, with just a two-day break after the final table is determined, rather than four months. The November Nine concept was designed to let anticipation build, give ESPN a chance to air their edited coverage of the early days of the Main Event during the prime TV season, and give players a chance to study and arrange sponsorships. However, the concept was implemented in 2008, during the height of the poker’s popularity. After Internet poker’s Black Friday of 2011, the industry has been on the decline, ESPN’s contract with the WSOP was up for renewal, and the November Nine had outlived its usefulness.
-To accompany the new format, TV coverage has been radically changed. There will be no more taped and edited coverage. In the days leading up to the Final table, 2-4 hours of live coverage will be shown on ESPN and ESPN2. The Final Table will last three days, and every hand will be shown live. Of course, when I say live, I mean with a 30-minute delay, without which there could be all kinds of shenanigans.
I liked the November Nine concept. I think it would have been cool to be in the limelight for that four months, not to mention the extended chance to study, prepare, and seek sponsorships. But, mainly I liked it because I need a while to recover after six weeks of hard play, and I’m not sure two days is enough. And it will be a busy two days for finalists, with interviews and other press and TV stuff. In the past, many finalists hosted parties, flew in guests, and made a big social event of their moment in the spotlight. Sadly, there will be no opportunity for that now.
-To combat the problem of slow play and stalling, the shot-clock rule has been altered, giving floor people much more leeway to deal with habitual offenders. I think this is long overdue. Players who think it’s part of the game to take an absurdly long time to make routine decisions are not only selfish and rude to the other players, but are stupid, because the more hands you get, the better chance you have to accumulate chips and get deep in the event. I really hope this works well and is adopted universally.
-The schedule has some added bracelet events:
-$10k tag-team event, with 2-4 player teams competing. All players on the winning team get bracelets.
-A $333 online event.
-A $365 event with flights each Friday, with the survivors reconvening on July 8, which I think is kind of silly, because it also happens to be the day of the first flight of the Main Event.
There are some other schedule changes, but I have issues with these because I think it cheapens the value of the bracelet. A WSOP bracelet is very prestigious because it’s so hard to win one, and I don’t think these should be bracelet events. But, I don’t think bracelets should be awarded in events played in Europe or Australia either.
-I love the concept of senior’s events, but I have some issues with the way the WSOP does them. For one thing, the playing schedule is identical to open events. Fourteen hour days are brutal for seniors, and I see no need to subject them to these rigors to get it over in three days. Why not make them four or five-day events, with play limited to eight hours. (Maybe even nap breaks!)
Another issue is that the senior’s events are once again scheduled on Father’s Day weekend. I’d think fathers and grandfathers would much rather be with their families than playing 14-hour poker days. And many participants have to travel to Vegas, thereby missing the whole Father’s Day experience. I’ll bet this has caused more than one family dust-up.
Finally, and most importantly for me, they are always on U.S. Open golf tournament weekend. I need breaks during the month, and Open weekend was always one of mine. Now that I’m a senior, it makes for a tough choice. Golf is still a big spectator sport among seniors, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this.
-There are some other logistical changes that can be found here:
https://www.wsop.com/2017/2017%20New%20and%20Noteworthy.pdf
Last year I played 24 events, and was a basket case by the end. This year I plan to pace myself more, and hopefully be fairly fresh when the Main Event comes around. However, I have a hard time sitting out events I want to play, and there are a lot of those. I’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned!
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24 events at last years series is a lot of poker playing. Do you play any specific cash games beforehand to prepare for the WSOP? Which events in particular do you plan to play?
I’ve never been a believer that cash games are that valuable in prepping for tournaments, especially no-limit. I do a lot of reading beforehand to brush up, mainly Kill Everyone and The Raiser’s Edge for NL, and parts of Super/System and Sklansky on Razz for the limit events. I also focus on diet and mental prep such as meditation.
My schedule is based on how deep I get in events and how I feel. I’ll start with the 3k Shootout on June 1st.
The calm before the storm. The day has arrived. The 3K Shootout is an interesting event in that the players have to dispatch all of their opponents on their starting table to proceed in pursuit of the cash and bracelet.
Beat’em up Blair.
I looked at the entire schedule and I only seen 2 outright Seven Card Stud events that the festival is offering. Out of 74 events they only have 2.
About the Dealers Choice events such as event 11, do the dealers tend to deal no-limit games or pot-limit games more frequently in order to speed the event up because the dealers are lazy and they want the players to take each other out faster?
It’s not the actual dealer who is making the choice. It’s the player on the button who’s considered the dealer.
Presumably each player picks the game where she feels she has the biggest relative EV. That is, NLHE might be her actual best game and Badugi second best, but if she feels everybody there is fairly competent at NLHE, her best choice is probably Badugi.
Thanks for the clarification Bob. I was confused to how an event like that would run.