World Series of Poker

I provided my passport and photo id like they asked, but would not let me play online poker while I am working in Vegas.
With these forms of ID I can:
So this would permit me to get in a security area, airport, government building, and drive a car.
But NOT play poker.

Ahh the World Series of Poker. 2014 will be my 10^th year coming to the WSOP. When I started, I was just a poker fan. Now I am filming the shows for ESPN. Somewhere in between I was a professional poker player cashing in the Main Event and a few others. No bracelets, though.
If you like poker at all, or even if you don’t, the WSOP is something to see. Thousands of poker players filling many airplane hangers worth of convention space all vying to win some money. Stars are born and big name players from years past go broke. Nowhere else in the world can you meet so many celebrities who will usually be happy to sign autographs for you.
The World Series of Poker will probably always be part of my life.

I have never been able to review a poker tournament before, but of course this is not just any tournament, this is the World Series of Poker. Once a year it’s held in Las Vegas, not to be confused with all the WSOP circuit events around the country or the WSOP Europe/​Pacific Asia tournaments. Las Vegas is where the WSOP was born and it will continue to be the destination for the world’s best players to congregate and show everyone who is the best of the best.
This was my very first year playing the WSOP, I was thrilled at the chance to play in 1 of the 37 events they had to offer. I picked event #6 NL Hold’em Shootout, it’s not a standard format, you have to beat all the other players on your first table, then you move on to the next table and do the same thing, pretty much until you are the last person with all the chips. Buy-​in was a hefty $ 1,500… the biggest tournament I’ve played so far, luckily I had 2 backers which helped a lot.
I was heads up and almost made it in the money before I got knocked out by some 21 yr old internet wizard, I was devastated. I had played for 10 hours, I was running good, catching cards, then all of a sudden BOOM it was over. I felt numb afterwards, so many emotions at the same time.
In the end, even though I didn’t cash in the money, I still had a blast and played some damn good poker. I saw so many poker pros, I couldn’t even begin to name all of them, they were all great with the fans too, taking pictures & signing autographs. It was a great experience, I can’t wait to play again next year.

Played in a satellite & some cash games. If you’re a poker player, this is where it’s at. If you’re a poker watcher, all the big names are right in front of you. Rio does a really great job of this every year. My buddy played in the main event this year… hoping for my turn soon.

Cash games have been great, plenty of 75 – 150 omaha8 action and 50 – 100 stud8 along with tons of open face chinese at various points and a ton of low limit action too if you are just looking to play for recreation and not real money.
The satellites pretty much go non stop and usually last one ends sometime in the middle of the night/​early morning. As for the bracelet events, though some have pretty weak structures, they have generally been pretty good. The floor has been rather incompetent and unjustifiably angry towards players/​customers when rather ordinary requests or questions are brought up (Too many to name; it’s really annoying to deal with most of the people who work here)
Too many of the dealers should not be dealing and really screw up the game in major events, which is a huge downer, but where are you going to find 6,000 dealers who want to deal with the abuse and work here. The ones who whine about tips are annoying though, deal efficiently and I’m sure everybody will tip. Slow our game down when we are paying $ 8/​half hr to play and it becomes a bottom line $$$ issue.
Great value all around on the tables negates most of that though.

Finally made it to watch the World Series of Poker after many years of poor planning. This is a melting pot of American Poker Stars, Foriegn Poker Stars, Internet Poker Players, math wizards, young kids, and old vets. What was once a smoke filled chamber at the Binion has developed into a show in and of itself with ESPN dominating the venue with glitz and glamour. This is a wonderful event which I am going to try to find a way to play in next year. However, if I am reviewing this from a strict spectators point of view I have to say that the setup is very confusing as players are constantly changing tables at the whim of ESPN. Spectators cannot get close to many of the tables which makes watching friends play next to impossible unless they get lucky and sit at the ESPN TV tables. Not to mention tiny drinks are 9 – 12 dollars and very watered down, souveniers are overpriced, and seating is limited. Further, there is no way to know who anyone is, no poker database station to look someone up, and no flash photography during play. Nowhere can you see the current chip count and none of the staff had any clue what was going on in terms of the leaderboard. Even the featured table did not have any familiar faces and the announcer was horrible.
That said, it is still an amazing display of poker and you can just as easily have your photo taken with one of the stars of Poker as you can mingle with some of the amateurs. As the tables whittle down it becomes easier to follow the leaders and watch the cards. All in all, we had a great time but mostly because our friend made it to day 4 which made it more exciting. Otherwise we may have only stayed for an hour or so before getting poker overload.
There is lots of room for improvement, much like everything ESPN touches, but overall a good time and a must see for those who like Poker but have never watched a live tournament.

This is a review from a spectator’s point of view of the World Series of Poker 2012, whose Main Event just opened at the Rio and will continue until the composition of the Final Table is determined on July 16^th. I sort of blundered into watching a slice of this event as I emerged from the Penn & Teller Theater after their show near 11:00 p.m., and ran into a steady stream of intently focused, mostly backpack-​carrying men in their 20s and 30s in all manner of dress, and a few women, swiftly moving into the Rio’s Convention Center, where 300 poker tables have been set out to accommodate tournament entrants from over 100 countries, most of whom had to plunk down a $ 10,000 entry fee to play here. I joined the deluge, and entered this cavernous room where the tables were set out. It was only a few minutes before another session was to begin, and I was lucky to secure one of only a few seats that had been placed for spectators near the tables. As tables filled up and the cards began to be professionally dealt, at first I watched the action from a distance from my perch. But then I recognized one well-​known professional player with a reported $ 10,000,000 in past poker tournament winnings already under his belt, and saw where he sat down. And, when I noticed that spectators were freely allowed to stand behind players in banded off areas, I joined in for a much closer look. Thus I was able to stand directly behind Gus Hansen, affectionately known in poker circles as «the Great Dane,» and watch him play a few hands with a full table of players before I opted to buy some nice souvenirs and head for home. I noted that other players seemed to be a bit intimidated by Mr. Hansen, and quickly folded their hands when he made an aggressive chip raise. But he did not bully his opponents, immediately tossing his cards away after the first round of dealing multiple times. Except for flopping over cards to seek contested chip piles, while cards dealt to players were not visible to onlookers as is often the case on TV, it was still interesting to see the interaction and moves of the players, most of whom nervously rearranged their piles of chips or repeatedly manipulated a few chips during the course of a hand. And, ultimate decision making by the players I watched was mostly reflective, methodical, and slow.
The tournament itself appears to be very well organized and professionally run, and poker media and spectator friendly. I didn’t see any signs forbidding photography, but only observed cameras being operated by crediential-​wearing professional cameramen. I definitely recommend that all amateur poker enthusiasts come out to the Rio even if only for a little while, and watch the «big boys» play at this year’s WSOP. I intend to return soon myself, next time with my poker-​loving and poker-​playing wife!