There are a lot of things where the team concept really makes sense: basketball, football, marketing, construction, colluding with buddies in online poker rooms to make more money…..just kidding about the last one.  But seriously, besides those who choose to cheat other players out of their money online  (in which case I really hope they get caught), I’ve never seen where the team concept comes into play with poker.  Apparently, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas thinks differently though.

That’s because the Hard Rock Hotel is going to be hosting a new form of poker that settles around the team-first concept (if you don’t believe me then check it out here).  It’s called Dream Team Poker and this team event will be taking place from November 7th to the 9th.  The concept of Dream Team Poker sounds pretty cool in theory since there will be 25 teams consisting of 3 people competing against each other. 

What’s unique about this is that players who hit the rail early will not only hate themselves, but they’ll also be hated by their teammates as well.  The early exits are no longer names under the rug - they count for their team’s score since everyone’s place is added to the tally.  To me, this is a pretty unique and original concept, plus the Hard Rock Poker Lounge is a sweet place to hold this event.  But don’t get too excited about the thought…..

This is because the Dream Team Poker deal is an invitation-only event and only 75 people will be invited to compete.  Everyone who is sent an invitation has to pay $1,000 which adds up to $3,000 for the entire team.  Wow!  What an invitation tournament…..you have the honor of paying $1,000 to fly out to Las Vegas, pay for your own room, and compete for a $75,000 prize pool which pales in comparison to many Sunday online tournaments where people can pay $300 (or less) to enter.

While the original line of thinking with this idea is pretty cool, I won’t be too impressed until Dream Team Poker becomes more practical.

As one of the things designed to hype up the WSOPE and draw more attention to an event that is still in its infancy, Doyle Brunson will take on Annette Obrestad in a heads-up No-Limit Hold’em match.  And I’ll admit that this event they’ve cooked up is definitely a draw to the WSOPE as Doyle is an American icon in the poker industry while many say that Annette Obrestad is Europe’s best all-around player due to the fact that she has won the WSOPE Main Event and has the online world at her fingertips.

Further souping up the drama for this contest is the whole age difference between the two and the accolades that they bring to the table.  Doyle Brunson is 75 years old, has won the WSOP Main Event twice, is second all-time in WSOP bracelets with 10, and has played the game for well over 50 years.  Annette Obrestad, on the other hand, just turned 20 and is said to be a prodigy in that she began playing poker for cash when she was 15, has never deposited money into an account, and she started her bankroll through freerolls and never looked back.

This much anticipated match-up really has me wondering, just who will win the event.  The way this No-Limit heads-up contest is set up is that the winner will be the person who wins two out of three of the games.  So here goes my prediction:

I always like a surprise and think that Annette Obrestad is someone who is just a naturally talented poker player capable of doing whatever she wants in the game and in her future as well.  However, it’s hard to dispute Brunson’s experience and the fact that he has decades of table exposure over Obrestad.  So I pick Brunson as the winner though I think that it will definitely come down to the last game.  But whatever happens, it will definitely be an event to remember.

There’s no question that poker has become one of the world’s most popular games.  Now I’ll spare you all of the reasons why it is so popular but we’ll just say that it’s a great way to make money if you are good at the game.  However, even with the popularity of poker right now, I never expected anyone to try and declare it a sport.  After all, most people would define sports as having some sort of athletic element to them. 

But some people in the Czech Republic have a different way of thinking with regards to poker and want to have it classified as a sport.  The Czech Association of Poker Clubs is pushing the government to declare poker a sport and have enlisted the help of Ernst & Young to provide legal support for their movement.  So far their actions have had some impact too as this is seriously something that is being considered in the country right now.

The Czech Association for Poker Clubs’ thinking is that, out of the 60,000 people who play poker in the country, only 1,000 of them normally do it in settings that would be deemed legal in the country.  And the Czech laws don’t make allowances for those who choose to play in homes or online with money on the table.  Casinos are the only place where poker betting is actually allowed as of now.  But if poker were a sport the Czech people would be able to play and bet as they choose and the strict regulations on the game would be uplifted. 

The CAPC’s argument for possibly declaring poker a sport is that it is actually a game of skill where people can win money in the long run versus other casino games where probabilities make almost everyone a loser in the end.  I myself have a hard time seeing poker being recognized as a sport though since it seems much more like a game than anything.  I do believe the skill involved does allow good players to win over the long haul but I think that the best that can come out of this for the Czechs is to have the current laws amended.

When it comes to poker’s most popular form in Texas Hold’em, you’ll have many people spouting off about which is the best way to find out who’s the best player.  A lot of people believe that the best measure of who’s the top Texas player in a group is the No-Limit variation.  And their argument….because this is the version of Texas Hold’em that most people are playing. 

Another argument resides in people saying that Pot-Limit Hold’em is the best form of Texas Hold’em to use in order to find out who’s the best player.  They say it’s a good mixture of both Limit and No-Limit and best measures the overall skill of players.  Not as many people believe Limit Hold’em to be the best way to settle who’s a great Texas player but there are some who think its more mathematical approach to the game makes it a true measure of a player’s skill.

Now I’m not sure there is really a true way to settle the debate over which form of Texas Hold’em could be used as a measure of who’s the top player but I’ll do my best to give my opinion on the matter.  First off, I know that Limit Hold’em does do a good job of making players use a lot of odds to determine their next play but this version pretty much excludes the usage of other great poker skills such as protecting one’s hand and bluffing (for the most part).

No-Limit Hold’em definitely creates the most drama with all-in bets and is shown on TV the most.  Bluffing is certainly a skill here as is excellent post-flop play.  However, the ability of players to go all-in pre-flop and the ridiculous amount of loose, maniac play in this variation is definitely a drawback to using No-Limit as the chief measuring stick. 

Pot-Limit Hold’em sees quite a few hands go to the flop and players are also able to protect their hands better since the structure allows for much larger bets than in Limit.  In my opinion, there really aren’t any major drawbacks to using Pot-Limit as the best overall measure of a player’s skill in Texas Hold’em.  The only thing I can really think of is that Pot-Limit doesn’t normally draw the top players in the game due to its lack of popularity in the tournament world.