So yeah, the WSOP starts on Monday. Anyone care? Anyone playing?
Seems like each year, the SD thread on the Series gets less and less attention.
I’ll be keeping decent tabs on a long distance friend of mine who finished in the money in a lot of events last year. He says he’s been playing too long not to have a bracelet and will be fixing that this year.
At this point, the only thing they air that I care about is the ME.
Also, what the hell is “triple draw lowball”? And an interesting event should be #52, six-handed 10-game(!) mix. How many people even know how to play that many variants of poker? And then there is #55, $1,000,000 Big One For One Drop, whatever the hell that means.
The last one is a $1M buy-in for charity. (One Drop deals with clean water in the 3rd World)
Triple Draw Low-Ball is a really fun game, actually. It’s five card draw, except you get three draws rather than one, and you’re playing to get the worst possible hand instead of the best. I’ve played it online and even a little in home games. Daniel Negreanu wrote a chapter on it in for Doyle Brunson’s Super System II.
I’ll be watching a lot of the final tables online, where unfortunately they won’t be broadcast with hole cards. I really wish they’d showcase more than just the Main Event. A few years back (2009?), they broadcast a whole lot of other games and it was fantastic to see something other than Hold Em.
drill-Triple Lowball sounds like draw Razz.
There are a few differences. Unlike in Razz, flushes and straights count against you in 2-7 Lowball. Also unlike Razz, aces are high. The best hand therefore is 7-5-4-3-2, unlike the ‘wheel’ 5-4-3-2-A that you want in Razz.
Looks like they have 2 variants of 2-7 lowball at the WSOP this year: a triple draw limit version and no-limit with presumably only 1 draw. Interestingly, I can’t seem to find a triple draw 10K event, but there is one for the NL version.
The 10-event game looks interesting too. It’s a 6-max, with badugi included. First time I’ve seen badugi on a WSOP schedule.
Edit: there’s an ante-only Hold 'Em event. The structure sheet says that, “Players will act in turn having the option to check, or bet the minimum bring in up to and including all-in.” What’s the bring-in? (The sheet doesn’t say.) Is it the ante? Just seems strange playing Hold 'Em with no blinds.
Where do you watch the final tables? I’ve been stuck reading my updates at Poker News. 
Correction: At this point, all ESPN cares about is Texas Holdem.
They broadcast the the Final Table on a 30 minute delay last year. You were able to watch a little more on ESPN3.com. Commentary on ESPN3 was actually very good. Card were concealed until the hand was over and they had guest commentary from people like Antonio Esfandiari who was able to give some pretty deep insight. It worked extremely well considering the only people tuning into a live streaming of 'Fold, fold, fold, fold, raise, fold fold" poker are going to be serious poker nerds anyway.
At the SDMB Poker game last night we were discussing the WSoP fantasy draft.
10 ‘experts’ (Daniel Negreanu, Chad Holloway, Eric Baldwin, WickChops, Dwite Pilgrim, Josh Brikis, Gary Wise, Bernard Lee) picked 8 players apiece.
Here is summary of the draft:
Pick Format is Round.Pick.Overall—(5.7.47 = Round 5 7th pick in Round 5 and 47th overall pick)
Pick Team Player
1.1.1 … LB … Daniel Negreanu
1.2.2 … JB … Phil Ivey
1.3.3 … CH … Jason Mercier
1.4.4 … EB … Steve Billirakis
1.5.5 … GW … Barry Greenstein
1.6.6 … DN … Eugene Katchalov
1.7.7 … DP … Michael Mizrachi
1.8.8 … WC … Shawn Buchanan
1.9.9 … DF … Erik Seidel
1.10.10 … BL … John Juanda
2.1.11 … BL … Marvin Rettenmaier
2.2.12 … DF … Phil Hellmuth
2.3.13 … WC … Justin Bonomo
2.4.14 … DP … Bertrand Grospellier
2.5.15 … DN … Scott Seiver
2.6.16 … GW … Tom Dwan
