Finally some money and a flop of a lifetime

Played the Planet Hollywood again but choose the 2pm tournament this time. We had 90 players but I made it only to 28th place and far away from the money. Too bad as I had a good run in this one. Due to severe underbetting of my opponents I was able to take advantage of several draws that materialized. Unfortunately at the end I finally got the worst end of it. Found KK and went all-in with 14,000 chips from UTG (blinds at 1,000/2,000) and got called by AdQc in late position. What a horrible call. What did he expect me to have? Unfortunately he got rewarded with 4 diamonds on the board and I was down to my last 900 chips. Recoverd slightly to about 4,000 chips but went all-in with K9o shortly before the blinds (now 2,000/4,000) reached me again and got called by AK in the big blind. No help and out.

But even if I didn't make money in this tournament I think it was the one were I showed most aggression so far. I felt good about my play and decided for another shot at the 11pm nightly tournament at Caesars ($120 buy-in). [PF=4.15]

While I tried to find a parking slot on the roof of the Caesars parking garage a fireworks was started and this was one of the most beautiful fireworks I've ever seen. It appearently came from the Caesars and took about 15 minutes or so. And I had one of the best spots on top of the parking garage to watch it. I don't know if this was a planned fireworks or happened by fault (4th of July is around the corner) but it was nice to watch.

As expected the tournament got a lot of players due to the fact that todays WSOP event had about 3,300 players (a new record). We had one guy at our table who had his story about this event: He played just one single hand in the tournament when he flopped the nut-flush. All the money went in on the flop but the other guy had flopped a set and improved to quads on the turn. Tough beat for this poor guy!

Talking about hitting flops, this was my dreamflop of the tournament: After I lost a tough hand that I can't completely recall right now I was on life support with my stack but not dead. Finally I found AA in MP and hoped for a raise. I got my raise (which was an all-in) and went all-in over the top to isolate. But the big blind called my all-in. The big blind had QQ while the other guy had KJ or so, The flop came QAA. Wow! While the other guy flopped a full house I flopped the nuts at the same time. This hand was a turning point. I didn't had a real big stack then but big enough for some moves with the right hands.

Finally we were down to 19 players from 209 with 18 getting paid. My stack was around 15,000 with blinds 1,000/2,000 and ante 400 as we drew for the last to tables. About two orbits later the small blind had only 400 left for the antes and I won the hand which brought us into the money and my stack up to 20,000. Two hands later I got QTs one off the button and decided for a steal as the game still was really tight. The small blind called, big blind folded. Not what I wanted to happen. :-( The other guy checked in the dark. I assumed he wanted to show strength and put him on a medium to low pair. Easy decision ... if I hit a flush draw or either Q or T then all my money goes in. Unfortunately I hit my ten. The guy called instantly as he had hit a set of 7's on the flop, Good read, but bad timing on my part. He had me covered and I was out on 18th for a $170 win after 4 hours and 45 minutes.

First prize would have been over $6,000 and I would have loved to step up on the money ladder. But we had to lose another three players for the next prize jump so playing a hand here wasn't a bad idea. Just the outcome was as bad as possible.

But anyway, making the money again after those tough days was a great feeling. Especially as I played a strong competition for most time of the night.

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Some News from the Amazon Room

Andreas Krause is still hanging in at the Seven Card Stud (8 or better). They are down to 13 Players and he's now sitting next to Scotty Nguyen. Unfortunately he is low on chips. But others are low too. So he might be out soon or make a final table again. They play down to the final table of 8 before they stop the play for today.

George Danzer survived day one of the Triple Draw Deuce to Seven. There are still around 100 of 209 left and he's in a tough field with people like Barry Greenstein, Greg Raymer, Andy Bloch, Robert Williamson III and other well known names.

Tomorrows Event #49 the 1,500 No-Limit Hold'em is sold out completely and seems to have over 3,000 players. There's a new record around the corner! In same way I'm sad not to play this event like I hoped to do. But on the other hand the Amazon Room will be a zoo tomorrow. I'm not sure if this would have been the right field for a first WSOP appeareance.

