Around the WSOP: Star gazing, voting rights and rebuys, By Vin Narayanan - Casino City Times - 3rd June 2008
Star gazing
Sometimes, you don't recognize a single person at a WSOP table. And sometimes, you see Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Isabelle Mercier, Bill Edler, Thomas Keller and Eric Froelich. And that's exactly what happened at Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Hold'em). But with a field of 332 players including stars like Chad Brown, Freddy Deeb, Eli Elezra, Barry Greenstein, John Hennigan, Phil Ivey, Phil Laak (we could stop name dropping here, but we won't), Ted Lawson, Erick Lindgren, Jeff Madsen, Nenad Medic, Michael Mizrachi, Victor Ramdin, Greg Raymer, Vanessa Rousso, Joe Sebok, Mark Seif and Gavin Smith, you're going to get a few tables like this (especially considering we didn't come close to naming all the top players playing in this event). And if you think busting one of these players out makes table any easier, think again. When Negreanu was forced to the rail, he was replaced at the table by Dewey Tomko.
Voting rights
The next time players at the WSOP vote on something, abstention should not be an option. At 5:45 a.m., with 20 players remaining in Event #2 ($1,500 No Limit Hold'em), the players took a vote on whether to suspend play until later in the afternoon, or keep on playing until a final table was determined. The vote was a tie with several players abstaining. ABSTAINING. Come on poker players. You can't ABSTAIN. It's not a nuclear disarmament agreement. It's poker. When the field was narrowed to 18 players, there was another vote (where apparently, not everyone participated again). But this time, the players voted to suspend play. And for those keeping score at home, Chris Ferguson has made the final 18 of this event. He's currently in 14th place.
Rebuy!
Rebuy tournaments can be fun to watch because players can (and will) go a bit nuts in terms pushing the action because they know they can always rebuy to stay into the tournament. For those of you who think the term nuts is a bit harsh, consider the fact that PokerNews is reporting Phil Ivey was sitting at a table in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with rebuys tournament (Event #5) with $100,000 in casino chips so he continue to rebuy if play warranted it. And at another table, there have already been 58 rebuys. Wow!!
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