A look back at Day 8 of the 2011 WSOP

The first slow day at the 2011 World Series of Poker means a break from our usual wrap-up style reports, and instead I will focus on some of the side-stories taking place at the 2011 WSOP.

The World Series of Poker is the biggest tournament series in poker, and with days where six or seven tournaments are running and multiple bracelets are awarded sometimes it can all be a bit of overwhelming, and smaller side stories can fall through the cracks. This is why it’s nice to have a day like Tuesday, where only four events were in action and ZERO bracelets were awarded, which allows the poker media to explore some stories that are receiving less than their fair share of attention at the 2011 WSOP.

Women shutout so far

It’s been a while since a female poker player won a World Series of Poker bracelet in an open event; in fact you’d have to go back to Vanessa Selbst in 2008 to find the last female champion in an open tournament.

Last year was supposed to be the year of the Woman at the WSOP, and while women found themselves at an all-time high as far as final tables, they were once again shutout in terms of wins. Thus far in 2011 we have seen one close call as Maria Ho finished second to Allen Bari in the $5k NLHE tournament, but other than this women have not been in serious contention in 2011 as of yet.

Marked Cards?

A very strange occurrence happened at the final table of the $1k NLHE tournament on Tuesday where it was noticed that several cards -the 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Spades-all had identical marks according to BluffMagazine.com. The strangeness factor was taken up a few notches when it was discovered that brand new, unopened, decks contained the same marks!

The final icing on the cake for any of you conspiracy theorists out there was that the marks were only visible under the lights of the featured table! Hopefully this story doesn’t simply die, and we do find out the details on precisely what happened -whether it is simply a manufacturing problem or some type of intentional shenanigans.

No Phil Ivey, no Tony G

Most poker fans are aware that Phil Ivey has decided to skip the 2011 WSOP, but another big name in the poker world has also decided to stay away from the richest tournament series in poker, Tony G. Tony G has been critical of certain online poker sites and their handling of events in the aftermath of Black Friday, and as a notable personality in the poker world, as well as putting himself smack dab in the middle of the situation, Tony has decided to skip the WSOP according to his Twitter and Blog:

“Ok, ok - I am not coming to wsop this year as I am worried I will get pi**ed on.”