3 Point Blogs - 3PointScore.com

From late June to early August thousands of poker players gather at the Rio Hilton for the World Series of Poker. An event that dates back to the mid 1970s when the first World Series of Poker was only 20 poker players invited to Binions.

Since then poker has grown like Barry Bonds on sterioids. The explosion was caused by Chris Moneymaker in 2003, a CPA who turned $40.00 in to 2.5 million and we won't talk about what has happend to him since.

In 2005, Greg Raymer, won the Main Event for a total of 5 million and last year Joe Hashem made 7.5. The WSOP is a series of poker tournaments where the winner of the event will get the gold braclet and the first place cash which sometimes is over $300,000.00. Most buy-in's are only $1,500.00 and the max is $50,0000.00.

This only goes to show that poker has exploded all over the world. With half of the entrants into the Main Event this year are online qualifiers, there is a lot of 'dead money' in the early stages of the event. With the Main Event spread over 2 weeks, the Rio is expecting over 8,000 entrants this year. First place will make over 9 million and the braclet.

With so many people in the events and most of the events hold'em, this asks the question, 'Does a braclet mean anything anymore?'

In the July edition of CardPlayer magazine, Doyle Brunson has an excellent quote on this.

'You hear people say, 'Do you know I won a braclet in 2005 in no-limit hold'em?' So what, so did 30 other people.'

The reason that most of the events are hold'em is beacuse thats the game people see on tv. They don't see 7 Card Stud, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo or even Stud Hi/Lo.

The WSOP did add the $50,000.00 H.O.R.S.E *Hold'em, Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, 7 Stud and 7 Stud Hi/Lo* event to the schedule this year but is it enough?

I don't think it is and most of the pros feel the same way. If you look back when Josh Arieh won his Pot Limit Omaha braclet in 2005 he stated with the hold'em events so big, your forced to learn a new game if you want a braclet.

I feel who ever wins a braclet in the non-hold'em events have a bit more to brag about then those who win a hold'em event.

I agree with Doyle that the $50,000.00 H.O.R.S.E event should decided who the world champ is for the year.

Be sure to look back here and see my recap of the WSOP at the end of August!