With regular hosts Laura Lane on vacation and Bernard Lee in Las Vegas, ESPN Poker Editor Andrew Feldman assumed the helm of “Inside Deal.” The ESPN.com poker news show sponsored by PokerStars welcomed Barry Greenstein.
Lee appeared via satellite from Sin City, where he’s competing in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). With five final tables coming up on ESPN3.com, Lee explained what viewers might witness in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, which starts on June 30th: “I don’t think there are going to be huge names that the general public knows. We’ll probably see a couple of people that are very familiar, but we’ll also see some people who are very big online names, but the general public won’t know them.”
Pros have dominated the 2010 WSOP so far. In fact, through the first 37 completed events, pros have taken down 25 bracelets, or a 68% success rate. Lee gave his take on the past month of action: “It’s the Year of the Redemption. I also think the Year of the Pro is coming about. A lot of these people who are having their redemption years and second bracelets are pros. It really shows that their experience is coming through.”
Greenstein finished ninth in the voting for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions out of the 20 players voted in by the general public. On top of the leaderboard was Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey, who Greenstein noted might not even play in the invite-only event: “I haven’t even talked to Phil about it. I would guess he would play. What he was probably concerned about was the way they had it set up initially, it was going to conflict with him playing in events and he has a bunch of side bets.”
Last week on the ESPN “Poker Edge” podcast, co-host Phil Gordon told Feldman and the show’s listeners, “I heard that Phil Ivey is not even going to play. I was told that because there is a bracelet event the same day as the TOC, Phil isn’t going to play the TOC… You might be seeing Ivey running back and forth from the TV table.” Feldman then suggested holding the Tournament of Champions over the November Nine weekend.
On the field of 27 that will take to the felts in the Tournament of Champions, which includes 25 bracelet winners and two qualifiers, Greenstein told “Inside Deal” viewers: “Some people were complaining, ‘Hey, why didn’t we get some of the newer, younger players?’ This is really more like an all-star game and is based more on the career you put forward, so I’m happy that people consider me in the top 20 most popular players.” Greenstein received just over 9,800 votes for the Tournament of Champions, while Ivey and Daniel Negreanu each earned over 16,000.
Attendance for Mixed Games at the 2010 WSOP is up compared to last year. In Greenstein’s eyes, the growth is in part due to the influence of the world’s largest online poker rooms like PokerStars: “It’s been helped by the Eight-Game on PokerStars and I think some of the other sites have put on Mixed Games. It makes poker more interesting. I’ve always enjoyed, when I play cash games, playing as many games as possible. It’s boring to play one game.” Greenstein added that he used to take bathroom breaks during Limit Hold’em rounds because grew tired of the age-old poker variation.
Lee and Greenstein debated the merits of adding other tournaments to the annual WSOP schedule. Greenstein, who sits on the WSOP Player’s Advisory Council, revealed that online poker players have asked for a Six-Max Pot Limit Omaha Championship. Lee pitched combination games like a Lowball Championship and Stud Championship.
“Inside Deal” is released every week exclusively on ESPN.com.
