From Cardplayer.com
THE STUNNING GROWTH OF PROFESSIONAL POKER
In an event that was surprisingly devoid of big names, one who is perhaps poker's biggest was still hanging around. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Doyle Brunson, the Sweetwater native who has rarely met a bet he didn't like, occupied the No. 9 seat at Table 109, guarding a diminishing stack of chips on Day 5 of the main event at the World Series of Poker.
"Texas Dolly" learned how to play poker and dodge death in back rooms along Jacksboro Highway and in the Stockyards, and for decades has been a star in a game few thought was must-see TV.
That was before 2003, when television exposure and Internet game rooms sparked the Poker Revolution. The card game that can trace its American roots to the Civil War is the hottest thing around, and its growth appears to be just beginning.
"The last two years have really revolutionized poker," professional player Chris "Jesus" Ferguson said. "You get shows like the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. These are really introducing poker to a whole new group of people, and they're coming out and loving poker."
Last month, Brunson represented one of three camps, not only here -- at the 35th annual $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament -- but in the burgeoning world of poker. Brunson, 70, is from the game's established crowd, which fed their families, bought their houses and made and lost fortunes playing cards.
"He's the godfather of the game," professional player Phil Gordon said. "He's certainly in the top 10 that have ever played the game, and he's probably in the top three of people who have made a real difference in the game and brought it from the back rooms of Texas to mainstream television."
Many of the record 2,576 finals entrants last month were from a new school of players, who learned the game watching stars like Brunson on TV and honed their skills playing in anonymity on the Internet. They are the amateurs, as green at live tournament poker as the felt on a poker table.
"I don't know that they have a style," Brunson said. "They don't really understand the game. I think most of them need to play some more."
Seated across the large room at Binion's Horseshoe Casino was David Williams, who won his way into the tournament by winning a $160 Internet tournament. Though only 24, Williams has been playing poker for seven years.
The Arlington native and SMU student is part of a third group of players fueling poker: After years playing smaller games, they've decided to join the party and delve into big-time poker.
"I already told myself that if I didn't qualify on the Internet ... that I was probably going to shell out the $10,000 anyway," Williams said.
On Day 5, he was two days away from the biggest moment of his young life, playing the game Brunson helped popularize when he won here in 1976 and '77 -- before Williams was born. Williams had more than twice as many chips as Brunson when the living legend took a stand.
"All-in," Brunson declared, pushing all of his chips into the pot.
Brunson's move was magnetic, attracting two ESPN cameramen to Table 109 to capture the drama for one of 22 hourlong World Series episodes this summer.
In 2000, broadcasting two episodes of the World Series seemed outrageous. But poker became cable television's hottest product in 2003, when the Travel Channel launched the World Poker Tour. The ratings were -- and continue to be -- huge.
"We created a live fiction," said Steve Lipscomb, creator of the WPT. "It feels live. You're on the edge of your seat. It plays like a drama that's happening now."
He said 1.7 million households are watching during the WPT's second season, which consists of 25 tape-delayed, two-hour episodes on Wednesday nights. Lipscomb expects the ratings to double in the next two years.
"It think it can grow over the next several years," he said. "In 10 years, I think our audience will certainly rival -- and to tell you the truth, we already do rival -- the major sports."
ESPN quickly followed the Travel Channel's lead, airing seven hourlong shows of the World Series main event last summer and drawing audiences in more than a million homes. This year, nine of the 22 shows will be dedicated to the $10,000 final, but World Series events in other disciplines of poker, such as Omaha and seven-card stud, will get their first TV exposure. ESPN also plans to air four episodes from the U.S. Poker Championship, beginning in January. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Together, the Travel Channel, ESPN and Bravo, which airs Celebrity Poker Showdown, are the biggest contributors to poker's sudden rise in popularity. For Lipscomb, the use of hole-card cameras and graphics helped make poker feel like a sport.
"The WPT camera, no doubt it kind of started this whole genre," he said. "Being inside these guys' minds when they're making million-dollar decisions, that's just good television."
