The state of poker is changing by the minute. The over/under on the 2007 WSOP Main Event was floating between 9 and 10K before the Frist bill passed and now the number has dropped to about half of that. Once the bill is signed into law the number will certainly drop even more. By next May the WSOP may be nothing more than a narrow niche shadow of its' former self. I predict a much smaller crowd. This also means the WSOP Life Styles Exhibition will most certainly be gone since most of the paid exhibitors were online poker.net/com sites. Talk here in Las Vegas among some of the long time poker industry people says the current happenings will return the 2007 WSOP to a time when it was more poker tournament and less crap shoot and that might not be so bad, especially for the professionals. If they ran the Masters like the WSOP main event all if the fans would show up with a set of golf clubs and a score card.
I stopped by the Bellagio for a look at the Festa al Lago tournament that started on Monday and runs through the October 20th WPT $10K Championship final table. Today was the third event, a $2,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament that had 109 entrants. A noticed a definite lack of excitement (and players) that usually surrounds this major tournament. Maybe their all at the airport booking a flight out of the US.
Amy Calistra, AimlesslyChasing.com, has posted a great piece, A Hand Poorly played: Online Poker, and in her usual fashion is spot on with her assessment of how the current online poker crisis occurred. Amy offers some good advice for the online poker rooms. Bill Rini, Bill's Blog, has weighed in with his post, A Few Random Thoughts About The Outcome of the Port Security Bill, that provides an insight into what to expect from the impact on the poker industry and it's not a pretty sight. I believe Bill is absolutely right. The fallout from this unpopular legislation could return poker all the way back to the smoke filled caves hiding a small crowd of old guys.
