February 18, 2005

The Rape of the World Series

In 1949 Nick the Greek Dandalos went to The Meadows (Las Vegas for all you non-Spanish linguists) in search of a stratospheric poker game. He went straight to the source, Benny Binion - the godfather of casino poker, and Benny set him up against Johnny Moss to play mano e mano. The game lasted for months, and by the end the Greek had lost an exorbitant sum of money to Moss. 


The total was estimated at around $2,000,000 - in 1949. Years later the top professionals of the game once again gathered at Binion's Horseshoe to duke it out for all the money in what was now dubbed the World Series of Poker. Moss triumphed again.



Call it a hunch, but I have the feeling that Johnny would not be a big Chris Moneymaker fan if he were alive today. The original tournament was a competition amongst peers at the very highest level of the game. It grew by small increments every year, while the event itself began to lose financial clout amongst the high rollers like Brunson and Strauss. For these gamblers, $10,000 was won and lost by the turn in a single hand every day. The reason they played in and revered the WSOP is because the tournament itself was sacred amongst poker players. No more...

Some 2,576 competitors entered the $10,000 buy-in main event last year. This was already more than the Horseshoe could possibly handle, and the tournament directors had to use two "day ones" to winnow down the field enough to play in one place on the third day (day two, get it?). This year the bulk of the tournament is scheduled to be played at the Rio, starting on July 7th. The final table will be played at Binions on July 15. Wow.

Folks, 5,000 competitors and an 8 day tournament is not poker, it's a lottery. Last year "Action" Dan Harrington made it to the final table for the second consecutive year. I hope you all enjoyed it, because that is the last we are going to be seeing of any top players at the final table for probably a very long time. It is simply statistically remote that the World Series Of Poker will ever be won again by anyone who plays at the highest level of poker. What used to be considered the Holy Grail of the poker universe is now a circus for punk internet players and wanna-be fat guys who have neither the class nor the respect for the game to do any shade of justice to the tradition of the tournament. I was mad when I heard that they were moving the bulk of the tournament out of Binions. Now that I think about it, I would almost prefer that the entire tournament be played somewhere else. At least that way the tragic mockery of the Binion's tradition would not be so palpable.

I hear a lot of people involved in the poker industry frantically trying to convince themselves that the recent surge in popularity is a great thing for 'our game'. Frankly, I think they are too afraid to come out and say what a lot of people are thinking..."I hate it!" 

Granted, I never faded the white line from game to game in rural Texas, and I am of the prime demographic to have picked poker up by watching the Travel Channel, but don't be fooled. Like many from the previous generation, I started playing poker because of Rounders, the way it should be.