Said Gordon, the co-host for Bravo's telecasts: "The hole-card cameras have brought literally hundreds of thousands of people to the game who would never have played otherwise. When you watch ... there's nothing that keeps you from doing exactly what the pros do, except maybe the guts to put your money out there. What we've found is there are 2,500 people with huge guts ready to play."
The record number of players for last month's final dwarfed the 839 who played in 2003 and made the prize pool $24.2 million, the richest prize in sports, tournament organizers claimed.
"People were betting on an over/under of about 1,500 people, which was phenomenal because the previous year was 800," Ferguson said. "That was unbelievable, 1,500, but 2,600? Nobody would have ever imagined 2,600."
One name from last year's event helped produce the record total: winner Chris Moneymaker. The man with the golden poker name had never played a live tournament before sitting down at the 2003 event. He won his seat by winning a $40 Internet tournament, then parlayed that into the $2.5 million first prize.
"I don't think that you can possibly quantify what the name 'Moneymaker' and seeing a guy turn $40 into $2.5 million and instant fame around the world can do for the game," Gordon said. "Forget TV, forget ESPN, forget the World Poker Tour. All those things led to Moneymaker playing the game, but Moneymaker probably brought an extra thousand people here. If a top-name pro had won last year, you might have gotten 1,500. But if you take a guy out of Tennessee, playing his first live poker tournament ever, turning $40 into $2.5 million, this is what you get."
Moneymaker is also largely responsible for the rise in poker's popularity on the Internet, because that's where his 2003 World Series odyssey began.
Since his victory, which ESPN has shown in replays as recently as Tuesday, Internet play has increased by thousands of players. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
"That's where it all comes from, the TV," said T.J. Cloutier, the Richardson resident who is poker's all-time winningest player. "That created the interest, and then a lot of them started playing on the Internet after they'd seen the TV."
Gordon said Internet poker has four main players -- PartyPoker.com, PokerStars.com, UltimateBet.com and ParadisePoker.com. Moneymaker and Williams won satellites at PokerStars. The Web site PokerPulse.com monitors the traffic at poker sites, many of which are housed in Gibraltar, Costa Rica or the Caribbean because Internet gaming is illegal in the United States.
"We saw the explosion of Internet poker go from 5,000, 6,000 people online at a time to 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 20,000 at a time," Gordon said. "If one of these Internet guys wins again, next year could be ... 6,000 people. Could there really be 6,000 play next year?"
Gordon said Moneymaker's victory was a fluke, but the guy isn't a fluky player.
"You don't get to be the chip leader at the World Series of Poker without being able to play," said Gordon, who beat Moneymaker in a WPT event earlier this year. "Since his win last year, he has learned an incredible amount about the game. He's five times a better player this year than he was last year. I think he's a force to be reckoned with for quite a while."
But last month, Moneymaker was one of several of the game's stars -- including Cloutier, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer -- eliminated on the first day.
"The best players in the world really are head and shoulders above people that are new to the game," said Gordon, who exited on Day 4 in 236th place. "But being head and shoulders above doesn't give you much more of a chance to win because of the nature of the game."
On Day 5, Brunson was also headed out the door.
Fifty-five players remained when Brunson risked the rest of his chips.
Then something went wrong. The player in the small blind, Bradley Berman, didn't hear Brunson say "all-in," and announced a raise. After being told Brunson was all-in, Berman tried to rescind his raise but couldn't. He reluctantly would have to go head-to-head against Brunson's two 10s with ace-7. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Both players' tournament fates -- and a pot worth more than $400,000 in chips -- were on the line. Brunson had the best hand before the flop, but one of the first three community cards was an ace. When a 10 didn't come on the turn or the river, Brunson was eliminated.
"That's the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. Period," said Brunson, who won $45,000 for finishing 54th. "It's just a mistake. The guy didn't hear me, the dealer didn't announce it, and he said 'raise' -- he was raising the guy in the big blind -- and the ruling was he had to put his money on in. You've got to go by the rules."