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No good at Binion's (PF=10.14) and Bubble Boy at Planet Hollywood

It doesn't get better at all. The Binion's tournament ($150 Buy-In) has a good structure and got 488 players. Unfortunately I went out early on 440th position. Here's the six hands I played during the 75 minutes I was in the tournament: Win a nice pot with 99 (no showdown). Get AJ and we see a flop containing an Ace. Lose the pot to AQ. Pick up the blinds twice and finally get AK after an hour of unplayable hands. Flop comes K82. I bet, get re-raised and go all-in (which is a little more than a pot-size bet) as I think he want's to chase me out of the pot. Wrong idea as he shows 88 for a set. An Ace on the turn gives some hope but river is blank. Two hands later I get 88 in the big blind, go all-in with my remaining 800 chips (blinds 100/200) and get called from UTG limper with ... AA (the same guy who had the set before). Well not particularily bad beats but still nothing to be happy about.

At our table was a guy who was wearing a ring that I had seen on photos before but never expected to see one in reality. The ring was a WSOP Circuit winner ring and belonged to Michael "Scott" Arents who won the Circuit event in Lake Tahoe last September. At least I now have a story to tell. Unfortunately I didn't see many hands from him but what I saw was very decent. And we had some nice table talk as he is a very nice guy.

Being at Binions was an interesting feeling. This is were the WSOP started. There's the wall with the 30 champions. Joe Hachem's photo is the last one as he was the last to win at Benny's Bullpen. No picture for Jamie Gold and no picture for the future champions. But on the other hand if Harrah's hadn't taken over the WSOP how would it look like now? Would it still exist? If not there would be another big tournament for sure but the World Series has some kind of history that no replacement would be able to overcome. So kudos to Harrah's for realizing what gem was hidden here and making it to the biggest pokerevent in the world.

I decided to take another shot at the Planet Hollywood tournament a few our's later. In between I had a look at the Amazon Room that was packed with players as it was Day 1 of the $2,000 No-Limit Event. Six more tables belonged to the six-handed event with players including Ram Vaswani and Phil Hellmuth. And there was the final table of the Omaha High-Low with Marcel Luske. I had a short talk with Jan Heitman who just had busted from the $2,000 No-Limit Event and was on the way to the cash games at the Wynn.

Again I was able to accumulate a good stack in the beginning of the Planet Hollywood tournament but wasn't able to keep the pace. I busted out 9th of 70 but only 8 got paid. At the end I went in shortstacked with 99 and the big blind found KK. I played this tournament three times now and final tabled every one of them but made the money only once. Do I need to be more aggressive at the later stage of the tournament? I have to think about that. But being aggressive with crap can be dangerous and can backfire (and doesn't fit my style at all). Have I been just unlucky or haven't I found the right aggression factor in the late stages? I will review this issue in future tournaments very carefully.

So even if I now have less money in my pockets I learned a lot this week and in general my results are much better than last year. This is a good thing. But at the end only money counts. Therefore I will play the Planet Hollywood tomorrow at 2pm again. If I don't cash I will take a break on Sunday and play it a last time on Monday. If I cash I may try another tournament (Caesars, Venetian or so) again. On Tuesday morning we will head to Chicago and my poker time in Vegas will be over (at least for this vacation).

Remark: Did you know that I have my own street in Las Vegas? ;-) Take a look in the gallery where I added sixteen more photos

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Gaining confidence but losing money

After the bustout at the Venetian I took another shot at the Planet Hollywood tournament. I really like the structure and the atmosphere of that tournament. Not that serious like other tournements but still players who try to play decent. The crowd is a mix of young to medium age locals and tourists.

Today I met a nice girl from Hamburg, Germany in the tournament (she was on a vacation with some friends). Unfortunately I took her out of the tournament quite early. Not that I didn't like to get her chips but I would have loved to have her on my table for a little longer as she was a very nice person. But she wasn't the only one I took out of the game. I got some good playable cards and connected with some decent flops. Somewere in the middle of the tournament I was chipleader at our table and was able to pull some nice moves. Two of the best ones were hands were I was able to push people from a hand that would have resulted in a split pot.

Unfortunately I passed on pushing on a hand that turned out to be a big bluff. I was the big blind and my opponent raised from LP. I was holding AJ and due to the blinds and stack sizes my only options were fold or push. He had more chips than me and I assumed his raise was to trap me in a push. So I decided that this wasn't the right time for gambling. He showed J6 after I folded :-(

Made it to the final table but went more and more shortstacked. At the end I called an all-in from a stack that was slightly bigger than mine. My 66 didn't held up against her AT when a ten appeared on the turn. Out on 8th of 43 after 3 hours (6 got paid).

