I’m going to have to apologize to most of you because this week’s article is aimed towards a very specific group of people. This week’s article is specifically for folks who have followed WSOP coverage in the past, but for whatever reason this year (PokerNews blocked at work, electricity shut off, just got out of a coma, etc.), you missed what happened at the Series.
And in honor of you poor, in-the-dark souls, I’ve put together a cheat sheet of sorts. In order to describe the events of the 2008 WSOP, I’ll be comparing them to events of WSOPs past.
So here we go, your “2008 World Series of Poker Cheat Sheet”:
– Jocobo Fernandez Is This Year’s Alex Kravchenko (2007) – International player goes from total no-name to having one of the best WSOPs of the year (Bo scored seven cashes to go with 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place finishes).
– David Singer Is This Year’s John Hennigan (2004) – Well-respected, long-time consummate professional, previously unbraceleted, nabs a much-deserved WSOP win. (Hennigan won the ‘Ante Up for Africa’ charity event and donated 100% of his winnings to the charity. This means that Singer will win that event in 2012).
– Having-The-$50k-HORSE-On-The-Same-Day-As-the-$1k-Rebuy Is This Year’s Making-The-$50k-HORSE-Players-Play-16-Hour-Days (2006) – Harrah’s just can’t seem to schedule what is arguably the PRO-pro’s favorite tournament, the $50k HORSE event. In 2006, they thought players would bust far quicker than they did, and since no days could be added to the schedule, players played until the sun came up on
consecutive days. This year, tournament officials decided to schedule the $50k HORSE on the same day as the pro’s OTHER favorite event, the $1k with rebuys. Let’s see, the HORSE event takes up about half the room and no one busts the first day, so the 5pm tournament for that day should be one with a relatively small field that the pros won’t mind missing. $1k Rebuy sounds good
– Layne Flack Is This Year’s Ted Forrest (2004) – A player who had previously taken down multiple bracelets in the same year (three for Ted in 1993, two for Layne in both 2002 and 2003), who then whiffed for a looong period of time (five years for Flack, eleven for Forrest), then finally returned to the winner’s circle to replace those nasty Binion’s bracelets with the brand new uber-chic Corum bling.
– Michael DeMichele Is This Year’s Jeff Madsen (2006) – Well, not exactly. DeMichele didn’t win a bracelet (or two), but he did follow the Jeff Madsen mold of kid-no-
one’s-seen-before-who-subsequently-kills-the-World-Series-AND-plays-games-other-than-
no-limit-hold’em. DeMichele final tabled both the $10k Mixed Games Championship (HORSE plus PLO, NLHE, and 2-7 Triple Draw) and the $50k HORSE event (placing 4th and second respectively)
– Scotty Nguyen Is This Year’s Freddy Deeb (2007) – I call this one the “Not Exactly How Chip Would Have Done It” Award. Yes, I suppose it’s good that a well-known pro won the $50k HORSE event two years running, but neither Scotty nor Freddy did it with the grace that Chip had done it with.
Both players drunkenly trash talked their final table (Scotty MUCH more than Freddy. So much more, in fact, that there were rumors that Full Tilt considered asking Scotty to remove his FTP patch because he was potentially embarrassing the company on national television). The fact that Scotty behaved the way he did, and that his name will be the first one engraved on the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, should make anyone with respect for the game nauseas.
– Grant Hinkle Is This Year’s Rob Mizrachi (2007) – Older brother who brings his younger brother into poker, wins a bracelet before said younger (and more well-known) sibling, but still has no chance of ever being as famous as aforementioned bro.
– This year’s “Teddy ‘The Iceman’ Monroe (2007)” Award, for the player who’s coverage on ESPN will be the most grossly disproportionate to said player’s actual tournament results, goes TO… Teddy “The Iceman” Monroe! Once again Teddy found himself in the right place at the right time, as he was involved in a number of hands caught by ESPN’s cameras.
In fact, we may even see MORE Iceman this year than last. When Teddy’s huge head pops up on ESPN in a few weeks, and you’re not quite sure if you’re annoyed enough yet, think of this fact – “The Iceman” has exactly the same number of career WSOP cashes as Ray Romano, Shannon Elizabeth, and myself (namely, one) and less cashes than Shirley Williams (two) … yes, David Willams’ mom.
– And finally…This Cheat Sheet Is This Week’s Pokerazzi (2008).