Poker Vince Home Page

May 15, 2008

For the first time in ten times I have been a host at the Wildhorse
Resort and Casino, I have to honestly report that the numbers for
tournament entries was down.   Overall, the numbers were down
only a little, so, given the general overall economy and especially
the very high gas prices, we, at least I, felt the tournament was a
great success. I think if the economy does not get worse and gas
prices do not go up, our November tournament will again break
attendance records.

The tournament continues to get rave reviews from all the players
and the number of “name” players coming up to Pendleton is
increasing every tournament.   I think since we now have a $1,000
championship tournament along with our $500, and no event less
than $200, it can legitimately draw more top players and still be
very attractive to the smaller players.

Now the next event for me will be the World Series of Poker. It
starts the end of May and does not conclude until mid-July. They
have moved the final table from what would normally have been
the middle of July until November. They reasoned it would give a
lot of time to hype the event and create much more interest. I
would not argue with their decision if they had waited a week or
two to play the final table, but to wait four months is ridiculous. It
again, I think, points out management’s complete disregard for the
players. I am sure the players that make that final table would
rather play it off a lot sooner than November. It will give those
final players much more time to line up sponsors and that is good,
but a week or two would certainly fulfill that benefit.

Maybe I will end up being wrong and the move will turn out to be a
stoke of genius but, again, I think almost all the players if asked
would be against such a long delay. And I hate to mention it, but I
think if any players harbored any thoughts of collusion this would
give them more than ample time to come up with something. Also,
the fact they will be holding many millions of the players money for
four months is not a completely insignificant fact.

Because the World Series starts the end of May and goes well into
July, I will not have a blog for June as I will hopefully be in and out
of Vegas playing in the Series.

For What it’s Worth ...

         Vince

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