This weekend the world’s biggest buy-in tournament begins and WSOP staff were already building a massive set for the historic event.
Today in the WSOP 3-Bet we take a look at the always-popular ladies event, an Alaskan bracelet winner and a Conan O’Brien Tweet about playing the WSOP Main Event.
As always you can leave a message in the comment section below to suggest a future WSOP 3-Bet piece.
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3) Alaskan Greg Hobson Wins First Ante-Only Event
Greg Hobson became the first winner of the new Ante-Only $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament on Friday.
Hobson outlasted a field of 939 and beat a tough final table that included Mike Sowers, Harrison Gimbel, Mike “Timex” McDonald and Justin Schwartz to take down a $256k first place prize.
The new poker variant for WSOP saw blinds replaced with an ante from every player. Action started to the left of the button every hand.
Despite a few flaws (the common complaint was that the structure was too shallow) the event was a huge success with nearly a 1,000 runners in its first go around with big proponents in Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver and now most-likely Hobson.
Hobson, a professional poker player, came all the way from Anchorage, Alaska, to play in the WSOP and there’s a very good chance he’s glad he did.
Mike Sowers finished in second place for $158,887 while Gimbel placed fourth for $72,155.
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2) Luck be a Bunch of Ladies
If there’s one event that truly stands apart from every other event at the WSOP it’s the Ladies Event.
It’s the only tournament where you’ll frequently see opponents high-fiving and hugging each other and smiles all around. It also smells about one million times better than the average tournament.
This year Event 51 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em drew 936 players (slightly down from last year) including all the big names of female poker including Maria Ho, Vanessa Rousso, Victoria Coren, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree and Lauren Kling.
In case you were wondering, yes, a few dudes showed up as well. About 10 men bought into the event including semi-professional poker player Nick Getzen.
The rapid-fire tournament was down to about 160 players when this article was published with Erica Shoenberg, Leo Margets, Mandy Baker and Lisa Parsons all in the top 10 chip counts.
The eventual winner of the three-day tournament will walk away with a $170,587 first-place prize.
1) Will Someone Please Buy Conan O’Brien into the Main Event
The World Series of Poker got a rare mention in the mainstream world yesterday when late-night funny man Conan O’Brien made this Tweet about playing the $10k Main Event:
Hey, is it too late to stake me in the World Series of Poker? It’s $10,000, and I’ll lose, but I’ll wear a windbreaker with your name on it.
— Conan O'Brien (@ConanOBrien) June 29, 2012For the record we would definitely chip in some percentage to get O’Brien on the felt. The problem is that O’Brien would probably be asked to vacate his seat in at the WSOP to make room for Jay Leno.
In years past there were a number of celebrities who played Main Event including Tobey Maguire, Laura Prepon, Hank Azeria, Dean Cain, Mekhi Phifer and Ray Romano but the celebrity element has definitely been watered down in the last few years.
Last year the celebrity field was pretty much limited to Brad Garrett, Shannon Elizabeth, Romano, Paul Piece, Brad Garrett and Nelly.
Regardless it would be pretty cool if O’Brien and maybe even sidekick Andy Richter showed up and provided an alternative to the Ray Romano and Brad Garrett shtick that’s been prevalent over the last few years.
For all the action from the WSOP in Las Vegas click through to our 2012 World Series of Poker Live Coverage section, brought to you by 888poker.com.
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