Well, my weekend at the WSOP was a moderate success... no, I didn't make the money, but covered my expenses including the $2.5k buyin thanks to some table wins.

First, the good: as I mentioned earlier, the Rio is a huge step up from Binion's in terms of the presentability of poker to the masses. The "pokerdome" (to use Dan's perfect phrase) is not really a media circus yet, but should be able to accomodate the final event's circus better than Binion's did. They don't have the same problem with chokepoints to enter and exit the main arena, and it's just plain nicer and better ventilated. Also, they make use of the QueueOS software for tracking the poker waiting list, which works so much better than paper.

The WSOP has also abandoned the "$X+Y" format of buyin, instead taking everything off the top; so where previously you may have paid $2600 ("$2500+100") to enter a $2.5k event, now it's just $2.5k. While the earlier system had more transparency as to what the basic rake was, this approach is cleaner and friendlier for new players.

Not so good: there is absolutely no visibility of the tournament screens while the events are in progress for most tournament players, due to the placement and poor quality of the projection screens. The Rio really needs a good set of tournament clock screens along the far end of the hall, so players can see what is going on. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, since a constantly visible clock could encourage stalling, but a fair amount of players had to either call out to get clock counts, or run over to see the projections.

Also, unlike Binion's, there is no such thing as a free dinner at the WSOP. Players get $10 off the buffet, which brings it to a very worth-it $15 or so, but there's something to be said for getting a $25 meal comped after shelling out upwards of $1500 for a tournament entry. Of course, the food at the Rio buffet is MUCH better than the sandwiches-n-chips fare of Binion's, but most players I spoke to found it mildly annoying. I guess also if you're a Moneymaker-type who parlayed $40 into a big-money entry, having to pay an additional $15 for food decreases your ROI enormously! :)

Onto the tournament itself... this is Saturday's $2500 PLH event I'm talking about. Apologies in advance for inaccuracies or poor detail as I did not take detailed notes this year. My tournament started off fairly slowly. I was seated at a table with Toto Leonidas and a bunch of relative unknowns. Toto is off to a great start in the events this year, having already cleared almost $250k in five money finishes.

I did pretty standard blind-stealing raises for the first couple of hours, and never really got involved in a hand. Right at the end of my second hour I re-raised a smaller stack all-in when I held AKo and he had the same hand; we split the pot.

For the next couple hours I played WSOP musical chairs; it seemed like I never played at a table for more than 20 minutes before getting re-seated to right at the end of the queue. I went through a good stack of well-knowns during this run, and only played a few hands, none of which turned out to be big with the exception of one.

I was on the button. Johnny Chan was in middle position and brought it in for the max raise. At this point blinds were 100-200 and he and I were both not doing great stack-wise. He had about 3500 and I had about 4000. It was quickly folded to me, and I looked down to see AK of spades. I re-raised to 2400 and gave Chan my standard poker staredown, which was forged in the fires of my first WSOP experience five years ago. I was so unsure of what to do when players looked at me during that event ($2k LH) that I took to just staring them in the eyes. Since then it's become my standard poker face when in a hand, I just stare right back at them and don't flinch at any attempt at questions or humor. It has served me well, and it was good to practice against one of the best poker faces out there. Chan looked at me for a bit, then shrugged and moved all-in. I called for his remaining $1k or so, and he flipped up AKo. I had a chance to bust him with a flush, but it didn't come and we chopped the pot. (He went on to win the event.)

After being moved from that table to a table with Mike Sexton and Jeff Shulman, I got seated at Howard Lederer's table. Howard had a TON of stuff going on at the WSOP this year with all the Full Tilt Poker promotions and deals, and I heard more than a few people comment that he was distracted. His play when he busted out seemed to confirm this.

He brought it in for a raise in middle position and was called by the big blind. The flop came A-8-8. The BB checked, Lederer bet the max, and the the big blind raised the max. At this point, Lederer went into the vault, gave the guy a big staredown, and spent a lot of time thinking and counting his chips. Calling would cost him about 2/3 of his stack. He thought for a good two minutes and then just flat called. Next card two-spaded the board and the BB fired out; Lederer called quickly with his remaining chips and flipped over A3 of spades, the BB turned over an 8 which held up against Lederer's flush draw. I guess what surprised the table so much was seeing Lederer call the flop raise when the only hand he can beat is basically a bluff, and a call on the flop pot-commits him. I know I've done it before, and I've done it before where my hand is good, but I'm not Howard Lederer with every guy and his donkey commentating every minute of my play :)

I shuffled around a little more, and finally got seated deep in the lineup and able to settle down a bit. By this time it was about 4:30pm and I was struggling. I had been moving my chips a little, but had had no big opportunities. One hand I turned trips and made a decent pot, but largely was kept quiet. Up until the dinner break, this streak continued, but I managed to maintain my stack without getting too heavily blinded. Nonetheless, by dinner break I was at a fairly meager $4000 in chips with over 3/4 of the field eliminated -- down to 99 of 425 players remaining.

