Everyone is betting that Nov. 11 will be the most popular poker television night in the game's history. This is, after all, when the "November Nine" will face off in a delayed TV broadcast for the first prize of more than $9.1 million at the World Series of Poker main event. Two of the final-table players have taken a rather nontraditional route to secure additional sponsorship dollars for their TV time.
All of us at Card Player would like to thank our readers, advertisers, and supporters for making our company the leader in poker media for two decades.
If you like free money, Card Player encourages you to play in the major Sunday tournaments online. Not only are they convenient and inexpensive ways to potentially take down a big score, they also oftentimes offer an overlay, providing players even more value.
Many loyal Card Player readers were upset with Scotty Nguyen's behavior during the recent televised World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship, and they let their opinions be known by flooding our offices and inboxes with correspondence. During the event, which aired on ESPN, Nguyen directed abusive language at the tournament staff and the other players, and, on frequent occasions, violated the written and unwritten rules of tournament conduct.
OK, the post-World Series of Poker lull is just about over. We're packing our bags for the Legends of Poker tournament to terminate the summer poker dead zone, and after that lies a busy few months.
For 6,835 players who entered the 2008 World Series of Poker main event, it was, "Wait until next year." On the other hand, for the nine remaining players who will return to Las Vegas in November to clash at the final table, it was, "Can't wait for November."
If it wasn't for poker's phenomenal international growth, this year's World Series of Poker certainly would have experienced a drop in attendance. A large number of the 58,720 players who bought into WSOP events in 2008 were from abroad. And as these players continue to improve their poker chops, the winner's circle is looking more and more like an Olympic medal ceremony than a Texas road gamblers' convention.
At the end of 53 World Series of Poker events, we have a winner of the Card Player World Series of Poker Player of the Year title. Despite a multiple bracelet summer by John Phan and Erick Lindgren's bracelet win and third-place finish in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a player relatively unknown to casual fans, Jacobo Fernandez, walked away with the honor of being the most consistent player of the long, hot, busy summer.
When the 2008 World Series of Poker kicked off and Nenad Medic, Erick Lindgren, and David Singer won three of the first four events, there was lots of buzz that this would be a year of utter domination for big-time poker pros at the Series. Amateurs have had a lot of success at the WSOP in recent years (for six consecutive years, an amateur has won the main event), but would this year reverse the trend?
As I write this, we're two weeks into the World Series, and you have to applaud the WSOP officials for the noticeable enhancements made to this year's event. There is no question that the deluge of players over the past two years has caused headaches, long lines, and frustrations for many players, but, overall, things seem to be running much more smoothly this year.
