WSOP Day 33 recap: Slow day at WSOP as Main Event nears

The 2010 World Series of Poker is reaching its closing act this week, after which the REAL WSOP begins: The Main Event! Since there was very little earth-shattering news coming out of the Rio yesterday, I’m going to change up the recap format today and just give more of a running commentary and thoughts on the 2010 WSOP as a whole. I’ll get back to the usual roundups and tournament reports tomorrow, but I thought this would be a good day to share my thoughts on the WSOP as a whole.

All-in-all this was a pretty impressive WSOP so far, with a few players like Gavin Smith and Mike Mizrachi breaking through for their first wins, and some seasoned pros adding to their bracelet totals, the most noteworthy of which would obviously be Phil Ivey.

The pros dominated the bracelet events, but this is quite likely because there are just so many more Poker Pros than there were even five years ago -many more with some name recognition anyway-but aside from the $1k and $1,500 NLHE events the pros seemed to be all over the leader-boards.

The women didn’t break through this year -yet-and didn’t pick up any open event wins as was predicted, but they did have a number of final tables including a pair from JJ Liu and Jennifer Harman.  The ladies almost just missed having three representatives in a single event, when JJ Liu, Melissa Hayden and Julie Farkas all finished in the top 13 of Event #9. One disappointing performance by a female player was Annette Obrestad, not just for her poor showing at the 2010 WSOP - cashing in just two events-but also for her ill-thought out remarks in an interview with ESPN the Magazine.

We also got a brush with the type of side bets that are taking place amongst the top poker players in the world -who obviously are not hurting for cash!-and good insight into why they enter virtually every World Series of Poker tournaments; hint, it’s not for the prize-money or the bracelet, it’s all about the prop bet money which runs into the 7-figures.

Three things so far have been negatives in 2010:

#1: the amount of complaining about dealer and staff mistakes.

Thank god for FIFA referees or the WSOP staff may have been the most criticized set of officials and directors! My Facebook page is littered with posts about poor decisions, and head-scratching rulings.

#2: The uproar over the Ladies Tournament.

Whichever side you fall on this issue you have to admit that the outrage is way over the top. As The Young Turks host Cenk Uyger says, “You’re at a 10, when you need to be at a 2″. It’s really not that big a deal either way.

#3: the $1k events and their dwindling attendance.

To sum up the idea of adding multiple $1,000 buy-in NLHE tournaments in Internet speak: Epic Fail. Expect to see these tournaments return to their standard $1,500 and $2,000 buy-in formats next year.