• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Sports
    • Chicago Bears
    • Chicago Cubs
    • Chicago White Sox
  • Home Improvement USA Radio
  • Entertainment
    • Booth Reviews – About Us
    • Booth Reviews – Our Ratings
  • About Us
  • Business Services

SRN Broadcasting

Sports, Talk Radio, and more

World Series of Poker Finale Tonight

November 11, 2014 by Steve Leventhal

(L to R) Felix Stephensen, Jooryt van Hoof, and Martin Jacobson compete for the WSOP Main Event Championship. (Photo- Jayne Newman for PokerNews.com)

When you think of marquee sporting events, the Super Bowl, the Masters, the Kentucky Derby all come to mind.

How about the World Series?  Not the baseball game, but the richest and most prestigious poker event on the planet. The World Series of Poker, held at the Rio in Las Vegas.

This fall classic actually got underway in July, when 6683 hopefuls began a grueling seven day event, competing for nearly 63 million dollars in prize money.

That’s right $62,825,725, with a cool ten million to the winner.

The total prize pool in 2014 for Wimbledon was £25 million, which is $40 million. That dwarfs the Masters’ total prize pool of $9,000,000.

The poker players each put up $10,000 to compete in the “Main Event” where they receive 30,000 in poker chips to start play.

The Main Event is actually the culmination of sixty-five poker tournaments with buy-ins ranging from as little as $500 to the one million dollar buy-in for the “Big One for One Drop,” which raises money for the charitable arm of the WSOP.

There are tournaments contested in other varieties of poker such as Low Ball, Stud, Omaha, and mixed games, not just the popular game of No Limit Hold ’em. There are also events for Ladies, Seniors (age 50 and above,) and even casino employees.

However, the Main Event is truly the marquee poker tournament of the year. The beauty of the event is that unlike the Masters or Wimbledon, anyone with ten grand can play.

So, most of us could never stand across the net from Rafael Nadal or tee it up with Rory McIlroy, and stand a chance, but if you have the cash, some skill, and a little luck, you can sit down at the poker table with professional players, actors, athletes, and rich businessmen and compete for the big prize.

Some claim that poker isn’t a sport.

In addition to luck, it takes stamina, mental discipline, practice, and experience to do well in poker tournaments, which can last for hours and hours, or days and days in the case of the WSOP Main Event.

These days people compete for money in Scrabble, Chess, Foosball, and even video games.

ESPN televises the Main Event.  Their coverage began in late September with the first seven days of the tournament show airing on a weekly basis, with it’s conclusion in time for last night’s final table, featuring the “November Nine.” The last nine standing were guaranteed a minimum of $700,000.

The best part of the Monday’s final table and the conclusion tonight is that the action is shown live, plus a thirty minute delay.  This means seeing every hand in play.  When watching the edited coverage, the viewer gets to see only the action hands.  That gives a false impression of how the game really plays out.  In most hands, the action doesn’t proceed to a flop (seeing the first three community cards) or even a showdown (all the cards on the table.) It is a much better sense of how the game play proceeds. Most often one player makes a large bet, resulting in the others a the table folding their hands if they hadn’t already.  It doesn’t make for great TV, but it is the way the action really proceeds.

That’s why I really enjoy the “live” coverage.  That, plus the analysis by top pros such as Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Hellmuth, and Daniel Negreanu.  This is where the real value lies.  Not only that, but any cards in play get show on television.  If anyone wanted to learn how the game is played at the highest levels, it’s a joy to behold.

Of the thousands of entrants this year, two remarkable feats occurred.  One player, Ronnie Bardah cashed in the Main Event for the fifth year in a row.  That is fantastic, considering that only ten percent of the field makes the money.  Even more amazing is what Mark Newsome did.  He defied odds calculated by ESPN as more the half a million to one, to make two consecutive final tables.

On Monday night the nine played down to just three, and the action concludes on ESPN at 9 ET.

 Full story on PokerNews.com

 

Filed Under: Entertainment, Poker, Sports, Television Tagged With: No Limit Hold 'Em, November Nine, Rio Las Vegas, World Series of Poker, WSOP

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Recent Posts

  • 2020 Chicago Bears season ends with playoff loss in New Orleans
  • Debate: The case for and against keeping Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky
  • Chicago Bears lose to Packers, Still Make 2020 NFL playoffs
  • Chicago Bears player profile – Cairo Santos
  • 2020 Chicago Bears control destiny after 41-17 win at Jacksonville

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011

Categories

  • 3D RadioActivity
  • Baseball
  • Bears- Packers Showdown
  • Blues
  • Book Reviews
  • Boxing
  • British Invasion
  • Business & Finance
  • Chicago Bears
  • Chicago White Sox
  • Classic Rock
  • College Basketball
  • College Football
  • Columns
  • Commentary
  • Dorf on Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Everything Else
  • Featured Favorites
  • Featured Interview
  • Featured Sports
  • Film Soundtrack
  • Golf
  • Home Improvement
  • Home Improvement USA
  • Motown
  • Music
  • NBA
  • New Wave
  • NFL
  • NHL
  • Oldies
  • Olympics
  • Poker
  • Politics
  • Popular
  • Programs
  • Progressive rock
  • R'n'B/Soul
  • Radio
  • Rock 'n' Roll
  • Soccer
  • Special Feature Story
  • Sports
  • Sports Archives
  • Sports History
  • Television
  • Tennis
  • Travel & Leisure
  • Uncategorized
  • Weekend Sports Report
  • Women's Sports
  • World
  • World Music

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Footer

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Information
  • Our Core Values
  • Privacy
  • Business Services
  • Email Sign Ups
  • Paid Content Guidelines

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in