Poker News

Lou Krieger

OK, here it is, just what we’ve all been waiting for. The World Series of Poker began just a few days ago and Las Vegas is looking like a poker player’s convention. While there are 55 events in this year’s WSOP, it’s going to be impossible for anyone to play in all of them.

The first 20 events are slated to run June 1-June 11. That’s two events per day; one begins at noon while the other gets underway at 5:00 PM. While there are more World Series events than ever before, when it comes to actually sitting down and playing poker, there are not as many as one might imagine. Not only that, if you play well and come back to finish your event the following day, you’ll be in direct conflict with any tournament event you might have been planning to play if you were knocked out of the event you entered yesterday. Between the start of two new events each day and the conclusion of events from the prior day, plus a few cash games and maybe some satellites, one might need a roadmap to navigate the premises.

If that’s not enough, this year there’s direct competition for the WSOP visitor. There was a time when the casinos had a gentlemen’s agreement of sorts, and took pains not to step on another property’s toes when scheduling tournaments. But there weren’t as many tournament back then.

With the growth of poker over the past four years, there aren’t enough weeks in a year to avoid going head-to-head with another property regardless of when you’d like to hold a tournament. Not only that, many tournament series are growing in length. The WSOP is now a sixweek marathon. Month-long tournament series are the rule nowadays, not the exception, and it’s fast become a case of too much poker and not enough time.

The Bellagio Cup III runs from June 11 through July 15 and it’s an all hold’em tournament series that competes directly with the WSOP. In fact, if you don’t like playing anything but hold’em, this might be right up your alley. There won’t be 7- card stud, razz, Omaha/8 or any other games at the Bellagio; they’re only offering hold’em. They are all hold’em all the time at the Bellagio Cup III, and if you don’t like what’s on your plate at the WSOP, you can get all the hold’em you want at the Bellagio.

The Venetian’s Deep Stack Extravaganza II is scheduled to begin June 1, 2007, and run through July 1, 2007. The Venetian’s tournament starts with a significant amount of chips, generous blind structures and 40 or 60 minute levels and it too, was designed to complement and run concurrently with the World Series of Poker. It includes no-limit hold’em, Omaha/8, pot-limit Omaha and HORSE tournaments. You get a lot of play for your money at the Venetian, and if you prefer small-ball to the sight of opponents who push all-in at the drop of a hat, or the sight of a soon-to-escalate blind structure, this tournament might be custom-made for you.

If all of these big buy-in tournaments are a bit too rich for your blood, there’s always Binion’s Poker Classic. It runs from June 1-July 4, and most of the events come with a $150 or $200 price tag, although there are two $500 events and one that costs $1,000 to enter. It’s a month long tournament series, held right back there where the WSOP started nearly 40 years ago, down on Freemont Street in Glitter Gulch, where big-time tournament poker was born and nurtured.

More information about any of these events can be found at the web sites of the host casinos. All you have to do is pick your events from a very varied menu, belly up to the table, and say, “Deal me in.” After all, it’s June and July in Las Vegas, and the cards are in the air.

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