While Brunson exited Benny's Bullpen for his Las Vegas home, Williams was in for the long haul.
"I didn't want to think about the big picture," Williams said. "So, coming in, I set a goal to make it to the end of the day and still be in the tournament. Then, throughout the tournament, I would just focus on my table. I was sort of in a bubble. I made sure that I didn't consume myself about making the final table."
But he reached the final table. By the end of Day 5, Williams was one of 36 players remaining, including former world champions Ferguson (2000) and Dan Harrington (1995). When play ended on Day 6, Williams had reached the final table, one of nine survivors who would play until one of them had all the chips.
The final day saw two players bow out quickly, then seven players jockey for position. With the record prize pool, the final five players were guaranteed to become millionaires. Williams achieved that when chip leader Greg Raymer eliminated Al Krux.
Shortly before a dinner break, Williams was guaranteed at least $2.5 million when he took out Harrington.
Some two hours later, Williams was playing Raymer head-to-head for a chance to be the world poker champion and walk away with the $5 million first-place prize.
The final duel didn't last long. Both players quickly found themselves holding a full house, but Raymer's was better. He had three 2s and two 8s, a bigger boat than Williams' three 2s and two 4s.
But don't feel sorry for Williams, whose consolation prize was a cool $3.5 million.
"It still hasn't hit me yet," Williams said after returning to Texas. "The only really extravagant thing I've done is I took about 20 people to a real expensive dinner. But after spending $1,500 on dinner, I looked down and it didn't really put a dent in things. ... I haven't really done anything with the money. It's almost like it doesn't exist."
He knows the money's there, and soon fame will accompany it. ESPN will begin its World Series telecasts July 6, with the final episode scheduled to air Sept. 14.
"I think you're going to get a whole new group of top poker stars that you haven't known before," Ferguson said.
Williams is one of them, his ticket to the Poker Revolution already stamped. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
THE STUNNING GROWTH OF PROFESSIONAL POKER
In an event that was surprisingly devoid of big names, one who is perhaps poker's biggest was still hanging around. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Doyle Brunson, the Sweetwater native who has rarely met a bet he didn't like, occupied the No. 9 seat at Table 109, guarding a diminishing stack of chips on Day 5 of the main event at the World Series of Poker.
"Texas Dolly" learned how to play poker and dodge death in back rooms along Jacksboro Highway and in the Stockyards, and for decades has been a star in a game few thought was must-see TV.
That was before 2003, when television exposure and Internet game rooms sparked the Poker Revolution. The card game that can trace its American roots to the Civil War is the hottest thing around, and its growth appears to be just beginning.
"The last two years have really revolutionized poker," professional player Chris "Jesus" Ferguson said. "You get shows like the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. These are really introducing poker to a whole new group of people, and they're coming out and loving poker."
Last month, Brunson represented one of three camps, not only here -- at the 35th annual $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament -- but in the burgeoning world of poker. Brunson, 70, is from the game's established crowd, which fed their families, bought their houses and made and lost fortunes playing cards.
"He's the godfather of the game," professional player Phil Gordon said. "He's certainly in the top 10 that have ever played the game, and he's probably in the top three of people who have made a real difference in the game and brought it from the back rooms of Texas to mainstream television."
Many of the record 2,576 finals entrants last month were from a new school of players, who learned the game watching stars like Brunson on TV and honed their skills playing in anonymity on the Internet. They are the amateurs, as green at live tournament poker as the felt on a poker table.
"I don't know that they have a style," Brunson said. "They don't really understand the game. I think most of them need to play some more."
Seated across the large room at Binion's Horseshoe Casino was David Williams, who won his way into the tournament by winning a $160 Internet tournament. Though only 24, Williams has been playing poker for seven years.
The Arlington native and SMU student is part of a third group of players fueling poker: After years playing smaller games, they've decided to join the party and delve into big-time poker.
