 1st May
2001 |
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| Jesse May |
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| Jesse May, multiple
author in the gambling field and sometimes dubded the "voice of poker", writes
a bi-weekly column. |
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Most people know Jesse as "the voice of poker" from his
colourful commentary in CH4's late Night Poker. Jesse is also the author of the
widely respected novel, Shut Up And
Deal, which looks deep into the poker playing life. Its the hard faced
21st Century Cincinnati Kid.
Jesse is
also the creator of The Gambler's Guide to
the World, an insiders look at the action and games around the
world. |
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Email :
Jesse
May
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It's really tough to watch the 2001 World
Series Of Poker from the sidelines. And I don't mean the rail, I'm a world
class sweater on everything from twenty-four hour pool matches to poker
tournaments to backgammon games to screw your neighbor. I'll sweat if they're
gambling. When I say sidelines I say the Internet sidelines, trying to drag
down information from clog footers who have their nose and their head in the
crowd, for something we can glean. It's interesting how the WSOP is caught in
that mix of a big news event and nothing at all. To those who care, the WSOP is
a big event, huge, and we need the information now, like when it happens. But
so many people won't become aware of it until later, and it might become a
bigger event worldwide through the Discovery channel or other poker vehicles
then it will ever reach over the next two weeks. And finding out new
information now is almost a full time job with the timings of the popular
channels.
The first place something gets posted is oftentimes on RGP,
the discussion group rec.gambling.poker. If you have trouble accessing this
forum using your newsgroup application, you can also access it directly on the
web at the address at the bottom of the page.
Andy Glazer is the best
bet for final table information, he sits through all of them and gives you the
entertaining hand by hand of the action, along with done deals. Catch him on
poker.casino.com.
Pokerpages.com has yet to claim a niche in World
Series coverage. To date, most of the information offered at this site is
another view on the same stuff Glazer saw, plus accurate information on player
placings and payouts, which they feverishly put up daily along with
cardplayer.com and pokersearch.com. No clear winner in this race yet.
Apparently pokerpages.com will have the only live internet coverage of the
final table of the final event, so they should rate a play for
that.
TheGoodGamblingGuide.com is being updated with tournament
information daily, plus it has some extensive background material for people
not as familiar with the event. During the week of the $10,000 buy-in World
Championship event, look for original coverage with daily postings of
interviews and the rest of the shindigs of the WSOP.
What a great final
table they had in the $1500 pot-limit Omaha event this year. The small friendly
round man Freddy Deeb, always known as one of the top traveling cash money pot
limit Omaha players on the planet, lying first in chips over the top woman
poker player on the planet, Annie Duke. Nicely followed up by multiple bracelet
winner and former world champion "Suds" Heimowitz. And then the Devilfish. And
remember, when you're playing pot-limit Omaha, you're playing in the
Devilfish's backyard. He owns that game.
If you've played a lot of
poker room poker, then you've been involved in ethical decisions. A lot of
them. Things that pop up with which there is no rule book guide to, the gray
area. What it comes down to is what sort of person you are. It's not one
decision, it's thousands of them, and you are defined in the poker room by how
you react to those many decisions, the decisions that come outside the strict
guidelines of the rules of the poker room. The decisions that come with knowing
how much money someone has in their pocket and what their best game is and who
they owe and who's got a piece of them and how many hours they been up in a row
and what kinds of drugs they're on. The decisions that come with making loans
and backing people and giving up percentages. Nobody gets around these
decisions, unless they lock themselves in an iron mask and don't utter a peep
for the rest of their lives. Stuff happens. And as a regular high stakes poker
player, your personality gets laid barer than one of those sun bleached bones
after it's been gnawed on by a hungry cheetah. People find out what you're made
of.
They see you up and they see you down, and they find out what
you're made of. That is why recent accusations of cheating in the current big
games in Las Vegas are absurd. Absurd. And I'm talking about the big game, now,
if you walk into the Bellagio in Las Vegas. You got to be kidding if you think
there's cheating going on in those big games there. Not just because of the
place. Because of the people.
You want to know what happened in the big
game at the Bellagio where the Texas banker lost the money? A guy came into the
poker room. He wanted to play the best. He had the money and he knew who the
best were. And he only wanted to play heads-up, one on one. And he only wanted
to play who he wanted to play with. And to get that arrangement, some of his
opponents gave out pieces of themselves, percentages. And the man played and he
lost.
There couldn't have been anything more open, and there couldn't
have been anything more honest. Collusion in a heads up match is an
impossibility, a cheating poker dealer at the Bellagio today is almost as silly
a proposition. If you think these players suddenly became different people then
who they've been, then that's illogical. That's what strange. Because it was
for a lot of money? It's always about money. It's always about money,
twenty-four hours of every day in the bright confines of the Bellagio poker
room, and some of the players who are having these charges leveled against them
are among the most honest in poker. Ted Forrest don't cheat, nor Howard
Lederer, Annie Duke. Howard Lederer is reported to be almost painful to be
around, he's so honest.
Attics are nice to clean, filed neatly into
bundles for archives and storybooks. My guess is that any stories waiting to
come out are stories from a different time, when Vegas was a different place
and poker was a different game. That stuff has been cleaned up, and that's why
old cheaters are now willing to tell tales. There is no place left for them to
ply their wares, so the time has come to air out the laundry. And their main
goal for airing out the laundry is to expose other people's
pasts.
People talk about cleaning up poker now. It's not the people that
need cleaning up, although I must confess rather than sport shirts I would even
prefer to see the poker players dressed like Nascar drivers, walking oil
billboards from head to toe, because at least that would mean sponsorship money
for them. The angles in the game that some would rather not see, taking pieces,
making loans, and making deals, these things will be a part of the poker world
while poker continues without sponsorship money and cash games continue to be
the main source of casinos' and poker players' revenue in the poker world.
Don't tell poker players what sort of risks they should take with their own
money.
The next step for poker is into a full fledged tour with
sponsorships. This would make the tournament circuit lucrative, number one.
This would free players to pursue other means of income besides cash games.
This would free casinos more into production opportunities for tournament
revenue, rather than cash game rakes. I believe that poker players are ready to
make this next step, the full fledged incorporation of tournament poker. Cash
games become second tier. Poker has been on the verge of this breakthrough for
a long time. It's coming. |
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