Over dinner, I went over and gave props to Pauly and Dan and the rest of the bloggers and media types, and then hit dinner. The Rio buffet line was an absolute zoo, but they had a player's entrance. Me and another lone player were waiting for a table, and they asked to seat us together. He had no visible weapons or diseases so I agreed.

I didn't recognize him, but he turned out to be Michael Keiner, German professional player. Michael has had a bunch of WSOP money finishes and introduced himself as "one of only four German travelling pros". We had the most interesting dinner conversation of any WSOP I've been in. Keiner is a plastic surgeon by trade, but decided to go pro in 1997 and has been at it ever since. He still does plastic surgery on the side for friends when he is back in Germany. We talked a lot about other players, some of which he had a lot of praise for, some of which he was not a huge fan of. He was a super nice guy, though, and really enjoyed talking about poker and his experiences. He plays in a lot of big-money cash games as well as tournaments, and we talked about the biggest games he hasn't yet played in. Top of the list was a $500,000 buy-in game in the middle east apparently populated by clueless locals that he's been trying to get an invite to but hasn't gotten it yet.

We also talked about his bankroll; he said he's been fortunate and has not gone broke yet but came really close in 2002 (within $30k). It was totally apparent to me that Michael's combination of education level, intelligence and enthusiasm for poker, and life in general, outstripped any other pro I've ever spoken with. He was a great guy and at the time was nearly the chip leader in the tournament. I wished him all the best and hope to speak with him again some time. He ended up finishing 17th.

After the dinner break, it took exactly four hands to break the seemingly endless stream of unplayable hands I had had. At this point my table had almost all huge stacks, probably the heaviest median of any table. I was somewhat on the ropes and needed to move my chips, which was helped a lot by the hands I got. I had about $4k and the blinds were at 200-400. I was dealt AJo in early position and brought it in for 1400. Huge stack on the button raised me the max, and at this point I was committed enough that I decided to call. He flipped up K-K, doh! But a king spiked on the river and I doubled through. He got really pissy at me and was obviously not happy.

The next hand I was UTG and looked down to find QQ. I brought it in for the max again, and this time a mid-position short-stack raised all-in. Folded around to me, a call cost me all but about $2k of my stack. I called and he flipped AA. I have never folded QQ in a major tournament and this was another case where I didn't really feel the justification to fold it. His hand held up and I was more crippled than I was before.

The next hand I was the BB, and one off the button brought it in for a max raise. I re-raised all-in when I saw 77, and he called with KTo. I was feeling great until the river brought a king, and I was out of the tournament.

So that was my fairly uneventful tournament this year. I played the rest of Saturday night at $15-30 at the Bellagio. Sunday I played some $2-5 NLH over at the Wynn, which was a good experience. The Wynn is a nice casino, but I was a bit underwhelmed by how little differentiation it has from the Bellagio. I love the fact that the chip runners deliver food to the poker tables -- I had a great burger while doing some healthy trash-talking, including naming a player "Neo" after his resemblance to Keanu Reeves. I love naming players, it can be a one-way ticket to tiltland if you pick your spots right.

After getting the table right where I wanted them (i.e. re-raising me almost every time I raised), I got a miracle when I flopped 7-7-5 after checking 7-5 from the BB in a 7-way pot. The button bet out $35, I pushed in a large stack of reds (about $120), she instantly moved in for $500, and I called and flipped over my boat. She flipped up 7-6, and then turned a 6. Ouch. Only three hours to my plane back to Austin, I decided trying to shrug off tilt was harder than hitting the craps table for an hour so I did that, and managed to go on a nice 6-point run and leave the Wynn with a small wynn. With that, I made my way to the airport, sat through yet another ridiculous delay on America West's Mesa red-eye to Austin (why do I take those?), and made it back safely.

Another trip hits the books. Good luck all those players making their way out there for the big one.

I'm out in Vegas at the WSOP this weekend. I had the distinct pleasure of hanging with Dan, Otis, and Pauly last night, and let me tell you, I take back everything I said about these guys. They are not hard working at all! Through a sophisticated combination of text generators, blow-up dolls and mirrors, they create the illusion of activity while they really are just lounging in the press box, drinking Singapore Slings and cavorting with women of dubious moral value. I don't think Dan has ever even played a hand of poker; he asked me last night what the difference between "Texas hold them" and "Omeeha" is.

