WSOP

Last night I watched part of the main event of this year's World Series of Poker. ESPN took the 7 days of action from back in July and edited it into 12 - 1 hour episodes that they are now showing. This year over 5600 people plopped down $10,000 a piece to have the chance to win $7.5 million. It was ultimately won by an Australian who if I remember correctly this was his first big tournament.

I watched episode 3 last night and got to do one of my favorite things to do with televised poker; watch Phil Hellmuth lose. Hellmuth is the world's greatest poker player in his own mind but hasnt really won any tournaments in a couple of years (NBC's heads up tourney this year doesnt count) but every year at the WSOP he says he is playing the best poker of his career and guarantees a win, only to lose.

Phil lost the majority of his chips against a guy that probably shouldnt have been involved in the hand but he was and ultimately won against Phil on the river. If you are unfamiliar with No Limit Hold-em look here for the rules. It was great! He gets up and walks away from the table ranting and raving the whole time, goes talks to his psychiatrist wife for a while, and then walks around before finally going back to the table only to lose the rest of his chips the next hand he plays.

The other neat thing they showed last night was a guy in the tourney that was playing with no hands! He had a ramp like device on the table that he would pull his cards up with his toes so that he could see what he had been dealt. It was amazing to watch but they only showed him for 2 quick segments, maybe 30 seconds a piece. He had a guy that would help him stack his chips when he won but otherwise he was on his on. I really wished they had done a feature on him and showed him playing more. I think it would have been very inspirational.