matclone

I've never been able to figure out how you can have a world series of poker about every week of the year or why there are no brackets displayed (or at least I haven't noticed any), or how it is that there is such a diversity of players, or how it is that about every third player is wearing some advertisement on his head.

RYou

I'll slice this up one by one.
"how you can have a world series of poker about every week of the year"

Not every tournament is in the "World Series". WSOP is a brand that sponsors the majority of the tournaments...a series of events, just like the PGA. While the WSOP is the only tournament sponsor that awards the coveted gold bracelet to the champ of their tournaments. The WSOP "Main Event" is like the Masters of Golf, the most prestigious to win and also the most valuable in cash and endorsements to the winner.

"why there are no brackets displayed"

The tournaments are a not a head to head competition like wrestling; hence, no brackets. You cann stop looking for them now. Tournament status is merely a roster of players ranked by when they were eliminated. Last Man Standing ( you remember that one don't you), okay, with all of the chips is the champ.

"how it is that there is such a diversity of players"

If you can consider Poker a sport and I don't, it would be the one with teh most global competition. It's played in every country whether there are casinos or not, same you playing in the basement or at the dining room table with your buddies. (Sidebar, my son went to school with Ryan Daut (HS and PSU) and lost a few shirts to him. Per him it was still cheaper than going to a Penn State bar.)


"how it is that about every third player is wearing some advertisement on his head"

The top players like the ones JS mentioned have endorsement contracts. For others, if you win a certain online or other tournament, the sponsor will pay your $10,000 entry fee as part of the overall prize money. One of requisites in that agreement is that you wear their garb during tournament play. They leverage the visibility to advertise for their online play from which they take a piece of every pot for every hand.

This is big money for them, the more players they attract to their website tournaments the more they make.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !

RYou

Hellmuth lost 3/4 of his stack, but then was able to double and get back to 230,000. Matasow remains in the top 25% but well behind the leaders.

350 players left.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !

JensenS

309 players left, Jeremy Joseph is still the chip leader he's upped his stack to $2,350,000.

Other notables...
Allen Cunningham: $1,150,000
Gus Hansen: $900,000
Shawn Sheikhan: $810,000
Hoyt Corkins: $485,000
Phil Hellmuth: $432,000
Mike Matusow: $400,000

Johnny Chan busted out earlier today

homerdindon

Allen Cunningham is so disgustingly good it makes me sick

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"Now class, I'd like for you to transition from downward dog....straight to FULL BRING!!!"

RYou

Hey Jensen S just busted out. Ah that's Soren Jensen

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !

RYou

Helmuth is back yup to 440K while Mike the Mouth has fallen to 300K.

The leader is $2.6 mil, Cunningham is 3rd with $1.3M.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !

RYou

280 players now. They continue to drop about 1 every 1.5 minutes. Tonight is going to end early. We are at the "all in" wall. The players see the leader so far ahead, that they start going all in with minimal cards feeling they need to make a move or be left behind. A low stack could just play his blinds and top hands and make $10,000 every twenty minutes from player attrition.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !

therick

Hansen does an amazing job of reading players as well.

RYou

Hansen is good, but if you look at his history he's cashed in a but a few tournaments and has 0 braclets. Big time cash player.

240 left.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !