{"id":4745,"date":"2016-11-02T12:29:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T19:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamblingwithanedge.com\/?p=4745"},"modified":"2016-12-20T17:22:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T01:22:51","slug":"wsop-2016-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wsop-2016-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"WSOP 2016: A Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2016 WSOP has come to a close.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The main event concluded today with <\/span>Las Vegas native <\/span><\/span>Qui Nguyen winning the WSOP main event<\/span><\/span><\/a>, and capturing just over 8 million dollars (before taxes) in prize money.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This was the first time I covered the WSOP events and there were plenty of note worthy happenings that occurred over the\u00a0two plus\u00a0months of tournaments.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the\u00a0event was the reemergence of two black sheep of the poker world Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. For those who don\u2019t know Lederer and Ferguson were embroiled in the Full Tilt poker debacle that defraud all but a very few top players out of several millions of dollars some years ago.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Ultimately, <\/span><\/span>Lederer settled the \u201cFraud\u201d case with the United States Department of Justice\u00a0and was forced to give some restitution to most of the players that had their money stolen. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The move back into the public eye was telegraphed by Lederer when he issued a public apology where he took full responsibility for his actions. Well no kidding Howard, who else\u2019s fault is it? In my opinion it is a likely scenario that the fraud that occurred goes a lot deeper than few that were publically shamed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I spent only a few weeks around poker players this past summer and after only this short time I am not surprised by the perpetrated fraud.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Players spend their time taking money from their friends.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes they out play them and sometimes they skew the outcome with less than legitimate practices, and whatever time they are not playing, they are usually indulging in mood altering substances, both uppers and downers.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some even openly flaunt this on their twitter accounts.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While walking by some of the major poker rooms on Las Vegas Blvd this summer, I personally witnessed some of the nefarious activities by players.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But despite bringing it to the attention of senior executives at a major casino resort, nothing was done.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>This is most likely because it is not the houses money that is at stake in these nefarious endeavors.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Just in case my own eyes couldn\u2019t be believed there was the alleged cheating scandal in the 2015 heads up event, and then there was\u00a0the follow up investigation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Also, there was what I believe to be collusion between the 1 and 2 place finishers in the 2015 main event. This time the WSOP was pretty keen on keeping up at least the appearance of clean game.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I didn\u2019t catch anything this time around but that doesn\u2019t mean nothing happened.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The appearance of impropriety on play wasn\u2019t the only thing that reached the national news in the last year.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Nolan Dalla was accused of sexual misconduct and assault<\/span><\/a> shortly before the start of the WSOP in May.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Dalla is no stranger to inappropriate comments and public displays drunken foolishness.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>High profile criminal defense attorney Linda Kenny Baden who always goes all in for her clients, as long as their checks don\u2019t bounce(metaphor for getting paid), was retained by Dalla and others to defend the accusations. No lawsuits were ever filed despite Baden threats to do so.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For all practical purposes the situation has subsided and no one really cares about it anymore.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Over all my impressions of the poker world is not flattering.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>On an intellectual basis I\u2019d take James Grosjean over Phil Ivey any day of the week.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>My insight on this is that the variance is so high in tournament play because of the goofy payout structures.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The money differences between 9<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> and 10<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> place could vary by 10’s of thousands of dollars.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>There is no real dependable EV model that one can adhere to. And if you want to apply variance to your models well good luck with that. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I find AP’s to be much more disciplined than poker players.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s pretty much impossible to find a player at the <\/span>Blackjack Ball <\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>who would engage the indulgencies I\u2019ve seen at some of the poker parties I\u2019ve been too.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps it\u2019s because most APs have been doing it for years and most poker players tend to be younger and unaware of the long term.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>These are brief insights on WSOP, and given a choice between taking or leaving them, I\u2019d choose to leave most of them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nicholas is the Managing Director of <\/em>Alea Consulting Group<\/em><\/a>, a casino gaming consulting firm with a player centric philosophy.\u00a0 It is staffed with world class players, gaming authors, mathematicians, top legal minds and a variety of industry professionals<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Follow Nicholas and Alea on twitter <\/em>@byth3numb3rs<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2016 WSOP has come to a close.\u00a0 The main event concluded today with Las Vegas native Qui Nguyen winning the WSOP main event, and capturing just over 8 million dollars (before taxes) in prize money.\u00a0\u00a0 This was the first time I covered the WSOP events and there were plenty of note worthy happenings that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWSOP 2016: A Reflection - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wsop-2016-reflection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WSOP 2016: A Reflection - 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