Poker Tournament Shows Pros Adapt to Web

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Poker Tournament Shows Pros Adapt to Web

Commentary by Joe Saumarez-Smith

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Poker players have been busy dispelling any notions the game is falling on hard times.

This year's World Series of Poker has seen a record 58,720 entrants from 118 different nations and more than $180 million in prize money across the 55 tournaments that comprise poker's world championships. The event reached its final stage last week at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, selecting the nine players who will battle for the championship over two days starting Nov. 9.

The winner of this year's main event will pick up $9.1 million with the runner-up getting $5.8 million. That makes it the richest prize in sport, if you are willing to accept that playing No Limit Hold 'Em is a sport. Those at the final table will pick up at least $900,000.

For organizer Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and broadcaster ESPN, the decision to host the final in November gives them maximum publicity value from the drama surrounding the last nine players.

What distinguishes this year's World Series of Poker from the last five year's events, when the boom in poker really started to take off, is the enormous level of success enjoyed by professional players. Last year's final tables were largely made up of unknowns. This year the pro players won in an unprecedented number of events.

Familiar faces include Daniel Negreanu, Mike ``The Mouth'' Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Max Pescatori, David Benyamine and Layne Flack.

Internet Players

Several young Internet-based players, such as Phil Galfond and Dario Minieri, have made the transition to real-world play, with both taking home gold bracelets that are awarded as trophies to tournament winners. Shannon Shorr, Jonathon Tamayo and Justin ``Zeejustin'' Bonomo narrowly missed out on titles.

U.K.-based poker professional Neil Channing, who won the 801,400-euro ($1.27 million) first prize at the Irish Open this year and took home prize money in seven of this year's World Series events, says the standard of play is far higher in the later stages of this year's tournaments.

``Once you're down to the final 200 in the field you can be pretty sure that the players will have played a lot of hands and have a really good grasp of the game,'' he said in an interview. ``The problem is that you still have to get to the last 20 tables and that's a lot about luck as well as skill.''

None of the big-name professionals made the final table but six of the nine players say they make a living from the game.

Aggressive Style

My view is that the super-aggressive style of most online players has now been absorbed into the games of ``real world'' professional players, who have also developed strategies to deal with the new generation of players.

Also, the structure of tournaments -- in terms of how many chips each player starts with and how the betting structures go up -- have been subtly adapted in many of the tournaments to allow more skilled play, which can only be of advantage to the pros.

The growth of the tournament hasn't been a bad deal for Harrah's. It's made an estimated $11 million from its cut of entry money, plus additional revenue from sponsorships by Milwaukee Best Light beer and broadcast fees from ESPN.

And that's before you count the money players spend at the casino on hotel rooms, food and drinks, and other forms of gambling.