The unique 2-7 Triple Draw event at the WSOP!

In the entire 2009 World Series of Poker, there featured only one deuce to seven triple-draw tournament. Obviously this reflects on the overall level of interest that there is with this form of poker. If half of the tournaments at the World Series were played using this form of poker then the numbers would be dramatically lower than what they are now.

Events like these usually have specialist fields and can be very difficult to win. The level of dead money in these events is low which tends to mean that the fields are small as well which reflected in the rather small $162,521 that first place winner Abe Mosseri took home.

There were a couple of notable names going into the final table with John Juanda and Blair Rodman both present. With the $10,000 main event now imminent, it is time to reflect on how the 2009 WSOP has gone. Personally I think it has been an interesting series with notable wins for Phil Ivey and Jeff Lisandro springing to mind.

It would be nice to see more Europeans make the trip but the results regarding the English bracelet winners this year has been encouraging. Although I can hardly be the one to point the finger at Europeans not making the trip as I didn’t make the trip myself.

As for internet players, winning online poker players have even less incentive to go. I know many online professionals who haven’t gone to Vegas. Most cash game online specialists wouldn’t give the tournaments the time of day to be quite frank and the term “donkaments” is not a term of endearment.

It is nice that we have the WSOPE now but it never feels the same to have World Series events in Europe. It is just a shame that our players have to travel thousands of miles and also have to endure some of the problems with actually being in Vegas and getting money both in and out of that country. This is before we even discuss the tax implications of potential winnings.

The big circuit tournament professionals certainly pay their fair share of tax and speaking of big names, the $50,000 HORSE event is now assuming almost iconic status now as the real World Championship. This event is a true test of a players all round poker ability and we usually have a star studded final table every year.

This year was no exception and we had people like Huck Seed, Eric Seidel, Chau Giang, Erik Sagstrom and Vitaly Lunkin all present on that table. The winner however was David Bach who defeated John Hanson in heads up play to win over $1.2 million dollars in what was a marathon seven hour heads up encounter and a twenty hour final table.

Whilst David Bach is a very fine player, he will be somewhat of an unknown to most players. But what this indicates is the sheer strength of depth with regards the poker playing population now.
It is the same with online play, there is a hidden depth of great skill and ability out there that few people see. It also goes to show that it is a big mistake to under estimate the opposition. It also means of course that you can be up against a great technical poker player despite the fact that you have never even heard of them.

Cash game and tournament players can accumulate years of experience online in a very short space of time. This can lead to them being great players before they even play a live event. This is contradicted by many great live players who claim that you cannot be a great player having only ever played online but the number of strong online players who are taking down major tournaments is all the proof that one needs that this line of thinking is not correct in many cases.

By Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Tags: cash game, Huck Seed, Jeff Lisandro, online poker, Phil ivey, poker, poker tournament, vegas, wsop, WSOPE