Just kidding, of course.... These guys really are working their butts off here covering the series and doing a great job at that. I also spent some time talking to Amy (fellow Austinite) and Jay Greenspan, as well as giving Nolan Dalla my heartfelt praise for his new book on Stu Ungar... If you haven't seen it yet go buy it because it is the best poker book ever written, and way up there on the list for most compelling biography too.

Dan asked me what I thought of the new setup at the Rio, and I said something like "I have seen the future of poker and it is good." It's such an amazing leap up from Binion's in terms of presentability and class, a direction which should only be enhanced by the move onto the strip next year. A very small part of me liked the historical allure of Binion's, but the rest of me definitely disliked the beer-stained carpets, surly staff and permanent smoke smog levels... and no level of marketing will draw people to a downtown casino like it will to a strip casino.

I also discovered the best, and worst, thing about the WSOP being at the Rio this year: drink service provides Red Bull in the poker room, which is rare in Vegas. Quite a few RB vodka's later, I was trash talking my way to poker heaven.

As usual there are plenty-o big poker names walking around, but even after hanging in the Full Tilt Poker lounge next to Howard Lederer, the sighting that actually got me awestruck was when I bumped into Rita from Taxicab Confessions and talked her ear off! Nobody at my table even knew the show, probably because I was playing with nobody over the age of 16 and under the age of 75. She said she plays a lot of poker, and seemed pretty happy to talk to a fan.

The PLH tournament starts in under an hour and the poker room is still fairly empty, save for every few minutes when a college kid runs into the room straight for the satellite tables... make it snappy junior.

All the best, and if you're at the WSOP come by and say hello -- I'm the guy in the flame shirt winning the big pots.

The 2005 World Series of Poker is in full swing right now, although you'd never know it from reading this site :) I've played in the WSOP four out of the past five years, but never really wrote much about it because I didn't feel like I had much to add to the mass hysteria of media and web coverage it generates. This year has already generated much more coverage than last year, both online and offline and I'm curious to see how the coverage the main event generates in mainstream media will compare to last year.

I heartily recommend both Dan and Pauly's coverage for up-to-the-minute details from well-informed and seemingly omnipresent bloggers. About the most hard-working guy in Vegas right now, Pauly is doing real-time reporting of all WSOP events to his own site, promoting other great-quality WSOP reports on other sites, and doing writing for other sites. I liked this piece of coverage:

Also there was an interesting hand involving a cellphone. I knew an incident like this was bound to happen. The hand in question involved John Phan heads up with some guy who I don't his exact name. Phan moved all in with a 9 for his door card. After he pushed all his chips in, his cell phone rang. He answered and the floorman declared that his hand was dead. He violated a rule. However, all of his money was in the pot, therefore the phone call could not affect his decision... since there was none to be made. Phan offered to allow his hand to be declared dead. The tournament directors decided that Phan's hand is good. Phan's opponent wasn't thrilled with the ruling and implied that there could be a bigger controversy brewing if he loses the hand to Phan. In the end, Phan's two pair loses to a higher two pair. Controversy averted. WSOP Lesson of the Day: Turn off your cellphones.

I'm surprised to see that Phan's offer to declare his hand dead was overturned by the tourney directors, since that offer was in agreement with the initial floor ruling, but like any tournament decision I'm sure there was a lot more talking, thinking and discussion going on than can be summarized into one paragraph.

Meanwhile, Dan is doing his best Hunter S. Thompson impersonation, with a great narrative about poker tournament goings-on both on and off the felt, and tons of funny banter and observations, interspersed with hard partying and just good poker stories, including gems such as how Phil Laak kept taking breaks from a $25-50 NLH game to make out with an apparent fan. Nice.

Good luck to all you playing out in WSOP events this year; with record-breaking numbers in every event, including a main event that is likely to sell out in advance, you'll need it!

There's an interesting and pretty well-researched article on poker bots in this weekend's LA Times.

Gaming companies won't disclose all their secrets for sniffing out bots, but some of the techniques are simple. Any person playing three tables simultaneously for 48 hours without a bathroom break, for example, or invariably taking exactly one second to bet, is not a person.

Link

(Obviously they've never seen me in Vegas :)

A problem with online bot detection is that it's very easy against stupid bot programmers, and impossible against smart bot programmers. As with most bleeding edge industries, in the beginning there were not very many bot programmers, and most of them were stupid. But as cardrooms go after bot programmers and users and become more sophisticated in detection methods, they cause the bot-loving community to get more sophisticated at the same time as the bot community is growing exponentially.

