Bigger Deal

You can rely on the World Series of Poker for enlightening new takes on the game. Among the new rules introduced this year by the Players Advisory Committee is an intriguing clause making it illegal to ‘induce’ a call. Sometimes, amid all the Machiavellian chat at the table made so fashionable by television, this can clash with the established rule about not revealing your hand during play.

This was the one that got last year’s champ, Jamie Gold, into such trouble. After conceding, some months after the event, that he had broken it more than once (as seen on TV), Gold was given an official pardon – which did not stop an ill-tempered front-page editorial in the US version of Poker Player magazine demanding that the reigning champ be barred from entering the tournament this year.

All of which may explain a pretty harsh ruling made yesterday, midway through Day 2-B, when an opponent contemplating a call asked a player named Tommy Giampaolo "Do you have the king?"

"Yeah," replied Giampaolo, "I have the king." The opponent chose to believe him and mucked, then summoned a floorman for a ruling. His decision was to give Tommy G a nine-hand penalty for disclosing his hand. "Had you lied about the hand," the official told him, "that would have been okay."

Does this buttress my long-held conviction that poker is a metaphor for life? I am still pondering the matter. All opinions welcome. But it certainly reaffirms my belief that TV has a lot to answer for when it comes to poker etiquette.

Today is the big day, when we – that’s to say, they – finally reach the money. Of some 2,300 Day Two starters, from an initial field of 6,358, only 808 have survived to Day Three. The cash kicks in at 621^st place, which we should reach early this evening after all the TV delays associated with the dread bubble.

"All in and call" will echo around the Rio’s Amazon Room as ESPN rushes to catch numerous potentially dramatic moments before finding the actual ‘heartbreak’ one; and the entire room will grind almost to a halt for a while as the tables are kept in synch. Whoever finishes 622^nd will get nothing for three long days’ work, in which he or she will have vanquished 5,737 of the world’s top players. Unless, of course, like last year, Harrah’s takes pity and awards a free entry for next year – in which case the worst place to finish (and the real bubble) will be 623^rd. Either way, the player who finishes in 621^st place will double the entry fee with $20,320 – and so on upwards (0ver another five days) to the $8.25 million first prize.

The 2007 main event may be smaller than last year’s – a record 8,773 starters, with a $12 million first prize – but that’s the only visible impact of the US anti-gaming legislation on this year’s World Series of Poker. Many of the lesser events have proved record-breakers – as is this year’s number of registered players for all 55 events, which totals no fewer than 54,288.

Now, at last, the Rio can fit all surviving ‘main event’ players into one room. Among those who won’t be there, having fallen yesterday, are former world champs Joe Hachem, Dan Harrington, Tom McEvoy, Chris Moneymaker and Brad Daugherty, plus such other poker names as Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Phil Gordon, Allen Cunningham, Hoyt Corkins and Tony G. Also gone are Britain’s Vicky Coren and Ross Boatman and Ireland’s Padraig Parkinson. The tournament’s oldest player, 94-year-old Jack ‘Jeffrey’ Ury, was also an early departee.

Of the survivors, EPT boss John Duthie leads the British charge wiith 381,500, closely followed by Jac Arama with 302,000, Willie Tann (282,000), Julian Gardner (130,000) and Neil Channing (125,000). Former champs still in with the chance of a repeat are Huck Seed on 280,000, Carlos ‘The Matador’ Mortensen (260,000), Berry Johnston (191,000), and Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson (150,000); Bobby Baldwin is hanging in there with just 16,800. Chip Jett (260,000) and Ted Forrest (250,000) are also well-placed, while Hollywood side-bets have been won by Tobey ‘Spiderman’ Maguire, still there 150K. In the family department, Doyle Brunson’s daughter Jennifer (125K) and son Todd (95K) have both outlasted their old man. Leading the field with 622,300 is none other than Gus (‘the Great Dane’) Hansen, to the surprise of many fellow pros who regard him as a poker eccentric. But there’s still a long, long way to go.

Having started Day 2-A with 40,000, the Telegraph’s David Flusfeder is also right up there with 265,000. At lunchtime yesterday I bumped into the novelist-cum-cardsharp outside the poker room in our hotel, and he told me that there finally came a point when he developed the feeling all we amateurs yearn for: that he was still there as of right, not by dint of luck more than judgment. Go, Dave! Whatever happens now – and he has a great chance of getting into the money, maybe going deep – Flusfeder will surely achieve the all-time best finish (I blush to say) of any British player-writer. There’s an entertaining account of his Day 2 at Telgraph Blog. David’s new novel, The Pagan House, is published by Fourth Estate a week today. Will he be back in Blighty in time to promote it? If he wins the $8.25 million first prize, will he bother?

Play begins in half an hour. So off I go, on all your behalves, to monitor developments.

Or maybe I’ll go play in the noon tourney at the Wynn…