I just got done watching the final table of the 50k HORSE event on ESPN and I must say I thought it was amazing! When I heard that the final table was going to be No Limit Hold’em for TV, I was not happy at all. I thought a HORSE tourney should be all HORSE. I guess I still feel that way; but man, it sure was a show with No Limit Hold’em.

First of all, this table was stacked. As predicted by many, everyone seated at the final table was a poker pro. I believe they said there were 27 bracelets at that final table. Some of those pros are legends of the game. Brunson, Reese, Cloutier, Tomko, the young legend of Phil Ivey and an old face resurfaced in Jim Bechtel.

The play at the table was great. I wish every televised table was as strong as this one. The players at the table that I didn’t mention belonged there too. I have talked to David Singer several times and like him a lot. If you don’t know anything about him, he is known to be a stud guy. Not a bad game to be known for in a tournament that is over 50% stud games. I asked him if he thought changing the game to No Limit Hold’em hurt his chances of winning. To my surprise, he said he liked his chances better with the final table the way it was. This shocked me considering the talent at that table. I guess that shows the confidence he has in his game.

Andy Bloch was a shocker to me when he finished so high. I knew of him but didn’t put him in the top tier of poker players. 5 kind of have to now I think. There is no shame in second place in that tournament. Bloch has been doing well online in HORSE tournaments as well. As I write this he is winning one with 27 players left.

This was a very long match. Heads-up play lasted seven hours. I don’t know about you, but around two hours I think i would say enough of this and go crazy. That shows the patience of these players. They announced it was the longest heads-up match in WSOP history, but Andy Bloch said online tonight that he thinks there was one longer.

I am not going to go into hand details. There were too many hands to talk about and I simply don’t remember all of them. I will just say that if you didn’t see it, I suggest you see it when it is on TV again.

I

I’m here in the dark of the WPT’s makeshift studio in the Fallsview Casino. There are three players left and I’m ready to call it a day and go relax tonight before heading home tomorrow.

This job is all I’d hoped it would be, including absolutely exhausting. Each time I come here, I meet people then watch them become millionaires. It’s a gratifying experience and I think it will be for some time to come.

Thanks to everyone who followed our coverage. the WPT’s website set traffic records twice this week, and I’d like to think the work Ryan Lucchesi and I put in was partially responsible for that. The relationship with WPT has been better than I could have expected, and I’m glad the marriage has been a successful one.

Hope everyone’s enjoyed the coverage. As long as you do, there will be a purpose to our work and therefore to our continuing to be hired. Thanks everyone; tomorrow I’ll be writing this hung over from home.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

Day 1A, I worked from noon until 2AM. Day 1B I did the same, then headed back to my room and worked a little more. Day 2 was more of the same: noon to 2:30 AM, then two more articles. Now, having worked since noon today, my brain is fried, my fingers worked to the nub.

I love working the WPT, but damn am I tired. I feel like I’m seeing dead people. Still, we only have 17 left, so I’ll keep fighting this fight. I don’t have a choce: I have to do at least 7 pieces after we get to six.

I’m going to cut this short. We’re about the start back up. Hope everyone’s been enjoying the coverage. There’s plenty more where it came from

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

Hey guys,

Things are moving way fast here in Niagara at Fallsview. With day one split into two halves, the coverage team has to get an extra day

If you haven’t noticed, I have been writing some short bios on some players for the site recently. If you normally don’t check the bio section out, please do. If you guys have a player you would like to see in that section that isn’t there, please send me an e-mail and I will try my best to write one. You can reach me at ryanschmelzer@hotmail.com. Your ideas are always welcome and remember to keep checking out the site!

