The next couple weeks I’m playing like a madgrub trying to qualify for a WSOP seat. If not the main event, one of the other events.
And I’m prepared to go bust again in the process.
I look at places like Mansion Poker and drool at their $100,000 guarantees that have now converted temporarily to awarding a guaranteed eight seats to the WSOP (at $12,500 a pop). They may not have as many players as other sites, but as a result, have a huge overlay of some $50,000 in each of these tourneys.
Unfortunately, Mansion is no longer available to U.S. players, so I have to settle for trying to get in through Full Tilt.
My best shot will be through a satellite, and I’m focusing on June 17, which is when they’ll be awarding a guaranteed 100 main event seats for a $500+35 buy-in.
I just played a $69+6 satellite for a seat into that (lost when I pushed with AJ and was called with A8) and plan to play several more to get into this thing, at least until my attempts approach $535. The closer we get to the date, FT will probably begin their crazy 100-chip gamblin’ super turbos to make sure they don’t have to fork over any of their own money.
Since Harrah’s is now prohibiting online sites from registering on behalf of players, sites are just giving the cash to players for them to buy-in themselves.
If I won a $10,000 seat and was given the cash, I’m certainly not going to put it all down on one buy-in. That’s the point of the satellite, to force you to play. With $10k, I’d sooner put it all down on one hand of blackjack than one seat in the main event. If I’m in that position, I’d put part of it toward a couple WSOP events and the rest toward cash games.
And just a couple hands of blackjack.
I think the World Series will be completely different next year. With Harrah’s going private, I suspect they’ll be looking to break up and sell off some of their casinos around the country. And I think after the new owners see the drop in players this year (because of online qualifiers who would similarly rather keep the $10,000 than blow it all on one seat), the WSOP brand will be one of the things they dump.
Before the buyout, I was expecting Harrah’s would be announcing plans for their south Strip casinos to compete with MGM Mirage’s Project CityCenter and Boyd’s Echelon, and I figured one of their casinos would be imploded, rebuilt, and rebranded Horseshoe to house the largest poker room in Las Vegas that would also host the World Series with class instead of in a far away convention room inside a casino.
But now that the top people are gone, I think they’ll let the WSOP go to the highest bidder, which I first thought could likely be Steve Wynn until Kirk Kerkorian announced he wanted Bellagio and Project CityCenter for his very own.
Imagine the WSOP at Bellagio or a brand new space within the neighboring CityCenter. The two properties would be separate from MGM Mirage and therefore distanced from the World Poker Tour.
All speculation, of course, and I have no insider knowledge about any of this. But I wonder what Kerkorian has in mind. He already owns over 50 percent of MGM Mirage. Why take its tentpole properties private? What does he have up his sleeve?