CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

April 25, 2009

Where Do We Go From Here?

The most recent World Poker Tournament event at Bellagio got off to a slow start. It appears many of the regulars just didn't show up for the various competitions -- at least until the big finale where more than 500 players, including most of the notable faces, showed up for a chance of the $2 million plus prize.

But as we discussed here during the last WPT contest at Bellagio, the poker draw seems to have waned, and now it's done it again.

What's up with this double dip? Has the economy taken a toll on poker tournaments? Have people lost interest in playing tournament poker? Has too much media exposure to poker caused an apathetic attitude about poker? Could there be too much big-money poker competition?

I hope someone can figure it out because I can't -- at least not with certainty.

I could say the economy has something to do with the turnaround, especially since buy-ins are about the same price as monthly rent in many places. However, that reminds me of the joke from Jay Leno or his predecessor or some comic who, when in Vegas, was approached by a man asking for a donation so he could buy his wife's desperately needed medicine. The comic handed him a handful of Benjamins and said, "Now don't use this for gambling," to which the man replied, "Oh, I have a gambling bankroll."

I could say people have lost interest in tournament poker but come on, now. How can you lose interest in a competition you can participate in as well as watch, an argument that also negates the over-covered point?

Frankly, I think it's competition. Just as the WPT is taking place, across the Strip the Venetian is hosting some low-buy-in, deep-stack tournaments with big prize money. To the South a bit, Caesars has a bunch of big-payday events and Excalibur, of all places, is hosting electronic poker machine satellites to the World Series of Poker. Around the remainder of Las Vegas a player with a yen for no-limit games can find any number of seats waiting for them.

I don't recall seeing any satellite tournaments for the WPT schedule at Bellagio, do you? I could have missed them, but if I did then the PR folks at that place (and Bellagio is one of my fave casinos) aren't doing their job.

Lest I win the lottery, hit megabucks or have the misfortune of inheriting a ton of money, I would not put my own cash up to get into any event over $300 buy-in. I don't think I'm unique, either.

I would like to see the World Poker Tour go on forever, not just because I enjoy this game but also because I learn a lot about people, about contests, and about poker tournament strategy by watching the events on TV (more so than in person, I might add), even though I know I'm seeing edited poker. But the glory days, those days when the founders still had the vision and excitement about a new, almost impossible project seem to have got to rest.

I do hope the poker powers don't look to media giants like NY Times or Yahoo for advice. The Times, for example, has seen a 45% drop in classified advertising this past quarter (2009). Is this because of the economy? Do people not have anything to sell? Hmmm. Could it be the competition from something like the giant www.CraigsList.com has undermined the newsprint and yahoo advertising economy? And if it has, how do the giants like the Times and Yahoo react? Presumably, since they blame the economy, they'll just wait for recovery.

Hate to tell them but É it's time for some out-of-the-box thinking here. It's time to accept that the old business model isn't working; it's time to look for new ways to get people to returnÑto the newpaper and to every important poker arena (and they are all important).