Stars Turning Out For $1,500 Events
Whatever the reasons for our pro-heavy fields I for one am happy with seeing the biggest names in the business do well on poker's biggest stage but please allow some of the amateurs to luckbox their way to a bracelet to keep the dream alive for us mere mortals!
In years gone by the $1,000 and $1,500 buy-in events at the World Series of Poker have received the moniker of "donkaments," implying that the fields are ridiculously soft due to them being full of recreational players. Whilst these particular buy-ins are still a firm favourite with the minnows of the poker world, it appears that the sharks have also taken to these waters of late too.
The first of the $1,500 events at this year's WSOP came in Event #2 and you just have to look at the results pages on various outlets to see how stacked the field was. Making it to the money in this particular event included Terrence Chan, Jason Mercier, Andrew "LuckyChewy" Lichtenberger, Eli Elezra, Brandon Cantu, Paul "badpab" Foltyn, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda and Dan Smith! Plus the final table was ridiculous in that it was the home to JP Kelly, Vanessa Selbst, Andrew Badecker and Brent Hanks; all in a 1,500 event!
Event #5, the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament was also packed with quality players with the likes of Bryan Pellegrino, Jonathan Aguiar, Tommy Vedes, Daniel Negreanu and John Eames making it to the nine-handed final table and it is the same for all the other low buy-in events that have taken place so far. Why is this the case?
I was thinking about the answer to this over breakfast and I personally think there are a couple of reasons for the pros turning out in force for the lower buy-in events. The first is that a large number of the WSOP regulars - read this as Americans - have significant amounts of money tied up in Full Tilt Poker so they have less money to splash around at the WSOP; hence the lower buy-ins. Another suggestion would be that another large section of the poker community - again read this as Americans - managed to withdraw their bankrolls but no longer have a viable option when it comes to online poker so are using their cash to play as many live events as they can.
It could also be down to the scheduling of the WSOP by the management team. Last year the WSOP kicked off with the $25,000 Heads-Up and by the time Event #11 had been played there had been a $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event and two $10,000 buy-in events and the $1,500 No Limit and Pot Limit Hold'em events were nowhere to be seen. Maybe it is just good ol' variance making this year the year of the pro once again?
Whatever the reasons for our pro-heavy fields I for one am happy with seeing the biggest names in the business do well on poker's biggest stage but please allow some of the amateurs to luckbox their way to a bracelet to keep the dream alive for us mere mortals!
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