"I already told myself that if I didn't qualify on the Internet ... that I was probably going to shell out the $10,000 anyway," Williams said.
On Day 5, he was two days away from the biggest moment of his young life, playing the game Brunson helped popularize when he won here in 1976 and '77 -- before Williams was born. Williams had more than twice as many chips as Brunson when the living legend took a stand.
"All-in," Brunson declared, pushing all of his chips into the pot.
Brunson's move was magnetic, attracting two ESPN cameramen to Table 109 to capture the drama for one of 22 hourlong World Series episodes this summer.
In 2000, broadcasting two episodes of the World Series seemed outrageous. But poker became cable television's hottest product in 2003, when the Travel Channel launched the World Poker Tour. The ratings were -- and continue to be -- huge.
"We created a live fiction," said Steve Lipscomb, creator of the WPT. "It feels live. You're on the edge of your seat. It plays like a drama that's happening now."
He said 1.7 million households are watching during the WPT's second season, which consists of 25 tape-delayed, two-hour episodes on Wednesday nights. Lipscomb expects the ratings to double in the next two years.
"It think it can grow over the next several years," he said. "In 10 years, I think our audience will certainly rival -- and to tell you the truth, we already do rival -- the major sports."
ESPN quickly followed the Travel Channel's lead, airing seven hourlong shows of the World Series main event last summer and drawing audiences in more than a million homes. This year, nine of the 22 shows will be dedicated to the $10,000 final, but World Series events in other disciplines of poker, such as Omaha and seven-card stud, will get their first TV exposure. ESPN also plans to air four episodes from the U.S. Poker Championship, beginning in January. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Together, the Travel Channel, ESPN and Bravo, which airs Celebrity Poker Showdown, are the biggest contributors to poker's sudden rise in popularity. For Lipscomb, the use of hole-card cameras and graphics helped make poker feel like a sport.
"The WPT camera, no doubt it kind of started this whole genre," he said. "Being inside these guys' minds when they're making million-dollar decisions, that's just good television."
Said Gordon, the co-host for Bravo's telecasts: "The hole-card cameras have brought literally hundreds of thousands of people to the game who would never have played otherwise. When you watch ... there's nothing that keeps you from doing exactly what the pros do, except maybe the guts to put your money out there. What we've found is there are 2,500 people with huge guts ready to play."
The record number of players for last month's final dwarfed the 839 who played in 2003 and made the prize pool $24.2 million, the richest prize in sports, tournament organizers claimed.
"People were betting on an over/under of about 1,500 people, which was phenomenal because the previous year was 800," Ferguson said. "That was unbelievable, 1,500, but 2,600? Nobody would have ever imagined 2,600."
One name from last year's event helped produce the record total: winner Chris Moneymaker. The man with the golden poker name had never played a live tournament before sitting down at the 2003 event. He won his seat by winning a $40 Internet tournament, then parlayed that into the $2.5 million first prize.
"I don't think that you can possibly quantify what the name 'Moneymaker' and seeing a guy turn $40 into $2.5 million and instant fame around the world can do for the game," Gordon said. "Forget TV, forget ESPN, forget the World Poker Tour. All those things led to Moneymaker playing the game, but Moneymaker probably brought an extra thousand people here. If a top-name pro had won last year, you might have gotten 1,500. But if you take a guy out of Tennessee, playing his first live poker tournament ever, turning $40 into $2.5 million, this is what you get."
Moneymaker is also largely responsible for the rise in poker's popularity on the Internet, because that's where his 2003 World Series odyssey began.
Since his victory, which ESPN has shown in replays as recently as Tuesday, Internet play has increased by thousands of players. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
"That's where it all comes from, the TV," said T.J. Cloutier, the Richardson resident who is poker's all-time winningest player. "That created the interest, and then a lot of them started playing on the Internet after they'd seen the TV."
