Shuffle Up and Deal
FINALLY, the World Series of Poker, HAS COME BACK to ESPN. It’s been too long since there’s been fresh poker on ESPN, and I’m tired of watching the same old reruns of the main event from 2003 with Moneymaker giving horrible beats to Humberto Brenes and Phil Ivey. Phil Ivey played you like a fiddle in the pot, and your gay ass caught a miracle card on the river.

Anyway, we move onto the 2004 series, and this year we’re broadcasting multiple events – not just the main event. We tee off with event #2, $2,000 No-Limit Hold Em, and we’ve got 834 entrants, the second most ever for a series event.

First hand shown is an absolute shitter for Brian Haveson (my favorite player at the table). Haveson is dealt pocket Kings while James Vogl has pocket Aces. Before any of you try to critique how this was played by Haveson…stop. There is no way to get away from this hand. No one is folding Kings before the flop – and the flop came 10-high rainbow so the money was getting all in either way. It’s just a horrible setup for Haveson – and a tough way for the man coming in second in chips to exit first from the table.

Blah Blah Blah, we get down to Sean Rice and James Vogal heads up with Rice having about a 3-2 lead in chips. I have everything I own riding on Rice taking down this title (eventhough I knew before it aired that Vogl was the winner). Rice is by far the better player of the two. Vogl got a gift in the AA vs. KK with Haveson, and AK suited against QQ just a little later to give him all of his stack. After that he made horrible moves and calls against Chiu and Rice to give away his huge lead. If these two play heads up 10 times Rice takes it down 8 or 9 – but knowing that Vogl was the winner I just waited to see the hand over hand situation arise, cause that was the only way Vogl was gonna take the lead.

Sure enough Rice catches 4’s, which is a very good hand heads up – except when up against 7’s. As you would expect the money gets all in with Rice reraising all-in (not calling, that’s very important). Once he sees the 7’s he knows he’s a 4-1 dog to win the pot and suddenly at a HUGE disadvantage in chips. Next hand he catches KQ against AQ and has NO WAY to get away from this hand when he’s that far down in chips.

Game Over, James Vogal wins the first bracelet in an open event at the Series – and $400,000 dollars to go with it.

Next up we get event #3, $1,500 entry 7-Card Stud

This time we actually have a very good table to watch, unlike the first event which featured only Haveson for one hand and David Chiu for most of the time.

At this final table we’re got Men and Minh Nguyen, Ted Forrest and Chad Brown.

As expected Stud doesn’t play well on TV, and I’m willing to bet that they will get bad ratings on the Stud events they show. There’s too much going on for the basic player to follow, and the cameras cant follow all the hands that are out on the table at once. It’s much easier to televise hold ‘em because you can have the graphics of each person’s hand and then just have the camera focused on the community board in the middle. With Stud there is too much going on for the average joe to comfortably watch.

As you would expect the final three at the table was Men Nguyen, Ted Forrest and Chad Brown. Men was pretty drunk by the time he got knocked out, and simply didn’t have the chips to compete with Brown or Forrest. Men seemed to have it out for Brown for some reason, and Chad did very well to not sink to the shit talking that Men was doing and simply let the cards do the talking.

The heads up battle would have been fantastic to watch, but do to the televising of a final table of nine people in just 60 minutes, minus commercials, we only got two or three hands of Brown vs. Forrest. The final hand was Ted betting an open-ended straight draw the entire way, with Chad calling all the way down with Jacks. Forrest caught the Ace to complete his wheel on the River and Chad missed a flush draw that would have taken the pot. Tough break for Chad, but Ted was open-ended after the first four cards so odds were he was going to catch the six or Ace in one of his three cards. Both players played great and Ted wins his fourth bracelet along with $111,000.

If the shows follow the event order as they were played next week should be Limit Hold Em, with a fairly week table. Only Ceceilia Mortensen and Miami John Cernuto will be at the table. But it will be hold em, so the littles will understand and tune in…