2.7.17 … EB … Victor Ramdin
2.8.18 … CH … Daniel Alaei
2.9.19 … JB … Scott Clements
2.10.20 … LB … Dan Kelly
3.1.21 … LB … Justin Smith
3.2.22 … JB … John Racener
3.3.23 … CH … Matt Glantz
3.4.24 … EB … Robert Mizrachi
3.5.25 … GW … Vivek Rajkumar
3.6.26 … DN … Alexander Kostritsyn
3.7.27 … DP … Shaun Deeb
3.8.28 … WC … Isaac Haxton
3.9.29 … DF … Ben Lamb
3.10.30 … BL … Jake Cody
4.1.31 … BL … Phil Galfond
4.2.32 … DF … Nick Schulman
4.3.33 … WC … David Sands
4.4.34 … DP … Sam Trickett
4.5.35 … DN … Sorel Mizzi
4.6.36 … GW … Chris Moorman
4.7.37 … EB … David Chiu
4.8.38 … CH … Jeffrey Lisandro
4.9.39 … JB … Jason Somerville
4.10.40 … LB … David "Bakes" Baker
Pick Team Player
5.1.41 … LB … Steve O'Dwyer
5.2.42 … JB … Matt Hawrilenko
5.3.43 … CH … Steve Gross
5.4.44 … EB … John Monnette
5.5.45 … GW … Jonathan Duhamel
5.6.46 … DN … Michael Binger
5.7.47 … DP … George Lind
5.8.48 … WC … Brian Rast
5.9.49 … DF … David "The Original" Baker
5.10.50 … BL … Sam Stein
6.1.51 … BL … Tom Marchese
6.2.52 … DF … Viktor Blom
6.3.53 … WC … J.P. Kelly
6.4.54 … DP … Fabrice Soulier
6.5.55 … DN … Marco Johnson
6.6.56 … GW … Vitaly Lunkin
6.7.57 … EB … Alexander Kravchenko
6.8.58 … CH … Yevgeniy Timoshenko
6.9.59 … JB … Allen Bari
6.10.60 … LB … Christian Harder
7.1.61 … LB … David Williams
7.2.62 … JB … Jon Turner
7.3.63 … CH … David Bach
7.4.64 … EB … Frank Kassela
7.5.65 … GW … Vanessa Selbst
7.6.66 … DN … Bryn Kenney
7.7.67 … DP … Allen Kessler
7.8.68 … WC … Erick Lindgren
7.9.69 … DF … Chris Bjorin
7.10.70 … BL … Eric Baldwin
8.1.71 … BL … Allen Cunningham
8.2.72 … DF … Carlos Mortensen
8.3.73 … WC … James Dempsey
8.4.74 … DP … Dwyte Pilgrim
8.5.75 … DN … Brian Hastings
8.6.76 … GW … Eric Froehlich
8.7.77 … EB … Justin Young
8.8.78 … CH … Josh Arieh
8.9.79 … JB … Josh Brikis
8.10.80 … LB … Dan Smith
Hope it pastes ok.
Scoring
DF should have been AF (Andrew Feldman) the guy who wrote the article for ESPN.
I am surprised that Barry Greenstein went so high. I wouldn’t expect him to play many events.
And surprised that Phil Hellmuth didn’t go in the first round, since he eats, lives and breathes for the WSoP.
And I am glad that Phil Ivey is playing this year.
Just the main event final table? There are 50+ others too.
I’ll be visiting Vegas for about half of the time the WSOP is on, so I’ll hang out at the Rio some afternoons. 
(My poker skills are only suited to low-level games at the Luxor!)
All final tables will be available online at the WSOP website here.
No hole cards and I’m not even sure who will be commentating, so it’s really for the hardcore poker fans.
Saw a tweet from Doyle Brunson and he said he is only playing about 5 events this year. Age is catching to him.
OK, reading some of the live updates.
Event 1 is down to final 10. (Casino employees)
Event two has started. $1500 No Limit Hold’m
Kid Poker and Kathy Liebert were at the same table, dealer dealt one hand, apparently screwed it up and was pulled from the table. Not sure what the specifics were.
Now that our (US) government has made it practically impossible to play online poker, I am sure the interest in TV poker broadcasts will drop to the miniscule levels that it was at in the 80s-90s.
Poker got a lot more view-able after the introduction of hole-cameras.
Viewership may regress a little bit, but it won’t go to 1980 levels. I think ESPN is doing as much coverage this year as it did last year.
That was the best coverage and commentary I had ever seen last year. It gave you a realistic (obviously) view of high-end poker playing, and I learned ALOT from the play and commentary of each hand…even on the folds. Will look forward to that this year as well.
Part of my wants Antonio to make a deep run, because I like him. But OTOH, I want him to bust early, so we can enjoy his commentary.