Gordon said Internet poker has four main players -- PartyPoker.com, PokerStars.com, UltimateBet.com and ParadisePoker.com. Moneymaker and Williams won satellites at PokerStars. The Web site PokerPulse.com monitors the traffic at poker sites, many of which are housed in Gibraltar, Costa Rica or the Caribbean because Internet gaming is illegal in the United States.
"We saw the explosion of Internet poker go from 5,000, 6,000 people online at a time to 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 20,000 at a time," Gordon said. "If one of these Internet guys wins again, next year could be ... 6,000 people. Could there really be 6,000 play next year?"
Gordon said Moneymaker's victory was a fluke, but the guy isn't a fluky player.
"You don't get to be the chip leader at the World Series of Poker without being able to play," said Gordon, who beat Moneymaker in a WPT event earlier this year. "Since his win last year, he has learned an incredible amount about the game. He's five times a better player this year than he was last year. I think he's a force to be reckoned with for quite a while."
But last month, Moneymaker was one of several of the game's stars -- including Cloutier, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer -- eliminated on the first day.
"The best players in the world really are head and shoulders above people that are new to the game," said Gordon, who exited on Day 4 in 236th place. "But being head and shoulders above doesn't give you much more of a chance to win because of the nature of the game."
On Day 5, Brunson was also headed out the door.
Fifty-five players remained when Brunson risked the rest of his chips.
Then something went wrong. The player in the small blind, Bradley Berman, didn't hear Brunson say "all-in," and announced a raise. After being told Brunson was all-in, Berman tried to rescind his raise but couldn't. He reluctantly would have to go head-to-head against Brunson's two 10s with ace-7. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
Both players' tournament fates -- and a pot worth more than $400,000 in chips -- were on the line. Brunson had the best hand before the flop, but one of the first three community cards was an ace. When a 10 didn't come on the turn or the river, Brunson was eliminated.
"That's the strangest thing that's ever happened to me. Period," said Brunson, who won $45,000 for finishing 54th. "It's just a mistake. The guy didn't hear me, the dealer didn't announce it, and he said 'raise' -- he was raising the guy in the big blind -- and the ruling was he had to put his money on in. You've got to go by the rules."
While Brunson exited Benny's Bullpen for his Las Vegas home, Williams was in for the long haul.
"I didn't want to think about the big picture," Williams said. "So, coming in, I set a goal to make it to the end of the day and still be in the tournament. Then, throughout the tournament, I would just focus on my table. I was sort of in a bubble. I made sure that I didn't consume myself about making the final table."
But he reached the final table. By the end of Day 5, Williams was one of 36 players remaining, including former world champions Ferguson (2000) and Dan Harrington (1995). When play ended on Day 6, Williams had reached the final table, one of nine survivors who would play until one of them had all the chips.
The final day saw two players bow out quickly, then seven players jockey for position. With the record prize pool, the final five players were guaranteed to become millionaires. Williams achieved that when chip leader Greg Raymer eliminated Al Krux.
Shortly before a dinner break, Williams was guaranteed at least $2.5 million when he took out Harrington.
Some two hours later, Williams was playing Raymer head-to-head for a chance to be the world poker champion and walk away with the $5 million first-place prize.
The final duel didn't last long. Both players quickly found themselves holding a full house, but Raymer's was better. He had three 2s and two 8s, a bigger boat than Williams' three 2s and two 4s.
But don't feel sorry for Williams, whose consolation prize was a cool $3.5 million.
"It still hasn't hit me yet," Williams said after returning to Texas. "The only really extravagant thing I've done is I took about 20 people to a real expensive dinner. But after spending $1,500 on dinner, I looked down and it didn't really put a dent in things. ... I haven't really done anything with the money. It's almost like it doesn't exist."
He knows the money's there, and soon fame will accompany it. ESPN will begin its World Series telecasts July 6, with the final episode scheduled to air Sept. 14.
"I think you're going to get a whole new group of top poker stars that you haven't known before," Ferguson said.
Williams is one of them, his ticket to the Poker Revolution already stamped. That and this report from The Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson
