SpecialGuest

2009 WSOP Special Guest Blog: Raymer, Early Success, Preparing for the Deuce-to-Seven World Championship

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:54:13 GMT

(Editor’s Note: This special guest blog features 2004 WSPO Main Event champion and Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer. Always one of the most eloquent speakers in the game, Raymer agreed to share his thoughts on his early success in the 2009 WSOP while he waited for the June 10th start of action in Event #23, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven World Championship.)

This is the PokerNews blog by Greg “FossilMan” Raymer. It’s quarter to five (p.m.) on June 10th and I'm sitting at Table 249 in the Brasilia Room, waiting for action to commence in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw tournament. This is a very esoteric event, not a game that many poker players play!

This is a classical five-card draw game like you see in the old Western films, except instead of trying to make the best hand, you’re trying to make the worst hand. Thus it’s called “deuce to seven”, because the worst possible hand is a 7-high, with 5-4-3-2 kickers… or a deuce to a seven in your hand.

As an update to the World Series of Poker so far, things started out with a bang for me. The first tournament was the $40,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em “40th Anniversary” special championship event. There were 201 of us who entered this tournament, generating a prize pool of almost eight million dollars, and fortunately things went well for me throughout the four days of the event. I made the final table and finished in third place, cashing out for about three quarters of a million dollars. That’s always a nice way to start the World Series of Poker. Many of us had talked about the fact that here in this tournament, where 27 of us were getting paid, somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-200 players were going to start the World Series of Poker $40,000 in the hole. So I was very pleased that instead of starting in the hole, I won enough money to make my year. That will cover all buy-ins for all tournaments for all of 2009 and leave me in profit, which is where you always want to finish your year.

Between now and then, I have played in many other events, but have no other cashes. Nothing else has really worked out well, but that’s to be expected in tournament poker. Only about 10% of the field gets paid, and therefore, you shouldn’t expect to make the money much more often than one time in ten. Hopefully I will get my second chance (and my second final table) with this event, the $10,000 deuce-to-seven championship.

If I do well, please come along for the ride and follow the updates on PokerNews.com. Also check out PokerStars.com. Thanks a lot, this has been Greg “FossilMan” Raymer, coming to you from the Brasilia Room at the 2009 World Series of Poker.

(Note: Greg did survive Day 1 action in the Deuce-to-Seven championship, finishing the night with a modest but still playable 31,500 in chips. Follow the latest reports on this event – which contains dozens of the game’s biggest names, which resumes – table space permitting – in the Amazon Room at 2 p.m. on Thursday.)

Greg Raymer during Day 1 of Event #23

The Power Game

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:03:29 GMT

Today's Special Guest is Dianna Donofrio-Tragatzi, the Nevada state representative for the Poker Players Alliance.

The Power Game.

Poker is a universal game of sport that has been played by Presidents and world leaders for decades. Online poker is fighting for to protect our rights as citizens to play poker in the privecy of our own homes. The Poker Players Alliance is leading these efforts. However, in Washinton, DC it is a power game. Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and ex-Washington bureau chief of The New York Times best decribes how the game is played in his 1989 book, The Power Game. "Politics in Washinton is a continuous contest, a constant scramble for points, for power and influence. Congress is the principal policy arena of battle, round by round, vote by vote. In all of this, power is the mysterious quotient. Power is the ability to make something happen or to keep is from happening. It can spring from tatical ingenuity and jugular timing, or simply from knowing more than anyone else at the critical moment of decision, stated Smith.

The efforts of the Poker Players Alliance, knows how the 'power game' is played! Their efforts continue to fight for our rights to play online poker in the privacy of our homes and get the UIGEA bill reversed! Your continued support this great organization is needed to make your voice heard.

Today's Special Guest: WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:21:30 GMT

To PokerNews readers: PokerNews is proud to present a "Special Guest" blog appearing throughout the 2009 World Series of Poker and featuring a broad spectrum of poker players and dignitaries. This blog kicks off with a welcoming message from the WSOP's Communications Director, Seth Palansky:

What a start to the 2009 World Series of Poker! It truly is a spectacle to see the Amazon Room at the Rio go from empty to packed with nearly 2,000 players. And when I say empty, it really is just a gigantic
ballroom. But then they hang trusses, banners, lights, bring in the tables, surveillance for all tables, etc. And then you add 2,000 poker players and all the tournament staff, cocktail servers, media and spectators and the buzz is electric. Of course, for the next 50 days the chirping of chips is a constant sound too. Nothing like having cards in the air and the Rio full of poker's biggest names and tomorrow's new stars.

The 40th Annual WSOP is off to a terrific start by all standards. We had a casino restaurant bartender with big ambitions capture a bracelet by winning the opening event, for Casino Employees. Then poker's biggest stars captivated the room after they shelled out $40,000 each in an attempt to capture the first open event bracelet of the 40th running of the World Series of Poker. A record field for the Omaha, the largest prize pool for an event other than the Main Event, and more than 6,000 hopefuls turning out for the $1,000 buy-in 'stimulus special' on opening weekend made this one of the most memorable weeks of the WSOP ever.

The next two days offer a unique event - the Champions Invitational - all the previous Main Event winners who could make it, returning to the Amazon Room to decide the Champion of Champions. It's a free roll
tournament where one lucky winner will walk away with the Binion Cup and a shiny little Red Corvette. But it's not just any Corvette. It's from 1970, the inaugural year of the WSOP. The car is completely restored and the odometer reads zero. Quite a treat for the winner.

ESPN is here filming, Poker News is here providing live updates and the spectators are out in masses. Please come join us. We will be here through July 15!

Poker is alive and well and as healthy as ever. We want to wish everyone the best of luck at the WSOP and let us know if we can do anything to make your trip to the granddaddy of poker tournaments even better.

And oh yeah, don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @wsop

Seth