Hugo's Blogspotting: 8 May

Negreanu Likes Delay

As you already know, there has been a lot of brouhaha about the delayed WSOP Final Table. It seems like most pros and players are up in arms about it. What we really need is some sort of players advisory committee for the WSOP. Oh wait, we already have one; Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, is Annie Duke on it too? I have no idea. As far as I can see the only thing these guys did was come up with the $50k H.O.R.S.E tournament.

Anyway, to be fair, Daniel Negreanu has put his point of view forward about the Delay (as it will now be called).

“We need to take a step back to the Becky Behnen era circa 2004 and realize that the WSOP was almost a thing of the past. The tradition, the history, all of it could have disappeared if Harrah's didn't buy the Horseshoe along with the rights to the WSOP.”

Really?? The WSOP would have died without Harrahs stepping in and buying the ailing Horseshoe? I don’t think so. As we all know the WSOP brand is the very reason that Harrahs bought the Horseshoe in the first place which shows you how valuable the WSOP was and is. There was no way the WSOP was going to die. At least that’s what I think.

One could argue that the tradition and history of the WSOP has died since Harrahs took it on. That’s all by the by really and personally I think if Harrahs hadn’t bought the WSOP some other corporation would have got in there and done their own “damage” to it.

I admit it’s easy to be cynical about the whole WSOP/Harrahs/ESPN zoo, but I just can’t help it. Is it too easy to think that Negreanu’s best interests are in keeping Harrahs and ESPN sweet? That really would be cynical. Daniel does have sort of a point when he writes,

“As a poker community we need to wake up a bit and realize the situation we are in, specifically in the U.S. Attendance is down in most tournaments, ratings for the premiere poker shows has also dipped. Poker is no longer seen as this "gold mine stock" amongst the mainstream public. There has been a lull in mainstream interest (a lot of that can definitely be credited to the UIGEA to some degree).”

Although I do think that blaming the UIGEA for the public’s waning interest in poker on TV is grasping at straws. Poker on TV was fresh and exciting once upon a time, but in these fast times that we live in today, novelties become stale quickly. In fact, I think you could blame the WPT and their all-in-fest final tables for the lack of interest in poker on TV these days.

A New Way To Deal With Nerves

Andy Ward is one player who is not happy about the Delay. In his latest blog he writes about making the final of the Party Poker World Open (congrats and commiserations for coming 4th btw). You may recall last week he wrote about the nerves he felt playing under the cameras, so maybe nerves were going to play an even bigger role for Andy in the semi-final?

Well, here’s one good thing about the Delay. The announcement was made on the day of filming and Andy was so angry about it that he forgot about his upcoming semi-final, thus no pre-match shakes..

“… …I was so distracted by the WSOP announcement on Thursday morning that it actually helped me to switch off thinking about the semi. God alone knows the stress people will be under waiting for 4 months to play for a share of $20 million plus.”

That’s a good point – everybody is going on about how players can get coaching and improve ten-fold, but I think Andy’s observation is very pertinent. Players will go from being in the moment to coming in cold with a load of lessons from various pros, all desperate to get some sort of percentage for their “coaching”. Now, under the glare of the lights our plucky finalists, whom we have gotten to know thanks to ESPN’s saturation coverage of the WSOP, will suddenly forget all the tips from the pros and instead just play super-weak-tight, tense and nervous poker.

Apart from the fact that they will all have agreed to a chop and now they all just go all-in on the first hand.

12 Million Phils

One player who is sure to love the Delay must be Phil Hellmuth. Imagine if he makes the final table. The whole world will know who he is by the time it gets played. Anyway he has had some exciting (for him at least) WSOP news this week.

“As I walked the "Miller Brewing Company" factory line yesterday (Tuesday) in Milwaukee, a can of "Milwaukee's Best Light" was pulled off of the line and handed to me. It had my picture on it, and my line "If it weren't for luck I'd win 'em all!"

In case you don’t know, Milwaukee’s Best is one of the official WSOP sponsors. Hellmuth has his saviours and detractors when it comes to poker, but you have to admit, this geezer is world-class when it comes to branding himself.

As you can imagine Hellmuth is pretty pleased with himself on his latest achievement, if you can call getting your mug on a beer can an achievement.

“I suddenly felt overwhelmed and amazing inside. Seeing the can was like winning a bracelet! The feeling I had was really happy and powerful, and I guess that I'll have to watch my ego, if it was big before…Now it may blow up! 12 million cans like this one will hit stores all over America in the next week or two.”

Like winning a bracelet!! Surely there can be no higher accolade than that in Hellmuth’s world? And to think there will be 12 million beer cans with his boat race distributed all over the United States. It's enough to put you off drinking. Joe Public is not gonna know what has hit them. I guess the cans will come in very handy as shooting practice for those Americans who like messing about with guns.

ZeeJustin Ecstatic

Sometimes this column features Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo’s blog. His entries are usually well written with a good mixture of poker analysis and stories from the tournament circuit. For instance this entry about Men “The Master” Nguyen. This week he announced the happy news (for ZeeJustin at least) that he is now sponsored by Bodog.

Well, congrats ZeeJustin. But I have to ask, did he really write his latest update?

“I am ecstatic to say that I am the newest Team Bodog member!

I love the team. I think it’s safe to say that Bodog has by far the coolest team out there.

It’s also a very select team with only four pros, all of whom fit perfectly with the Bodog image: David Williams, Evelyn Ng, Jean Robert Bellande, and Myself!!!

This has been a dream of mine for years, so I couldn’t be happier right now.”

I mean really? This is the same blog I have been reading for the last few months? I’m sure ZeeJustin is good friends with David, Evelyn and Jean Robert, but are they really the “coolest team out there”? Has ZeeJustin really dreamt for years of being on the Bodog team? Is it possible that Bodog got some teenage intern to write ZeeJustin’s latest blog entry as now that he is a sponsored player he has his hands full?

Dave Hellmuth

Finally, you may remember last week’s blog entry from The Waster which looked like he held a grudge against Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot. Well it appears that The Waster got to snooker legend Dennis Taylor and told him the Devil’s last name is actually Hellmuth!

Hugo 'Chimney Sweep' Martin

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