The new WSOP Champion

The WSOP 2005 is history and we have a new champion: Joseph Hachem.
Personally I had preferred that a big name pro wins this event but it could have been worse. Hachem definitly isn't a "Moneymaker". He claims to be a pro, has about 10 years experience and even made a 10th place in another WSOP event this year. He isn't like Raymer either (who definitely was a great ambassador for poker). He's a different type and who he really is will develop through the next year. Raymer was a "no-name" for the public as he won - like Hachem is now. But I think Hachem can be a good amassador too.



Maybe we got the best of it: A new "Moneymaker" would have given us another boost for the public but would have diminished the WSOP to a real lottery (decreasing the value of this great event). A "big name pro" as a winner would have been great in terms of history but wouldn't attract "Joe Public" too much.
Hachem's win can achieve both goals. More publicity for poker and still value and attraction in the WSOP as the greatest poker event in the world.

So what comes next year? 10.000 participants? We will see. But some things are more clear right now: It will be at the Rio again - not at the Caesars. The final table will be at the Rio too. Binions and the WSOP is now history. And the Shadow will be there (either as player or as visitor). See you at WSOP 2006...

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That wasn't like expected

Didn't I say something about that I may regret that I missed Matusow in my list. Well but at least I had a fair shot.
I'm really sad about the way we lost Ramer in that tournament. But I like the way he handled it! I reccommend to take a look at the video from the press conference (http://www.cardplayer.com).
Matusow impressed me too: In another Video he had very kind words for Raymer and was sorry about the way he was eliminated. This is remarkable if you remember the incident between those two at the 2004 final table.

Tonight I will follow the audio broadcast from the final table (made by Negreanu, Lindgren, Harman, Hellmuth, Shulman at cardplayer.com). I think the comments from those guys (and the girl) will be quite interesting. I hope the others 8 players will catch the chipleader Aaron Kanter. He's the guy who hit Raymer hard with his lucky 2h on the river. From what I saw so far this guy has more luck than skill. Matusow, Barch or Black - those guys have the best position (and skill) to make it, IMO.

Now to something completely different: I just realized that I can publish my blog entries by emailing them - this is a real cool feature. If I now figure out how to send emails with my cellphone or PDA I will be ab le to blog even without my computer. I love those technical gimmicks :-)

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NFL is close to start

Well, it's still about 6 weeks but pre-season starts in two weeks and this is the time for me to prepare for my sportsbetting.
I know this is mainly a poker blog - but betting the NFL is an important thing to me so I like to share my success here with you too.
As said in the very beginning I stopped betting the NBA or MLB but American Football is my favorite sport (and the one I have the most betting experience). So I will try tro win some money from betting here.

I have two favorite teams: Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins. I like the New England Partiots and last season was very impressed by the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't like the Oakland Raiders and some others.

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Betting on the WSOP

Well, as a sports bettor I couldn't resist to bet a little on the future WSOP winner.

What I did is that I made small bets on 60 pros to win the WSOP.
Before the WSOP startet this was about 1% of the field or a 100-1 shot.
As my best bet paid about 1500-1 which makes it 25-1 (= 1500-60) for the whole bunch of wagers this wasn't really +EV if you make every player equal. But I think the pros (as a group) have an advantage over the amateurs. And even with a lot of single eliminations I should go well with the group as a whole. And I think this group should be at least a 4-1 favorite over the rest of the field.

You may imagine that I was scared as hell seeing to lose so many pros on the first three first days.
But cream is always raising to the top and the rest of the "pro bunch" made a good stand in day two and three.

Right now at the end of day three I still have 6 pros running for me compared to the whole field of around 185. My pros are now around 3% of the field (compared to 1% in the beginning). So I now need 33-1 odds to make it +EV. My best "horses" are 12-1 (750-60). If I still believe that the pros are a 4 times fav over the amateurs I now really have +EV.
Much better: Some of my best wagers are on the top of the leaderboard. It is still 4 more days to go and things can change fast - but at this time I feel good with my wagers:

Chipcounts
$1.064.000		Greg Raymer 718-1
$722.000		Phil Ivey 290-1
$541.000		Howard Lederer 318-1
$380.000		Kim Hua 650-1
$230.000		John Juanda 379-1
$176.000		Lee Watkinson 750-1

Update on July 14:
Ivey and Ramyer are still in (Top 5) with 27 players left. Those two represent now more than 7% of the enire field. The only thing I regret now is that I forgot to add Matusow to my list. This might become a big mistake...

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Terrible things happend today...again

"I am doing all right. I will not live my life in fear.
We need to be strong and united during this time. This is what humanness is all about.
We need to bring out the positives now and work on solidarity."

Email received from a friend in New York, sent after September 11th 2001

Originally I wanted to share some poker thoughts that came to my mind. But after I heard about the things that happend in London I decided to delay this for some time.

We all knew that this would happen. The only thing is we didn't knew when and were...

Terrorism comes closer to my country. We had Madrid and now it is London. Despite Madrid which is just a foreign city for me I know some people in London. I was lucky to hear from them that they are fine.

This is a "small" incident compared to what happend in New York but every of these terrorist attacks is awful and heartbreaking regardless how many people are injured or killed. My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost a member of their family or a friend...

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