To bad I didn't make money on that but I got back a lot of my confidence which is a good thing for tomorrows tournament at Binions. And I'm sure I will play the Planet Hollywood tournament at least another two times that weekend.

Remark: Added five new photos to the gallery

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The Venetian Tournament (PF=14.79)

Very good tournament structure. You get 6,000 chips and 40 minute blind levels. But if you don't get decent cards it's even hard in a tournament like this. They started with 480 players but allowed a lot of alternates till the end of the third level. So the total number of players was 641. What I don't like is their payout schedule as they only pay 40 spots even with that number of players.

In seat one we had a guy that played any two cards and hit a lot of lucky hands. As he was also very loud and constantly talking nobody liked him. Of course variance hit back to him and he was down to about 2,500 chips very soon. At this time I got AK in MP and re-raised his minimum raise to 600 (Blinds 50/100). Five callers (including him) ... ouch! But the flop was great as it came A72. He re-raised all-in for about 2,000 and I went over the top all-in for 6,000 to isolate. Everybody folded except for one (who had me covered). Not like it was planned. But it turned out that this caller had AK, too. The "loud guy" showed 78o for bottom pair. River was an 8 and he sucked out on both of us.

Still enough chips but a major setback as the blinds now went to 100/200. I recovered somewhat to about 5,500 chips but never made it past my original starting stack. Another key hand was 55 in LP which I would have played against a single raiser. But it was raised to 5 times the big blind with one caller in front of me. Too much to call. Behind me another guy went all-in for 10,000. The original raiser folded but the other guy called and both showed AK. They split the pot as none of them improved. And to add insult to injury a 5 hit on the flop :-(

The "loud guy" didn't make it to the break and after the break our table was broken quite soon. Already in level 4 with 100/200 blinds and 25 ante it was time for some movements as my stack was down to 3,700 (mainly just due to paying the blinds). Picked up the antes and blinds once with 77 and finally raised to 600 from the button with TT just to get re-raised to 1,800 by the small blind. He had only slightly more chips than me so I took the opportunity and went all-in for about 4,500 chips (it was just a few minutes before the blinds increased to 200/400 with 25 ante). He called instantly and showed QQ. No help and out around 440th place after three hours.

There was not much I could have done in this tournament. AK and TT were by far the best hands I received. It just wasn't supposed to be.

Tommorrow there will be the Binions tournament. And as it looks like I won't play the WSOP event #49 I will make some plans for smaller tournaments during the weekend. But I still have a great time and try to hang in and play the best game I can play.

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A hand worth $560

I lasted only an hour in the Caesar's tournament. I had a nice start when I got paid for pocket aces but gave back a good chunck after I ran into a set of 9's. Shortly before the end of the second level my QQ's ran into KK's and I was out on 110th of 124.

Decided to play another $125 satellite at the Rio and it became a marathon as we played for almost two hours. With five players left I was down two my last 500 chips (blinds 200/400) but was able to recover because somebody doubled me up with his 63 against my K6. The next hand I got QQ's and took down another pot. Down to three I was chipleader (but just by a few chips). Unfortunately I couldn't get much of a hand that time. Stuff like 23, 28 and so on isn't even playable in that short-handed situation. So I went from top to last and got QQ's again just in time. I was called by K9 and my pocket pair was good again. The blinds had reached 500/1000 when I found JJ's in the small blind. Went in for 2,800 and the big blind called with 92o. As he had slightly more chips I went out with nothing as a 9 on the flop and a 2 on the turn appeared. They immediatly chopped and everybody except me got $560.

It's somewhat frustrating to lose games that way. But that's poker. And if you don't like bad beats you shouldn't play poker. But in just 9 hours I'm back at the tables. The Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza II is calling. I already signed up and this is a real great structure. (6,000 chips and long blind levels). But the most important thing is now to get back in the right mood. After losing, especially after losing that way, it is easy to start expecting the worst all the time. So I'm trying to get back to my confidence level that I had after the first day here in Vegas

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Satellite day

Today I planned to play some $125 satellites. As I entered the Amazon-Room the final table with George Danzer was just about to start. Met Jan "Erdnase" Heitman who was watching the table and we had a brief chat.

