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Poker Articles in association with Bet365 Poker
For those of us who are not living in the United States of America, it is hard to grasp just how big the poker explosion has been there. My latest trip to Los Angeles had me shaking my head in disbelief. The National Hockey League players strike has led to the cancellation of their season. Has anyone noticed though? They certainly would have noticed if the LA Poker Classic had been cancelled.
Upon arrival, the cab between LAX and my hotel passed numerous freeway billboards such as, 'Watch Hold 'em on TV, Play Hold 'em at The Commerce Casino', 'The Moneymaker', 'Wednesday Night is Poker Night on The Travel Channel'. A string of huge advertisements for online casinos, live cardrooms, poker on TV and even a poker soap called 'Tilt'!
Having collapsed into bed for 8 hours recovery sleep from the long haul, my wife turned on the TV the following morning. Flicking through the channel she came across some peroxide blonde geezer wearing a bright green bet365poker shirt. I was on ESPN 2! She was well impressed. Right now, the American public just cannot get enough poker. The WSOP Omaha final table has been repeated between two and five times a week constantly since it first showing last June. How on earth can you watch the same final table twice? Surely the result is the same every time?
I walked into the Commerce to register for the 'PPT' freeroll event. For me, it was just a free entry with a shot at winning part of a $500,000 prize pool. An unthinkable opportunity two years ago. I was in for a surprise though. It is much more than that to the American public. Invites to PPT (Professional Poker Players Tour), are restricted to the 200 top ranked poker players in the World. To the American public, this was an all-star tournament. TV cameras were everywhere (well there were at least four anyway). My biggest surprise though, was the groupies clutching their 'Poker Aces' books. The blonde hair probably made me the easiest recognisable player in the book, but none of the autograph hunters had a chance of pronouncing 'colclough'.
My head had swelled to the size of an average planet by the time the tournament started. 180 of the top poker players in the world inter-mingled with half a dozen wildcard entries. Only 6 places to be paid though. A very tough prospect indeed. We were seated within a cordoned off area with a crowd of several hundred watching. Each table had it's own little red flag which read 'all-in'. There was also one 'feature' table with swing boom TV cameras and individual hole card cameras.
Phil Helmuth of course arrived late. It's traditional that he gives the field a few blinds start nowadays. A sort of sporting chance you might say. He did pull out all the publicity stops upon arrival this time though. Just to give the TV cameras their moneys worth, he requested that the dealer dealt him the *!%! in. Bearing in mind that all stacks are always dealt to in tournaments, and that bad language is being clamped down on; it was no surprise when the tournament director issued him a 20-minute penalty. A few more blinds head start for the field. A perfect TV interview opportunity for a Poker God.
Within half an hour we saw our first red flag rise, and the dealer called 'all-in'. The action had been stopped so that the mobile TV cameras could rush over, along with cute dolly bird presenter. The all-in player was duly interviewed and asked what his chances were. His red-faced embarrassment didn't need the verbal confirmation that he was in the mire. He wasn't wrong, and we had our first casualty. The normal manner would be to skulk off stage left at this point, but not so on the PPT. The poor victim had to explain on TV how he had managed to finish 'last', and then go on to 'sign out' at the PPT desk. The sign-out procedure was so that the organisers can log the result on their database. Statistics and Rankings to follow, no doubt.
I made good progress straight from the off and was soon chip leader at my table, without any major confrontations. Phil Gordon's aggressive style was yo-yoing above my stack and back down again as the hours progressed. Interestingly, later in the evening, poker enthusiast Toby 'Spiderman' Maguire is allowed through the cordon to watch the play. Film stars watching poker stars. An interesting hierarchical structure for the home of Hollywood? He watched as Phil Gordon and Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson tangled in a big pot. Phil being the 'all-in' red flag recipient. The TV cameras rushed over to record his good fortune as he got the better of the legendary Doyle on the river.
The US poker phenomenon has embraced the 75-year-old Doyle as a grandfather figure. He is probably the most popular player, well ahead of all the young guns. The crowd were not happy with Doyle becoming the short stack at the table.
CONTINUED
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