WSOP Fever

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Players and railbirds gather in Vegas for the biggest spectacle in global poker

Poker fever will rule for the 47 days of World Series of Poker that started at the beginning of this (June) month and will culminate next in the Main Event, where a buy-in of $10 000 gives entrants a chance to compete against thousands, including the world's best, to win huge amounts of hard cash from the richest prize-pool in sport.

For many it's not just about the money, but the respect that goes with earning a winner's bracelet in one of the 55 different competitions that make up the tournament schedule.  Crafted by the luxury Swiss watchmaker Corum, this year's bracelets are said to be the most elegant and expensive in the tournament's 38-year history.

Organised by Harrahs at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in the world's gambling capital, the tournament is described without fear of contradiction by its director Jeffrey Pollack as "...the best schedule and widest range of events in the tournament's storied history."

ESPN will again provide live pay-per-view coverage of the Main Event Final Table this year, enabling poker fans to watch the action unfold in real time.

"We're very excited that for the first time ever, every ESPN telecast will be in high definition on ESPN HD," Pollack announced. ESPN will document play with 40 cameras, up from 26 last year, and its telecasts will include four additional hours coverage of the $10 000 buy-in Main Event and four additional hours of the $50 000 buy-in HORSE championship. ESPN's coverage of the 2007 WSOP will begin July 10 and continue for two hours each Tuesday night.

This time around, poker fans will be able to watch tape-delayed hole-card coverage of final-table play for 10 other bracelet events and get real-time chip-count and results updates for all events on www.worldseriesofpoker.com, thanks to a new digital publishing alliance with Bluff Media, which will also provide radio coverage of WSOP events every day on Sirius Satellite Radio, as well as on selected terrestrial radio outlets.

Players will start with tournament chips equal to twice the buy-in for each event, and blind levels will increase at a pace designed to make for maximum entertainment and excitement.  When and if competitors do make the money bubble, most will receive a higher percentage of the prize pools this year due to changes designed that make the payout structures more positive for the greatest number of players.

Charity arrangements this year include a VIP Lounge for players who make a tax-deductible $1 000 contribution to the Nevada Cancer Institute, the Official Community Relations partner of the WSOP. Benefits for lounge members include food, beverages, entertainment options and special parking privileges. WSOP will also host a truly star-studded "Ante Up for Africa" tournament on July 5. Hollywood celebrities and top poker professionals will play, raising public awareness and financial help for victims of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

"Our promise each year is to do better than we did the year before," says Pollack. "This will be the best World Series of Poker ever, and I'm confident that our players, fans, and sponsors will experience a new level of outstanding customer service."

Fears that new registration rules may diminish interest in the WSOP were to some measure allayed by initial signups for the first events, which started on June 1. Long lines of impatient players waited to register before the official list of entrants for the $5 000 Mixed Game event was set at 452.  With the half-'n-half event (which is split between limit and no-limit Hold'em) the railbirds in the Amazon Room at the Rio were provided with entertaining and even educational poker.

There was some argument over the acceptability of new and much hyped "Poker Peek" playing cards which clearly were not popular, and were withdrawn to be replaced by conventional KEM cards after a few hours of play.

The high-priced buy-in for the event seemed to appeal to many of poker's aces. Gus 'The Great Dane' Hansen and Phil Hellmuth were two big names in a field that included former World Champions Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Andy Black, Phil Ivey and T. J. Cloutier, among others.

But many professionals fell by the wayside as time and the competition advanced. Chris Ferguson was eliminated early, and he was followed later on by Phil Ivey, David 'DevilFish' Ulliott, Freddy Deeb and Nam Le, leaving the top ten survivors headed by Greg Mueller with chip counts ranging from 87 500 up to 130 000. But many top players remain in contention outside the ten top dogs, and anything could, and likely will, happen before the end of play Sunday.