Unfortunately my first satellite didn't went very well as a guy decided that it was a good idea to call my raise with pocket sixes with 79o. On a 922 flop he bet and I reraised all-in as I put him on AK or AQ. He called and I got no help! The second satellite went a little better. I wasn't the first out but with 5 players left I was second to last in chips. Found JJ in early position and tried to trap with a limp. Small Blind called, Big Blind raised. I re-raised all-in. The small-blind thought for some time and called as did the Big Blind. Unfortunately he showed AA. And to make it more worse the other player showed QJ ... there goes half of my outs.

So I'm looking forward to the Caesar's tournament tonight. Unfortunately it seems that George didn't make it too long at the final table as he was gone when I passed his table on my way out. Remark: I later found out that he made the 9th place and his time at the final table lasted just about half an hour. But reaching the final table is still a great acomplishment .. so congratulations!

In the lobby I got a nice shot of Joe Hachem who was interviewed by the WSOP team. I've put some more pictures in my gallery. Hope you enjoy them.

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Two tournaments, two cashes

That was indeed an almost perfect start!

We arrived late in Vegas due to the delay. The new "central rental car center" is horrible (as it is far away on the other side of the airport). More worse: the computer system of Dollar was down so they had to do all the stuff manually. Finally we got our car. The counter upgraded our economy car to compact and the guy in the garage told us "no compact available, take a midsize car". Well, no complains :-)

As we arrived at the Rio we were told we have to change rooms the next day. At least I talked them into a change at late afternoon so I could play the MGM tourney and we weren't forced to wake up too early. As we were really tired we went to bed immediately. My girlfriend decided to sleep as long as possible in the morning while I went up for the 11 am tournament at the MGM [PF=2.80]. Nice changes there since my last visit. They now have a restroom close to the pokerroom (so no more long hikes). And next to the pokerroom is a Starbucks. Imagine were you can find me during the breaks.

This was a strange tournament for me as I barely played 4 hands until we were down to 20 players (from 88). And those four hands were ... pocket aces! I would have loved to play more hands but beside that Aces I only got unplayable crap. And as I had an image to be the tightest possible rock I had to trap with the aces every time (like limping from first position and praying for a raise to put in a re-reraise). Fortunately I got paid well all times. It helped to get two of them in a row. After that I was able to do a lot of steals (with still medicore hands). And stealing is very important in the MGM tourney as the antes kick in very early. Finally I was busted in 6th place after 3 hours for a $185 win ($65 Buy-In). At the end I tried to trap the chipleader who played a lot of crappy hands during that final table but ran into a made hand (he flopped a set of 9's). Bad timing!

After we changed our room we got something to eat and I signed up for my next tournament - the 7 pm at the Planet Hollywood (Buy-In $60) [PF=4.21]. This went completely different then the MGM tourney as I was able to do what I like most: aggressive play. Like raising 5's, getting a re-raise from an early position limper who had of course either AA or KK. I called him to see if I make my set (or have to fold anyway). Flop came 5xx and he paid a lot of money for making a pre-flop re-raise that wasn't big enough. But I also got lucky two times as I was behind with AQ against AK. The board paired two times and we split the pot. Another time a raiser forced the winning hand out of the pot while my all-in won against him. Down to nine players we put up $10 each for the bubbble-boy. Good choice as it speeded up the process to burst the bubble. At this time I was severly short-stacked but again it looks like I'm quite good in short-stack play. I choose my spots wisely and managed to survive till 3rd place. Another payday of $327 for 3.5 hours of poker. By the way, the Planet Hollywood looks interesting after the re-design. The pokerroom is nice (similar style like the MGM), although I miss the fact that it is a real room like the old one. In the new room you can hear lots of the noise around from the slot machines.

Went back to the Rio and took a look into the Amazon-Room. Just in time to see George Danzer making the final table of the Omaha high-low. Talked briefly to him but he was too tired for a longer conversation (we hadn't met before). And I'm quite sure I saw Klaus "B@andit" Haussmann playing in the Limit-Event that was down to 99 players at that time.

For tommorrow I have planned to play some WSOP satellites and the nightly tournament at the Caesars ... so stay tuned.

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Heading to Vegas

Now it's time for Vegas. We had a wonderful extended weekend at the Beantown Dancecamp. We met nice people and danced a lot. So my muscles feel like they need a rest but I also feel well prepared for extended hours of sitting at the poker tabels.

Today we made a short visit to downtown Boston and had some nice food at Cheers - the one from the TV series ... the older ones of us may remember ;-))

Now back at Logan airport waiting for our plane. Unfortunately the flight is delayed for an hour. So most probably we won't be at the Rio before midnight.

