World Series of Poker
whelp, the fat guy with the funny glasses won it. 5 million dollars was the top prize. not bad for 6 weeks worth of playing cards. the guy is a patent attorney, i believe they said, and is called 'fossilman' for the small fossils he brings to the game. he is not a professional poker player. he got in from qualifying in some internet game.
the only former champion left in the game went out in fourth place, with prize money of 1.1 million. not bad for fourth place :) and i believe there were only two or three professional players left at the final table of nine people. that says a lot about the new breed of internet players.
they had about 2576 people enter this year and didnt have enough room in the casino to seat them all at first. last year they had about 800 or so. but, being that they are now televising the show, and with all the new online casinos and poker places, poker has taken a giant leap forward in popularity. last year's tournament was won by a guy named chris moneymaker, who got in by winning an internet tournament, but the top prize money last year was only 2 1/2 million.
the entry fee is $10,000 u.s. with 2576 people entering, multiply that by 10,000 and you get a total chip count in the game of $25,760,000. that's a LOT of chips, especially when they get down to only one table with nine people left in the game. that 25.8 million in chips are all there on the final table. that can make for some very BIG pots.
it shld be interesting next year as well. this year they over tripled the number of folks that entered. if they only double this for next year, that means a total chip count on the tables of over $50 million! the prize money, of course, gets spread out among the top winners, but with over 2500 folks entering, this prize money got spread out all the way down to about 120th place finishers, or maybe it was 140th. i think at that place it was only about $20,000, but you at least doubled your entry fee that way.
now poker isnt usually considered a spectator sport, but the way they do this keeps it pretty interesting. you, the viewers get to see the 'hole' cards, the hidden cards, that each player has. they dont, of course, but you do. in the 'main event' they play texas hold 'em. if you dont know this game, do a google on it. it's pretty simple. but, it involves a LOT of skill and even more luck. thus, it tends to make for some wild hands and thus, it makes for some interesting viewing. add in that some of these pots grow to be millions up for stake in one hand, and it gets fascinating :)
the tournament is over, but they'll prolly show the shows again. it was on espn (or espn2) every tuesday night at about 8 p.m. they'd run two, one hour shows, back to back to keep things moving along. they are also going to do another tournament show called 'tournament of champions'. i believe that is going to air later in september, also on espn. shld be fun :)
K.
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Originally Posted by Kraellin
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