ITH Poker Forum

[mchilger]

After a lot of consideration, I have decided not to play the main event this year.

1/ I'm just not prepared. Usually, I gear up every April and May and work on my game to prepare for the series. Unfortunately, with no access to online poker I won't be able to do that this year. In addition, since last year's WSOP I've only played twice as I have been working hard on a lot of books. This is probably the first year since I started playing poker that I feel like my game has not improved, and in fact has likely declined. This is the principal reason.
2/ I have 6 book projects lined up over the next 12 months so my time is thin.
3/ One of the primary reasons to play the main event is that the field is so weak. Last year the quality of play had improved significantly. This year I expect an even tougher field as the field will definitely drop in numbers.
4/ My family. I've never really enjoyed traveling away from family, but with each year it gets more and more difficult. I am looking forward to a great summer with the family.

Maybe I'll get the bug and decide to come for a few days and play a couple of smaller events, but even that is unlikely.

Matthew

[poker_Elmo]

Bummer - sounds like good reasoning though.

If you do make it out - how about the weekend of the 18th? A $1,500 event Saturday, a $1,000 on Sunday, and we can watch chris and my mom final table the seniors event. I think several ithers will be out there then also.

[mchilger]

We have a beach trip June 11-18 - would have been a perfect weekend.

Matthew

[nsidestrate]

I'll probably be there for a week to a week and a half ending that weekend. There are two limit events the week before.

[PauliF]

I'll probably be there for a week to a week and a half ending that weekend. There are two limit events the week before.

WHAT?

For the third year now we are taking turns at being in Vegas for the WSOP......

no epic rerun of 2007 or 2008 fella

you better come to London and play some pokers this year!!!

[chrisjp]

Sorry to hear this but completely understandable. Actually some of us on IRC have been debating whether the WSOP will be tougher or softer. It's not clear to me. It may depend upon how fast Stars and FT release the funds to the US players. The field for the ME will certainly be smaller, but not sure how much of that will be due to younger internet sharks not having sufficient funds.

My guess is that the tournament will be tougher, but who knows? Maybe not. I'm pretty sure it won't be substantially tougher.

Also I think you got some tough table draws last year Matthew. Not me. Well sure there were some great players but a lot of fishy types too. My guess is there will be a ton of sats at the Rio and a lot of seats will be awarded. The quality of those winners is not high.

Anyway time will tell.

Chris

[nsidestrate]

If it means fewer online grinders, I think it has to make the fields softer.

[MXRider]

If it means fewer online grinders, I think it has to make the fields softer.

Think I disagree on this one. I think it will have a bigger impact on the softer qualifiers getting in.

[poker_Elmo]

If it means fewer online grinders, I think it has to make the fields softer.

Think I disagree on this one. I think it will have a bigger impact on the softer qualifiers getting in.

So much depends on when the online money gets released. There is simply no liquidity in the staking market now, so many +EV online grinders won't get backed like before. I suspect that will make it much softer if the funds aren't out before (or much before) the WSOP.

Even if money is released, how are they going to get the money to the online grinders? The sites aren't there to do it anymore, which will affect some of it.

[poker_Elmo]

Further, the backers are losing a ton with stars and tilt being down so won't have as much to stake. And how will Max Katz get people their monies?

[nsidestrate]

If it means fewer online grinders, I think it has to make the fields softer.

Think I disagree on this one. I think it will have a bigger impact on the softer qualifiers getting in.

We'll see. I think most of the worst qualifiers probably took the money and didn't play anyhow.

[jfletcher]

I've also been wondering about the field strength. I think it could go either way. There could still be bad qualifiers from out of the US, right? Or do we assume that people who travel that far probably know what they are doing? What's the past ratio of online qualifiers vs. live qualifiers?

I actually am thinking strongly about playing the ME for the first time this year. I've been debating in my head if the field will be too tough, but really it doesn't matter, since I'm talking about a one-shot deal.

I'm also thinking this could be the last WSOP, as we know it, if ESPN is going to drop out, so I ought to take the chance now.

[chrisjp]

I'm playing the Venetian Deepstack. There were 175 players entered in Friday's event. Not more than 20 of them were under 30 and most were in their 40s or 50s. I was surprised. It could just be the buy in. At $350 that is too small for the really good players.

At the final table there is only one "kid" and one other guy that probably is around 30. The "kid", an excellent player, said that he plays tons online and is planning to move out of the country. He is in town trying to get some live experience before the WSOP. The rest of the players at the FT are pretty weak as a whole. In fact surprisingly weak. For instanace, with two tables remaining I had about an M=5. I push UTG and it folds to a guy in the CO who goes into the tank. He has about double my stack. Finally he calls.

His hand: 22

My hand: 88

Double up time!

Chris

[philhux]

I think I agree with nside - it will be smaller and a bit softer. Cus yeah, some winning online players, but not superstars, who can't justify taking a 10k shot and can't sell action won't be able to play, but Gucci shoes business dude still will play. And homegame hero will still play. And the live sat winners will still play

I would anticipate that Max Katz would have got quite a bit of his funds money offline from earlier wins and will still be backing people paying live cash in Vegas - but certainly the marketplace on twoplustwo has basically been killed overnight

Matthew - I enjoyed meeting you last year. All the best with the books and hope to see you back on the grind as soon as Americans can play online again.

[Piscivorous]

Impact on WSOP? I think it becomes an over-aggressive fish tank filled with the Eastern Europeans and Brazilians who have won sats online.

How many players? My guess is 4500.