Bingo On The High Seas

by thetank
Submitted by: snoopy on Thu, 08/06/2006 - 7:41am
The Jahre Viking is a huge wonky oil tanker. Not just any ordinary dingy, it is the world’s most gynormous, man made, moving object. It may shock you to learn that this article’s main focus is the World Series of Poker, rather than a completely off topic tanker. However, as I am a huge fan of analogy, I will be comparing the two wherever I can for the next 13 paragraphs. After all, the main event at the WSOP is the worlds most gynormous, man made, poker tournament with a bigger prize pool than the USS Nimitz.

Since 1970 the hottest dogs in poker have gathered in Las Vegas with 10,000 clams to decide who is the best. They all play till one combatant has all the money. It’s where the format of the poker tournament, as we know and love it today, was born. The Jahre Viking first set to sea in the ‘70s too. It went by a different name back then. Like our favourite poker tournament, it has changed owners since its birth. Shifting hands for an amount of money not entirely dissimilar to last years WSOP prize pool.

From it’s inception, the event has captured the imagination of people all over the world, and has done wonders for increasing the exposure of the game. It’s known as 'the big one,' it’s the one everybody wants to win. If you’re good and lucky enough to take 1st place prize, you have the honour of being titled World Champion for 12 months. There is no doubting the romantic history, or how much it has shaped the game today.

It used to be an elite affair. Only the best (and the uber-rich) were prepared to stake $10k on their ability to play poker. Since then, it’s focus has shifted.

$10k in the 1970s was worth around $50k in today’s money. This, coupled with the invention, and explosion, of online satellites, means that anyone who wants to qualify badly enough, can do so. Consequently, this years field is expected to consist of 8,000+ dreamers, all with their eyes firmly set on poker’s ultimate prize.

So what used to be a proving ground for the poker elite, has become an everyman tournament. The change has occurred slowly, over 30 odd years, but it has now completely shifted 180 degrees. Like the Viking, which takes a cumbersome 2 miles to accomplish the same change in direction. Try doing a three point turn in the Panama Canal, it isn’t pretty. 

The sheer number of runners in recent WSOPs makes for a huge contradiction.  We all know that winning any tournament includes a certain amount of luck. Making it through a field of thousands involves so great a wad of fortune that there is less prestige in becoming the World Champion today than there once was. The contradiction being that, although the title will garner you less respect from your peers, the event is now so much harder to win!

At least the eight figured prize money will, in some small way, compensate this year's World Champion for not being universally recognized as the poker daddy.

Poker tournaments can never tell you who is the best, or most worthy. The closest system they had to determining that, was back in the inaugural year. There was no tournament format to speak of, they just all played cash games for a few days. At the end, they were asked to vote for who the best player was. Even then problems were aroused. In the first attempt at voting, there was a tie for first place, everyone just voted for themselves.

Ideas for a more prestigious shindig include a $50k HORSE event. (Holdem, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Hi-Lo) It’s having a trial run this year. Also, there has been talk of an event only open to previous bracelet winners. Neither will be for the official World title though. That is the main draw for most of the 8,000 participants this summer. From a marketing point of view, Harrah’s would be foolish to give that up.

Harrah’s have no wish for the event to be exclusive. They’ve elected not to raise the buy-in alongside inflation, or even to meet the entry fee of the $25k event that the Bellagio currently punts as it’s climax to the WPT season.

The sceptic in me thinks that it’s not due to any desire to offer the 'everyman' tournament, rather to make as many large buckets full of cash as they can. A field of 8,000 will make them more than a field of 500, whatever the buy-in.

The final table will be unlikely to offer many familiar faces to the viewer. When it comes to football, I’d rather watch England vs. Brazil than  Peru vs. Tongo any day of the week. I feel the same is true for Poker.

For the players involved in the whole experience, the kind of personal first class service that they may expect elsewhere, will be completely impossible to deliver. For these reasons and more, it’ll not be the prettiest tournament on offer in the world today.

Indeed, the Jahre Viking isn’t the prettiest thing floating in the seas - your Queen Marys and your Titanics may be more pleasing on the eye. However, the super tanker wasn’t constructed with aesthetics in mind.

It’s only purpose is to carry as many barrels of crude as possible, just as it seems the WSOP seems to be wanting to simply cram as many poker players into its events as can be physically coped with. They don’t even get all the remaining runners seated on the same day, and start the tournament proper, until a week after the first hand is dealt.

Don’t put me in charge though, I’ll probably make the main event a re-buy affair just to cheese everyone off. Just as if I were captain of the Viking, I might get drunk, have the (surprisingly small) crew of 40 Filipinos walk the plank, then plough into Monte Carlo harbour doing 13 knots for a giggle.

I mentioned earlier the time taken for each of my subjects to change direction (35 years and 2 miles). Well it takes the Jahre Viking a whopping 5 and a half miles to stop when going at full pelt. If my analogy is perfect, and everything is in direct proportion (I fail to see why it wouldn’t be), then we have at least 96 years of WSOP to look forward to. While there may be a question as to the authenticity of the big one nowadays, one thing is for a sure, it has momentum aplenty to be around for a while.

Thomas "thetank" Stott