WPPA ENTRANTS IMPROVING, HORSESHOE CHAMPIONSHIP ON FRIDAY

The WPPA Tournament of Champions continues at the Orleans today with a $1000 Omaha Hi-Lo event. Registration problems have apparently been solved and the turnout was good considering the event. A few well known professionals were observed in the group of 38 entrants. Charlie Shoten was playing well at one of the tables while Richard Brodie, Lion Tales Blog, was building his stack at another. Yesterday’s winner, Dan Heimiller, continued in the action today after he outplayed everyone in the Limit Hold’em event on Wednesday to take home the $7,440 first place money. Greg Fund was second, winning $4,465 in prize money and Max Pescatori received $2,975 for third. The event tomorrow, Friday at noon, will be a No-Limit Hold’em shootout with a $1000 + $40 buy-in. The number of players is expected to show a dramatic increase over the past couple of days.

The WPPA tournaments are designed to favor the better poker players and move the luck factor to a less important role in determining the winners. The blind structure begins low and has small incremental increases allowing the more skilled player to have an opportunity to play a solid “A” game without the worries of becoming short stacked from paying rapidly increasing blinds. The time segments for the different levels of blinds and antes are longer, again an effort to favor the better player. I believe this structure is much better for the game, the players and provides a good image for the sport. It proves that poker is very much the game of skill with luck no longer being the determining factor since it is equally distributed around the tables and drops out of the equation. Yesterday’s final table match offered exactly this situation, lasting into the early evening with the highly skilled final three players using all of their abilities in their efforts to win the contest. The crowd gathered round the table watched some great poker and appreciated the good show from the trio. The highly competitive poker industry needs more tournaments with this blind and time structure. It is good for the game.

Tomorrow, Friday the 1st, sees the first day of Binion’s Ten Days of Hold’em Tournament’s $5,000 Main Event. The players will be competing for the money and the $10,000 seat in the ESOP 2005 Main Event at the Rio and the final WSOP final table at the Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. Come play for the seat and an opportunity to become part of history during the next World Series of Poker.