There are many people who can lay claim to being the best poker player in the world.  After all, it’s hard to really determine anything as the best measuring stick when comparing players.  Some people prefer to point towards the ones that play in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio as some of the best players in the world since they consistently play for the biggest stakes.  And if you’re going to use this as the measuring stick then most would say Phil Ivey is the best.

However, others like to point towards live tournaments as the favored way to tell how talented a player is.  And if this is the case, then Phil Hellmuth and his 11 WSOP bracelets by be considered the way to go.  After all, a gold WSOP bracelet is pretty much the top prize one could hope to win in any tournament (besides the money of course). 

But this year, it almost seems like Phil Hellmuth has played a little off from previous campaigns.  And that’s a hard thing to say since Hellmuth just recently took third in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament.  But as much as people have come to expect from him, it doesn’t seem like he’s been as dominant a tournament player in 2008. 

In his previous years of playing poker, Hellmuth was a constant threat to cash in every event he entered.  And he often did at least cash, if not make the final table and/or win the tournament he was playing in.  But this year I’ve seen him sent to the rail plenty of times during the early going of a tournament.  Many times he hasn’t even made it past the 1st day. 

Now he may make me eat my words and go out and win bracelet #13 in these last few events but I don’t see it happening this year.  I’m sure we’ll see a revival of the Poker Brat since he’s got plenty of years ahead of him but don’t expect it to take place anytime soon. 

A few posts ago, I discussed some of the better moments that the 2008 World Series of Poker has experienced so far.  Well the last one talked about were blown out of the water by the actions of Jimmy Shultz and Eric Brooks.

Neither one of these two are really well known among poker fans - especially Brooks who doesn’t have a whole lot of major poker experience.  But both came out on top in WSOP events as Shultz won Event #12 while Brooks won Event #14.

That wasn’t what was impressive about the two though as both did something far greater for the game of poker.  Both made huge charitable contributions among the likes that have rarely been seen by poker before.

After winning the 12th event of the WSOP, Shultz decided to donate a fifth of his $257,049 in prize money to the Charleston Fire Department.  He also wore a CFD cap throughout the tournament to support the department after they lost nine men in a terrible warehouse fire.  The 50+ grand that Shultz gave them should help out some.

Brooks went even farther in his charity by giving all of his $415,856 to the Decision Education Foundation.  This nonprofit organization is headed by Stanford University and seeks to help children how to make good choices.  Brooks has been a longtime board member of the group.

To me it’s pretty amazing when people can give these types of donations after winning a WSOP.  After all, many players choose to keep all of the money and either invest it or buy fancy things.  I can’t say I blame them either as most people would be inclined to keep that type of money as poker can be a fickle game at times and you never know when the next big win is coming.  That just makes it even more incredible that Brooks and Shultz were able to part ways with significant amounts of cash.

Everyone seems to be talking about the 2008 World Series of Poker right now (probably because it’s going on) so I figure that I’ll chime in on the world’s greatest poker event as well.  And what I’d like to shed some light on is some of the best moments that have happened so far in the WSOP.

One of my favorites was the first sign that interest in the WSOP isn’t even close to dying off yet as the second event attracted a record number of players (for event #2) in the 3,929 that entered it.  There were so many people in the event that one day took 18 hours just to be completed.  On top of the numbers thing, it was also nice to see underdog Grant Hinkle win a bracelet in just his first WSOP cash ever.  He was able to overcome a final table that included Chris Ferguson and Theo Tran to do it.

Another great moment in my opinion was when Matt Keikoan was able to capture the win in Event #7.  Keikoan has been a long-time pro who had to struggle to make it to where he is today.  Often taking small casino jobs in addition to his poker playing, Keikoan had a tough time making ends meet sometimes but he was able to half a million dollars in Event #7 and shouldn’t have to struggle too much now.

Another pretty cool story was when Anthony Rivera out-maneuvered a lot of established tournament players en route to picking up the bracelet in Event #8.  With people like Jeff Madsen, Sam Farha, and prodigy Tom Dwan sitting at the final table with him, Rivera was able to play through his lack of tournament experience and come up with the big victory.  And just like Hinkle, this was only Rivera’s first WSOP cash as well.

There’s sure to be many more great moments in the 2008 WSOP and I can’t wait to catch them.

The last post I wrote looked at a few of the online trends occurring in poker today that might make one wonder if the game is in any sort of danger as far as losing its popularity among people.  This post is going to focus on the TV side of poker and some of the major shakeups that have happened or may be in the works with regards to the televised side of the game. 

First, let’s go over what has already occurred:
- At this point it looks like the Game Show Network (GSN) is moving towards canceling the show ”High Stakes Poker”.  This comes after news surfaced that no new episodes were filmed in March or April which is when they filmed them in the past.  
- There have also been some reports that the WPT is in trouble after lackluster ratings.  This is only speculation but they can’t be in real good standing with GSN after PokerStars chose to no longer advertise during WPT’s time slot.
- The already oft-reported news about the WSOP final table being moved to boost ratings for ESPN’s coverage of the Main Event is just another event which makes me wonder what kind of state the popularity of poker is currently at.

Now these events certainly don’t spell the doomsday for poker as I’m fairly sure that the game of will always be around since too many people enjoy playing it for poker to ever fade away.  But the TV occurrences coupled with the online trend of the FTOPS definitely raises some questions though.

And most of these questions revolve around whether the glory days of poker - that saw Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu have become household names and tons of people flock to card rooms across the Internet daily - are starting their decline. 

I sure hope not but we’ll have to wait a couple of years to truly find out.

BodogLife.com has made a habit recently of giving gamblers betting odds on some pretty obscure things.  The latest odds I’ve seen Bodog cook up was for who will win the fourth season of Hell’s Kitchen.  To be honest, I’ve only seen the previews for the show and a screaming chef isn’t enough to entice me to waste an hour of my life every Tuesday. 

But one set of odds that I did find interesting were the latest ones on which celebrity will have the biggest cash out at the upcoming 2008 WSOP Main Event.  Now these odds are interesting for two reasons:
1. It’s odds on which celebrities will make the most money 
2. Who Bodog lists at the top of their list.

Coming in at the top are Daniel Negreanu at 5/2 odds and newly signed Team Bodog member Justin Bonomo at 3/1.  My question is; How does Bodog think that these two players belong in the celebrity odds line?  Sure Negreanu is a huge celebrity in poker (and even beyond) while Bonomo is becoming more popular but these two are also pros as well.

I mean if Bodog signed Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash to promote their basketball betting section, would if be fair to hold a celebrity three-point competition, throw these two in there, and declare them the odds-on-favorites to win the contest?

Anyways, getting to the rest of the odds, Shannon Elizabeth, James Woods, and Jennifer Tilly check in next at 5/1 odds.  Montel Williams is sitting pretty good at 13/2 while Ben Affleck, Don Cheadle, Boris Becker, and even Norm MacDonald (I didn’t even now he played) have 9/1 odds at bringing home the most cash from the WSOP.

Getting to the people that Bodog has very little faith in (and for good reason), Hank Azaria, Penn Gillette, Lennox Lewis, and Jose Canseco are in the cellar of the odds list at 30/1.  But on a good note for Lennox and Jose, they will be heavily favored by Bodog to win any future celebrity boxing or baseball contests.