That said, I'm fairly confident that bots do not pose a significant threat to online poker for the foreseeable future, for a few reasons. The community of human poker players should continue to be so much larger than the community of undetected bot players even if cardrooms don't get super-sophisticated with detection mechanisms. The obstacles to setting up a very large number of accounts to get paid in/out of on an online poker room alone are a significant deterrent to the kind of game-draining volume the bot community would have to produce -- the number of bot programmers who are able to successfully set up and play out of (and get paid back into) dozens of accounts on one site over significant periods of time should be relatively small due to barriers to entry.

Any person playing online needs to accept that there is a degree of collusion and bot-related activity that is 100% undetectable by casinos. That does not mean there are not good games. I'm not even sure it means there are less good games, certainly at least while online poker continues on a steep growth curve. So accept that bots exist, and accept that collusion exists, and accept that you can still become a profitable online poker player if that's what you wish to do.

Another reason I think bots will not kill online poker is that online poker as it is today is not what it will be in ten years. There is a tremendous amount of potential innovation in online poker that hasn't even had its surface scratched. What will online poker look like in ten years? I don't know, but I'd wager it will be light years ahead of, and different from, online poker today. There's certainly a lot of room for innovation in the games that can be played. There is a whole wealth of games that are impractical or impossible to play in person that become possible online. One of the trends with most online game-related activities that are based on "in-the-flesh" games is how much inertia the playing communities have to innovation in the early stages of growth. Focusing on creating sites where people can play poker like they do in a home game or casino game is a great concept but it's too narrow.

The types of things I'm thinking of for poker-related games would be things like EV-based pots, where you get paid not on whether you actually won but on the EV of the bets you made; crazy variations like 20-person three-deck hold'em and five-board hold'em; dynamic rule poker where each game's rules are randomly generated; derivatives of poker that have nothing to do with the concept of a 52-card deck, etc.

In the meantime, online poker rooms are set up almost exactly like brick-and-mortar rooms. There have been a few notable innovations, like speed games and max 5 tables, but for the most part looking around an online cardroom feels like you're looking at the game slate for a massive casino.

The type of change I'm thinking of is similar to the changes that computer war games went through during the 80's and 90's, when the real-time strategy game (RTS) genre was pioneered.

Initially, most computer war games were direct ports of hard core, grognard-type board games -- these were accessible to someone who knew and loved such board games, but offered almost nothing more than the board game version other than automated housekeeping chores like dice rolling, piece moving, rule enforcement, etc. Even if the rules were automatically enforced, the players still had to be aware of a ton of rules, the games were still mostly turn-based, and played very much like their physical counterparts. They may have been fun, but they didn't really tap the power of the computer to change the game. They were simply computer-enhanced ways to play a physical board game, much like online poker is today.

The first genuine real-time strategy game was Herzog Zwei, which was introduced in 1989 -- thirty-seven years after the first computer game was created. Even then, Herzog Zwei was a Sega Genesis game, and it took another three years for the RTS genre to make it to the PC in the form of Dune II, and then another two years after that for the first blockbuster RTS games, Warcraft and Command & Conquer, released in 1994/1995. They revolutionized the computer war game genre, and pretty much sounded the death knell for board game-style computer war games for the mainstream market. (See here for an excellent full history of RTS games.)

Real-time strategy computer games illustrate the level of innovation I expect to see in online poker in the next decade or two. Today's real-time strategy game is absolutely light years ahead of anything you can enjoyably play in board game form. They have thousands more rules, but the rules are less conspicuous to the player than playing the most basic board-based war game; they have magnitudes more units, pieces, and variations of pieces, which the player learns during gameplay; they support many more players than the average board game and at the top end can scale to hundreds of thousands of consecutive players; they have immersive experiences with sound and video; and unlike any complex board game, they have virtually zero "downtime" and the player is engaged in action and decision-making every second of the game.

If you asked a computer game player in 1987 what they thought the future of computer war games was, they probably couldn't imagine in their wildest dreams the level of sophistication, gameplay, and pure fun that real-time strategy games got to during the 90's; the paradigm shift was swift and dramatic. It also brought accessibility of these games to massive segments of the population who had never even seen a sophisticated board wargame let alone played one.

Despite the massive challenges in online poker, I think the future is a bright and rosy one. I especially look forward to the day where online poker innovations make it something as completely unique and different as RTS games are to board games. I find online poker to be fairly boring and tedious, but there's no reason it should be. It's like that right now because moving the physical game of poker onto computers has removed more from the game than it has added. The possibilities of the new platform haven't even really been considered yet.

My point is that despite what you may read or think about bots, collusion, and the like, online poker is not on a downward spiral, it's at the very beginning of a massive upward spiral. It took 37 years of computer game industry evolution to realize the first successful real-time strategy game, and then another 5 to produce a massive hit. Huge innovations don't happen overnight, but I think online poker has a long way to evolve.

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