Recently on the cable television show "Inside Poker", Mike Matasow was asked to respond to the word "tradition" as it related to poker. He responded, "Well tradition, when we used to come here to Binion's Horseshoe [for the WSOP], there was so much tradition and so much feeling when you walked in.
Now that Harrahs has it at the Rio, the tradition is all gone, only Corporate Bull****. It sucks! It's all about money-hungry people that care nothing about the players. Their addition of all those no limit tournaments [to the WSOP schedule] shows what they think of tradition. Traditions are really, really gone in poker."
My recent trip to the WSOP confirmed his observations. While Harrahs loudly trumpeted more port-a-johns and cheaper pizza as big improvements over last year, the Binion's traditions of free meals and low room rates were gone.
I found room rates offered on the internet that were $1300 cheaper than the "special WSOP RIO rates" offered during July 4-27 (excluding July 14-15). For playing in a $1000 buy-in tourney, I got one $10 food coupon that reduced my breakfast bill in the Cafe from $21 to $11.
In addition, you got no credit at all for live game or satellite play. Harrahs' Total Rewards System was not used to "facilitate play" one floor man told me. It appeared it greatly facilitated Harrahs' profits.
I was not surprised to see Harrahs produce over 2 billion dollars in profits for the 2nd quarter. The only way for the average poker player to win may be to invest in Harrahs' stock. The old traditions created by Binions are gone. Mike is right! After getting knocked out of the 2005 WSOP. Phil Hellmuth said, "If they took the luck factor out of (no limit hold'em) poker tournaments, I would win them all."
One of the reasons for the tremendous growth in tournament purses for no-limit hold'em tournaments is the fact that new and inexperienced players have flocked to the game after seeing other players win through a lot of good luck and a small investment. Chris Moneymaker jumpstarted things by winning the 2004 WSOP and 2.4 Million on an investment of $60.
Recent examples include a Bulgarian, who defeated 991 players in one satellite and 250 in a second satellite, to reach a recent Poker Dome Challenge in Las Vegas. He readily admitted to only playing hold'em for three months. His play showed that he did not know all the rules of play (continually folding unraised big blinds before the flop and trying to bet or raise amounts that were less than the big blind), yet he finished in 2nd instead of 1st only when his opponent hit a flush on the river to luckily win a pot with over 70% of the chips in it.
A final example is the Denver Poker Tour which is the largest free entry game in the country. The tour is played in 25 different bars on any night across the state of Colorado. Many players play in 11 tournaments (with up to 160 players) each and every week. "All you need is a little luck and you can win in this game," an avid player told me at a recent event. In surveying a hundred random players, 80% said they would not play if the luck factor were taken out of hold'em.
Prior to the flop in hold'em no two cards are as much as a 20-1 underdog to any other two cards. Rarely do you see someone more than a 5-1 underdog pre-flop. In a game structured like this, luck will be a factor
If players could not win through luck, then eventually only the talented players would be playing tournaments. This would mean that prize money would be sharply reduced and according to Daniel Negreanu and others, Phil would not fare too well against only top players. Phil is wrong!.
