Poker News

Susie Isaacs

As I write this, the WSOP is in full swing. It isn’t over so I can’t write about the latest millionaires and multimillionaires who won their riches in the 2005 WSOP main event because our publisher gave us a very early deadline for this issue so he could go to Vegas and witness the birth of the newest millionaires in our poker world. There will be thousands of gasps, cheers, tears, good beats and bad beats to report on after Friday, July 15. For now, I can report on some of the happenings and behind the scenes good, bad and funny at the 2005 WSOP.

In 1989, Phil Helmuth, at the age of 24, became the youngest player to win the main event at the WSOP. Last year when 24-year-old James Vogl won the $2,000 no-limit event, he became the youngest player ever to win a bracelet. This year, Eric Froehlich, a 21-year-old, won the Limit Hold’em event #4. To be exact, Eric was 21 years, 3 months and 3 days. I guess this is both good and bad. Good for Eric and bad for the masses of teenagers who will consider a career in poker rather than going to college and preparing themselves for the real world.

The funny: Frank Henderson rushed up to his table in the sevencard stud high-low event, sat down, took a deep breath and said to no one in particular, “I made it. I’m in. My action is cut up like a boarding house pie, but I’m in.”

The good: The 60,000 square feet of poker arena was an unbelievable site. I never thought anything in the poker universe could overwhelm me — it did!

The bad: To say it was a long walk from valet to this grandiose poker theater is an understatement.

The good: Once you got your feel for the location of the poker arena, you could find the back parking lot and cut off about a third of the hike.

The bad: For five days the Rio barricaded a big portion of that parking lot for a convention. It felt like the old days; some executive makes an unreasoned decision thinking that we are just a bunch of low life poker players. Who cares? I guarantee you that Harrah’s made megamore money off the poker players than whatever convention that was.

To add insult to injury, poker players got out of their cars to move a small portion of the barricade so that we could get in and security rudely warned that our cars would be towed, never mind that it was late afternoon and the blocked area was less than 20 percent full. The funny: Overheard; my cards are running so bad that my kicker needs a kicker.

The good: As big as the poker area was it was well organized.

The bad: Too much juice.

The good: All tournaments players were given a $10 food comp.

The bad: The only convenient food always had a long line and wasn’t worth the wait. The “real” food area was a long long walk.

The good: Anybody who stayed at the Rio had to have lost weight with the walk from their room to the poker action.

The bad: One set of restrooms for an army of poker players.

The funny: A player was grumpy. He blamed the dealer for everything from his bad cards and bad beats to his psoriasis. After his down, the dealer smiled and politely said, “If you had wanted your own dealers you should have brought them. In this crowd, they probably wouldn’t have been noticed.”

The good: I do believe our beloved sport of poker is here in the spotlight to stay.

The bad: It was easier to win before all the hoopla. The good: The flattened pay structure keeps a lot of the money in circulation.

The funny: A very young gun was playing a $50 satellite, drinking a lot and announcing that this was his first step in becoming a professional poker player. After watching him play for 30minutes, a seasoned player at the other end of the table said under his breath, “I hope you’re from a wealthy family who is very generous with you.”

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