Poker News Round-up

Brought to you every Friday

You are here: Home › Poker Articles & Features › Poker News Round-up › 2008 › 9th of May

Poker News Round-up: Week #19

By Adam Noone, 09/05/2008

It has been a relatively quiet week since last Thursday’s bombshell that the final table of the WSOP main event would be delayed until November, but there have been several interesting reactions to the news from some of the big name pros. Whilst most agree that the new structure will take away some of the edge that a well known pro would have if they made the final table, some are nevertheless still in favour of the move. Daniel Negreanu and Howard Lederer seem to welcome the increased media exposure it would bring, and whilst Gus Hansen is also in favour of the change he has voiced his opinion that something needs to be given back to the players in return for them creating this spectacle for Harrah’s and ESPN to sell on.

The shy and retiring Mike Matusow

Doyle Brunson appears to be quite laid back about it and says that he doesn’t blame Harrah’s for trying to make money but son Todd is not so happy, comparing the tournament to a television show and claiming that collusion is inevitable. Other critics include Roland de Wolfe and of course Mike Matusow who has been a detractor of Harrah’s for some time. Even before this he had been suggesting that players create a new world championship by hiring out the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas and ditching Harrah’s altogether to create a better value tournament.

At the moment there is little more to say on the matter other than that the proof of the pudding is in the eating and come mid-November we will see whether it is Lederer or Matusow who will be able to say that they told us so. If it is Matusow, let’s hope that Harrah’s are able to admit that the experiment was unsuccessful and return to the old format as Binion’s did after the Fremont Street outdoors final table of 1987.

One of the reasons for the delayed final table this year is said to be that the market for televised poker is in decline and in need of a boost. That would certainly appear to be the case for World Poker Tour broadcasts as WPT Enterprises has yet again posted significant losses for the quarter. After a disastrous 2007 which saw a net loss of $9.6 million for WPTE, 2008 has begun badly with a further loss of $2.8 million. Since the shows were moved from the Travel Channel to the Game Show Network fewer people are watching WPT broadcasts and the fees from GSN are considerably less. Although there are other reasons why WPTE is losing so much money (e.g. reduced traffic on their online poker site) it seems that viewer interest in televised poker might be waning, so the delayed WSOP final table may actually end up being helpful in this respect if it is pitched correctly.

With the WPT and EPT seasons now complete there is little in the way of big tournaments going on from now until the World Series, although there is news from the World Poker Open in Maidstone to bring you this week. The Party Poker sponsored event with a buy in of $8000 saw 72 entrants whittled down to six final tablists after twelve heats and two semi-finals (SPOILER ALERT – THIS EVENT WILL BE SHOWN ON TV LATER THIS YEAR.) Players sat down with the chips carried forward from the previous round, meaning that Marty Smyth was chip leader with the in form Neil Channing just behind him. The next biggest stack of Andy Ward was only half the size of Channing’s, so it was no big surprise that Smyth and Channing were the last two men standing. A two to one chip lead for Channing was whittled away by Smyth before two big hands clashed with all the chips going in pre-flop. Smyth’s pocket queens held up against Channing’s nines and the cloak of invincibility Neil has been wearing recently was whipped off as Marty Smyth claimed the title and the $250,000 first prize.

The tournament that was once the premier poker event in Europe kicks off next week, but don’t expect many of the big American players to be making the trip across the Atlantic for this any more in the way they do now for the EPT grand final. The Grand Prix de Paris has a buy in as big as the recent Monte Carlo showpiece at €10,000 so there is opportunity for big money to be made, but since losing WPT status interest in the event has dwindled somewhat. After the dispute over filming rights, attendance in 2007 dropped to just 139 entries and it will be interesting to see how popular it is this time around. It is however a relatively short trip for the British pros to make so we should see some well known players from these shores looking to improve on Ram’s fourth place finish from last year.

Adam Noone is a Full Tilt Pro, Play with him and the Mob at Full Tilt Poker

Post your comments in our forum