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An interesting interview with Oliver Tse

I recommend to look at this broadcast from IntelliPoker which has an interesting interview with poker agent Oliver Tse somewere in the middle. Oliver may be known so far mostly from his postings at 2+2 were he posts under the name of "olivert". While I find some of his opinions in the 2+2 postings quite controversical I was surprised about his good knowledge about german poker players and the german poker market. Especially the way he compares Katja Thater to Phil Gordon and Michael Keiner to Howard Lederer is very nice.

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Travelling "High-Roller-Style"

We just arrived in Boston and we had a great flight. But our day started not so good as we slept two hours longer than planned. We still had plenty of time to get to the airport but were in a hurry to manage some other things before.

But finally we made it to the airport on time, checked in and got really dissapointed. Unfortunately they changed our seat assignments (which I made about 2 months ago) and we now had seats in the middle of a 4-seat row. So this looked like a horrible 8 hour flight. The guy in Munich couldn't help us but told us to check with the counter in Frankfurt as soon as we arrive. When we went there and asked about the seat change they told us "No problem, we have already taken care of this ... and you will now fly business class". Wow, that's cool. Obviously it's helpful to have a girlfriend with a lot of frequent traveller miles ;-))

We later found out that all the mess came from a plane change. So we didn't fly with United but with Lufthansa instead. Therefore it wasn't a Boeing but an Airbus A-340. And I can tell you the business-class in the A-340 is wonderful. I have been in business in a 747 before but this is nothing compared to the A-340. On of the best things is that you can convert your seat to an almost full-size bed that is large enough for somebody as tall as me (184 cm).

So we had a very relaxing trip with great food, some good videos and very friendly service. Is there a better way to start a vacation?

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And another Bracelet for Germany!

Katja Thater won the Razz Event! She's now the 4th german player but also the first and only german female player who managed to win a bracelet. Congratulations Katja!

Detailed informations about her win can be found at German PokerStars Blog.

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Just one more night

Now it's time to pack our things. Tomorrow afternoon we will start our vacation. I still have to do some things including another news for IntelliPoker. And I will play a last online tournament (the $22 Deep-Stack at PokerStars).

Due to all the computer stuff I had to do I played only a few of the 12 planned tournaments and I didn't do good so far. Close to the money two times but no cash.

I also played the "Rookie" tournament in Wiesbaden. It was the first regular tournament in Germany about one year ago but I don't like it. The poker room is really small, the drinks are expensive and the structure is crappy. You get 1,500 chips and they start with 25/50 and go to 50/100 and so on in 20 minute levels. I busted somewere in the middle because the big blind decided it could be a good idea to call my all-in with QJ. I had A8 of spades. The flop showed a Jack but also two spades. Unfortunately I didn't hit any of the remaining outs. But this wasn't by far the worst call I've seen that day!

From Wednesday till Sunday we will take part in the Beantown Dance Camp in Boston. As far as I know there will be W-LAN available so I still can follow the WSOP action. And on next Monday we will fly to Vegas. I have no idea if there will be internet access at the Rio hotel rooms but I'm sure I will be able to keep you updated.

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My Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide - Tournament Edition arrived today

Now that was a good timing. Today I received the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition and it looks like a really interesting book.

I just browsed through it to get a first impression and I saw a lot of good stuff. Several of the Full Tilt Pro's put in chapters and Michael Craig put them in an order to make it a good read. So you have the option to read it as any other book or pick just those chapters that are most interesting for you. I would recommend doing the second. Different people have different styles. So you even might find one pro saying "do this more often" while the other tells you in the next chapter "do it less often". But there's nothing wrong with that. Read their reasoning and decide yourself what fits best to your style of play. As the title says, this book is about "strategy". And in tournament poker there isn't only one single winning strategy.

This might become my most important tournament book together with Harrington I-III and Phil Gordon's Green and Blue Book.

And for those who are interested in games other than Hold'em: about one third of the book covers chapters regarding Omaha and Stud (including Razz).

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My new Notebook

Due to some upcoming changes I was forced to buy a new notebook. I wasn't happy to do it now as I wanted to take as much of my bankroll to Vegas. But on the other hand it was so great to get rid of the crappy machine I had before. I had several different notebooks im my business life but that one (a Siemens Fujitsu) was the worst of all. I never had so much stall-time, blue screens and other stuff than with that one. Finally the audio card was damaged and I even wasn't able to use it for my DJ stuff anymore.

