Three early observations from the 2013 WSOP

We are about a third of the way through the 2013 World Series of Poker so I thought it would be a good time to reflect upon the first 20 tournaments of this year’s WSOP and see what trends have started to develop, and offer up my thoughts on a few of the things that have stuck out for me thus far.

Where are the ladies at?

2012 was the Year of the Woman at the World Series of Poker, and I went into the 2013 WSOP with high hopes that the growing number of female poker players would keep the momentum growing and not only duplicate their 2012 success, but improve upon it.

Last year I was on a tear over the first couple weeks of the WSP writing about final tables and close calls for the ladies, and then they started winning bracelets and finishing 10^th and 11^th in the Main Event! But this year it’s been all crickets so far; the ladies have been virtually silent. There haven’t been any close calls, and nary a final table made through 20 complete tournaments.

Superstars are nowhere to be found

Paging Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Sam Trickett, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Mizrachi, ElkY, Chris Moorman, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Vanessa Selbst, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, and company? What’s going on here? Aside from a few final tables this group of players has been MIA through the first 20 WSOP tournaments. Not one of these players has challenged for a bracelet so far: Hellmuth made the Elite 8 of the Heads-Up Championship and Ivey had a top 15 finish yesterday.

The best-known bracelet winner thus far has been Mike Matusow, and after “The Mouth” I’d say Pokernews.com’s Chad Holloway is the biggest name to bink a tournament this year –maybe Matt Waxman or Cliff Josephy could make a case for being #2 behind Matusow, but that’s like being runner-up in your over-30 softball league.

Can I get a controversy up in here?

Remember all of the controversies in recent years? Just off the top of my head I remember the hard-stop rule; the no talking about your hand rule; the declare your action at the final table rule; Two Ace of Spades dealt on the same hand; players reentering more than the allowed number of times; and marked cards. This year the biggest “debacle” has been long registration lines. What gives?

Obviously the WSOP should get a tip of the hat for taking care of business, but as a poker writer I do need some material every now and then.