WSOP Weekend Update

When the WSOP schedule was released, hidden beneath all the fanfare and glory regarding the $25,000 buy-in heads-up event and the “grudge matches” was the little idea of the “weekend warriors.” These events, designed to give the casual poker players are shot at WSOP glory, kicked off with Event 8 and we witnessed 4,178 players from around the world buy in for $1,000 with a hope of becoming a WSOP champion.

Last week, I was slightly dejected about the turnout in that event, as it was down from a year ago, but looking back at the past weekend, the WSOP must be thrilled to see back-to-back events that eclipsed the 3,000-player mark. To keep things in perspective, fields of more than 3,000 players were unheard of less than a decade ago and the events this weekend both rank in the top 20 all time in terms of WSOP attendance.

What the WSOP did with this “weekend warrior” idea is offer fans a 2-for-1 on their trip to Vegas. If they are coming out for the $1,500 on Saturday and get knocked out, surely they’ll stay and play the $1,000 event on Sunday, right? Instead of a trip offering one chance at WSOP gold, they’re given a second life if they falter in their first event. Looking at it from the pros’ perspective, I believe David “Doc” Sands said it best on Saturday just after his quick elimination: “If you know anything about poker and you like money, I suggest you go late register.”

This is why these events are a gold mine for the WSOP. They are getting players who just want to experience the WSOP, as well as the top pros who think there’s a ton of value. Everyone wants to play and it just makes sense that they do twice!

The WSOP has continually developed innovative ways to get casual fans involved in the WSOP experience. Not only does it provide the $1,000 and $1,500 events as part of the WSOP, but it also offers smaller buy-in daily tournaments at the venue that draw very large fields. Of course, these are only tournaments and the cash games at the Rio have been very popular, as well. Everything just seems to make sense right now for the WSOP and bringing on more non-poker-related sponsors seems highly possible if it continues to see this trend.

Besides the turnouts, the biggest story of the weekend was of course the John Juanda heads-up comeback over Phil Hellmuth. Juanda notched his fifth bracelet, putting him in great company with Chris Ferguson, Berry Johnston, Allen Cunningham, Scotty Nguyen, Jeffrey Lisandro, Ted Forrest, Stu Ungar and Gary Berland. That’s quite a crowd. As for Hellmuth, he was dejected, but there was no blow-up. On Twitter he posted that after the event he went out to drink a couple glasses of 25-year Macallan and then played some cash games. He said he’d be back on the felt Monday, so let’s see if Hellmuth can get his head back on straight and continue his quest for No. 12.

There are four events currently in progress at the Rio, with two of them being the aforementioned “weekend warrior” events. Here’s a look at what’s happening in Las Vegas on Monday:

Event 18: $1,500 no-limit hold ‘em

Early Saturday afternoon the WSOP tweeted that the event was going to be huge and it wasn’t lying. A field of 3,157 players turned out for one of the least expensive no-limit hold ‘em events on the Series schedule and after two days of play, only 36 players remain. Foster Hays leads the field and is one of two players over 1 million in chips with Jordan Young being the other. The blinds are only 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante.

Tony Cousineau, making his 47th WSOP cash, is the shortest stack and he unfortunately owns the record for most cashes without a bracelet. Joining Cousineau on Day 3 are a number of poker standouts including Kenny Nguyen, Tristan Wade and Allen Le.

I’d expect that play extends throughout Monday and then will be halted Tuesday morning when the time limit is reached. Whoever does emerge with this bracelet will earn the biggest payday of their careers ($735,400).

Event 19: $2,500 limit hold ‘em

Honestly, I expected more than 354 players to participate in this six-handed event, but it seems like everyone was either already playing in Event 18 or waiting for Event 20. Only a dozen players remain in this event, which will resume Monday at 6 p.m. ET. Alexander Kuzmin, the WPT’s Southern Poker champion, made two WSOP final tables in 2010 and is just spots away from making his third in this event. The Russian has earned his fourth WSOP cash in this event, but has numerous cashes across Europe over the past decade.

After making a deep run in the $25,000 heads-up event, Richard Lyndaker is back in contention for a bracelet and will enter Day 3 fourth in chips. Nine-time WSOP casher Gabriel Nassif is in seventh and previous WSOP bracelets winner Matt Matros is the short stack.

Event 20: $1,000 no-limit hold ‘em

I referenced Jess Welman’s “WSOP by the Numbers” column the other day, and here’s another tidbit:

“The field [in Event 20] busted out at a rate of 6.3 eliminations per minute before dinner, then slowed to a rate of 2.4 per minute following dinner.”

Incredibly, the field of 3,175 fell to only 342 after one day of action in the $1,000 event. This was the largest field in WSOP history for a single-day entry event and the winner will be turning $1,000 into $493,091.

The blinds will kick off on Day 2 at only 400/800 with a 50 ante and the chip leader is Douglas Lang, who holds 119,700 in chips. Among the notables remaining are Amnon Filippi, Micah Raskin, Hoyt Corkins, John Phan and Scott Montgomery. Play will last for a full 10 levels on Monday.

Event 21: $10,000 seven-card stud world championship

These small buy-in events are nice, but winning a world championship event is the icing on the cake for the pros. All the huge turnouts in the lower buy-ins may have affected Event 21, as only 126 players bought in on Sunday, a decrease of 16 percent from 2010. With the blind structure relatively slow, 91 players made it through the day.

Frenchman Sebastien Sabic leads the field and he’s looking for his second cash of the Series after a 71st-place finish in the $1,500 HORSE event Saturday. He has four WSOP cashes to his career, but nothing better than 11th in the $1,500 HORSE event in 2009. On Sabic’s heels is Alexander Kostritsyn, a live and online superstar who has been on and off ESPN.com’s poker rankings for the past year. Prior to his 51st-place finish in the $1,500 HORSE event just days ago, he had an amazing streak of four consecutive six-figure cashes in live tournaments.

Other notables at the top of the chip counts include Joe Cassidy, who recently made the final table of Event 16, Chris “indariva” Tryba, new cardholder in the FS+G league, Mike Sexton, Scott Clements, Erick Lindgren and Jennifer Harman.

Among those eliminated Sunday were defending champion Freddie Ellis, Michael Mizrachi (who is having a tough WSOP so far with no cashes), $1,500 stud champion Eugene Katchalov and Alexander Kravchenko.

Despite the smaller field, winning this WSOP bracelet is worth $331,639.

The Big Picture

This week offers some of my personal favorite events on tap. The two I’m very excited to see are Events 23 and 29, both $2,500 buy-in mixed-game events. Event 23 will feature eight games (limit hold ‘em, Omaha high-low split, razz, seven-card stud, seven-card stud high-low, no-limit hold ‘em, pot-limit Omaha, 2-7 triple draw) and Event 29 will offer 10 (no-limit hold ‘em, razz, limit hold ‘em, Badugi, seven-card stud, 2-7 draw lowball, Omaha high-low split, pot-limit Omaha, 2-7 triple draw lowball and seven-card stud high-low split eight-or-better). In my eyes, winning a bracelet in either of those events is more impressive than making it through the minefield in the $1,500 no-limit hold ‘em events. You have to prove that you can handle yourself in a variety of disciplines. Those two bracelets will be earned, not lucked into. In case you haven’t been able to tell, I’ve become a little biased toward the mixed games these days.

Event 23 will start Monday at 8 p.m. ET, just a couple of hours after the beginning of the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event.

Casino Research