My eyes are barely propped open as I type this. Up until 7AM this morning, I got four hours of sleep before waking up to prepare for the two-hour trek to Niagara. After a delay in starting on the road and a resulting duel with rush-hour traffic, I

I must say I am not happy with ESPN. I really wish they would have shown Phil Hellmuth win his 10th bracelet. Yeah, they showed a clip, but I want to see more. It was poker history and all we got was a short clip. Also, we did not get to see Jeff Madsen at a table either. I can understand not taping him at first because no one knew who he was till he won. However, he did have four final tables this year at the WSOP. At one point, they could have thought about getting his table on TV. Sadly, we won’t see the Player of the Year, Jeff Madsen, or the runner-up, Phil Hellmuth.

I know that ESPN picks what events they will show on TV beforehand. I think they need to change that. That being said, there will still a lot of pros in the tournaments they have shown and they have been entertaining. I am not knocking them completely. I am just disappointed with the lack of TV time for those two players.

I’ve just started reading ‘Killer Poker Online 2’,written by the one and only John Vorhaus. John is part poker player, part writer, part zen and all human being, a truly quality man of depth in an industry that at times finds itself in the shallow end.

Despite the friendship John and I cultivated at the World Series this year, I’d never read his non-blog work until now. The thing about KPO2 is that it doesn’t read like a poker book. The man has a real gift for bringing his enthusiasm for the game to the page.

A big problem I’ve had with poker texts over the years is the sleep factor, namely that anything beyond three pages and I’m there. To this day I recommend David Sklansky’s Theory of Poker to anyone who wants to get better at this game, but as David admitted early in his work, he’s a mathematician, not a writer, and in a game where the math is so prevalent, a lot of texts read more like homework than anything else. For us less-patient types, walking through the mud can be a difficult experience.

John and I spoke today about the Internet legislation, and he informed me with no uncertainty that the rumored purchase of Absolute Poker by Ultimate Bet I mentioned in the Bellagio coverage this week was actually the other way around. “Ultimate Bet will continue to serve Americans.” I take John’s word as bond on this.

If you’re like me and the standard poker book fair can be tough on the synapses, I recommend you pick this book up. If nothing else, it’s another addition to your poker knowledge. If something else, it’s a look into the mind of one of the wisest men in the game.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com

Hey guys,

I’m home for the night, shaking off some road rust. I’m not going to have much time to do it though; I’m back on the road Tuesday, heading down to Niagara Falls, where WPT Fallsview will be going down starting noon on Wednesday.

Shaking off the rust means a little online poker, a little World Series action, catching up on Lost, Survivor and Studio 60, phoning neglected friends and family, laundry and a lot of writing. The mad rush never ends.

I’m on a pretty sick run poker-wise right now. After a strong week at the tables between days of writing, I came home and won $2200 over two hours at a $500 max buy-in NL table over on Paradise. The cards hit me in the face for the first hour, but once they did I thought I played pretty well. I could still get a lot better though.

One of the real perks of the WPT job is getting to watch the best play up close. I can feel my comprehension of NL poker increasing, a pretty big deal since in my professional/grinding days I was strictly a limit player. I can take some credit for that comprehension, but only in that my work over the last 18 months or so has put me in a position to access the finest poker minds on the planet.

To that end, if you’ve never been to a major tournament live, get yourself to one. TV doesn’t do a service to the way these guys play, since we only get the highlights, and watching them do what they do, if done without ego, is bound to rub off. Back in my Magic days, I was a big believer in seeking out those better than you and having them kick your ass. You learn a lot more from losing than winning; its pretty good that the live tournaments offer you the opportunity to learn from someone else’s losses.

Of course, that’s not the only benefit. You get to see the stars up close, the guys who keep you flipping back to the television for more. The side action is tremendous; non-stop and not exactly the toughest of the tough. Throw in beautiful venues, good food and the party atmosphere and you have one hell of a good time.

I hope I’ll get to see some of you in Niagara, or failing that, next week at Foxwoods. If you’re reading this and going there, you’d better come over and say hi. I’m making some good reads of late and I’ll know if you haven’t, giving me the only excuse I need to kick your ass. Don’t give me an excuse.

Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com