Stacked
2008-06-12 15:22:26
By: Gene Bromberg
It's a numbers game--your typical World Series tournament attracts a massive number of players. If you show up at noon and walk into the Amazon Room just as they open the doors you'll see a fair acre of empty poker tables stretching in every direction. It's an impressive sight, maybe even a little bit intimidating. That's a lot of people to wade through if you want to win the bracelet.
Walking around the hallways outside the Amazon Room can be even more intimidating, when you actually see some of the players standing in your way. You'll walk past some of the most recognizable faces in the game, along with players you've maybe read about in magazines or seen once or twice on TV. And then there are scores of young online hotshots, who might be luckboxes who qualified in a $10 satellite or, perhaps, are tournament superstars who are among the best players in the world.
So when you take your seat you look over your table and hope you see lots of faces like your own--unfamiliar, and showing signs of nerves. There are lots of open seats, but there are lots of famous players, and it stands to reason that by the time play begins you're going to have at least one top-notch player at your table--or an empty seat waiting to be filled by a top-notch player who prefers to show up late, make a big impression, and then dominate the table.
Just as the cards can be unlucky, so can your table draw. It was perhaps unlucky that Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy and Eric "Rizen" Lynch, the two newest additions to UltimateBet's Star Player team, were seated side-by-side during yesterday's $5,000 No-Limit Hold-Em event. Then again, at least they had someone to chat with:
Rizen is still in the $5K event; he starts today with 38,100 in chips and a starting table that includes Huck Seed and Jon "apestyles" Van Fleet. After Bax was knocked out of the $5,000 Hold-Em he moved on to the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E event, where he made it to Day 2 and sits with 17,800. Annie Duke is still alive in that event as well, and we'll keep you updated on their progress as the day moves on.
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