I would have preferred to buy a Sony Vaio again as I absolutely love those. Unfortunately they are not only good but also expensive. After some time looking for the best offer I found a great piece from Hewlett-Packard. The HP G 5050 I found is a great machine. Not the newest modell but it runs well with Vista Premium Home. The Intel Celeron M 1,86 GHz Prozessor and 1 GB RAM are good enough. And the cristal clear widescreen display is just cool.

Regarding Vista: It looks nice and modern but from the technical perspective there isn't so much new. I can't understand why it took them so long to come up with this. Seems the rumors are true that Vista is just an intermediate release and the really new stuff is coming in the next release.

So I had to re-install all my stuff and copy my data. Of course I ran in several traps like not getting Skype running. It took me hours to find out that I have to use the option "install with admin rights" (although I have admin rights) to get it run. Same with OpenOffice and other programms. I hate this illogical stuff that is complete senseless but wastes so much time.

Therefore I wasn't able to play my planned tournaments yesterday and today. As the machine is now ready I might play one tonight. And tomorrow I have my live tournament in Wiesbaden. And on Sunday I will DJ again with the new machine in our homeplace in Munich.

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Michael Keiner wins his first WSOP Bracelet

Congratulations to Michael Keiner who is the first german player to win a bracelet since Eddy Scharf in 2003.

After being down to his last 200 chips (from 3,000 starting stack) in the beginning he had a huge comeback. He then started to dominate Event 14 - $1,500 Seven Card Stud and survived a final table including Greg Raymer und Barry Greenstein after almost 17 hours of play.

For his win he will be awarded $146,987 and more important his first WSOP bracelet. Good job, Michael!

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Preparing for the WSOP

Less than two weeks till our flight to Boston and just 17 days till Las Vegas. So how do I prepare myself for the WSOP? I watched Ocean's 13 yesterday with my girlfriend (nice story, nice shots of Vegas!) and of course I play poker. I won't be able to play during the 5 days in Boston so I try to play as much as I can now. Bigger bankroll = more fun in Vegas.

For the next days I will play 12 more online tournaments (including some "Race for Bracelet" Events) and the Rookie-Tournament in Wiesbaden.

In the last days I had some bad beats and some cashes online. I missed the final table by one place in Salzburg but overall I'm feeling good with my performance in the last three months. I'm playing much better than I did in the past and my results reflect this improvement.

The german players had already great performances this year at the WSOP. Andreas Krause and Jan von Halle both made a final table. And Katja Thater and Michael Keiner had their first cashes. Others like Sebastian Ruthenberg just arrived and hopefully will continue with more good results.

I made a game plan for myself that looks like this:

On my first day in Vegas I will play the MGM tournament as a warmup as well as the nightly tournament at the Caesars. Next day will be the Aladdin ... sorry, the Planet Hollywood tournament and some WSOP satellites. The third day will be the first big tournament day with the $330 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza II. So far they had about 300 to 400 participants each tournament. And on the fourth day I play the "Mini-WSOP" at the Binions ($150 No-Limit Hold'em). Also around 300 participants. And hopefully on my last three days I will be able to play WSOP #49 as the highlight of the trip.

And of course I have to mention my staking offer for a last time. Just 46 hours left to get a part of my action. I'm happy that a reader of my blog was the first to take two shares. I will try hard not to dissapoint him and those who may follow!

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WSOP 2007 sets new record

Everybody waited for Event #3 to get a first impression how the WSOP will run this year. And the number was impressive: 2.998 participants in the first NL Hold'em event of this years WSOP. Up 7% and the biggest WSOP Event (except for the main events) so far.

Many people (including me) thought that the UIGEA could hurt the WSOP. Especially the decision of PokerStars and FullTilt to pay their satellite winners in cash could probably mean that some people decide to take the money and refrain from playing. So far there are no numbers about the ratio of online players and those who paid from their own bankroll, but this doesn't matter anyway. The only thing that matters is that the WSOP is back!

I was quite conservative with my predictions for the main event for the whole year (2,500 - 6,000). I still think it will be hard to get more players than 2006 but I now go with a prediction of 6,000+

As Nolan Dalla just recently said: "Anyone who thinks the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will kill the WSOP is in for a big surprise."

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