VIVA LAS VEGAS -- August 8th -- The timing for the WSOP this year was impacted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) when they arrested David Carruthers, CEO of BETonSPORTS, in Dallas, Texas, while changing planes on his return to Costa Rica from the Company’s AGM in the UK.

Other online gaming company executives like Calvin Ayre, CEO of BoDog.com, were compelled to change their plans of attending the WSOP, and supporting events, as a precautionary measure to avoid being possibly arrested themselves; eventhough unrelated to the BoS situation. Also, a compelling reason why I live in Las Vegas.

You see, not only had the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill onto the U.S. Senate called the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act (IGPEA), but Washington’s governor, Christine Gregoire, has signed into law a bill proposed by State Senator Margarita Prentice that makes Washington the first state to outlaw online gaming. The irony in all this is scuttlebutt has it, per an internet website, that Senator Prentice is said to have received numerous campaign contributions from land based casinos in Washington that may’ve had an influence on the introduction of the bill in the first place. Make sense to you? Gambling houses wanting gambling illegal?

Not only does the law ban online gambling, but it also bans even talking about online gambling; poker, sportsbooks, etc. Specifically the law outlaws the passing of ‘gambling information’, and gambling information is defined in the law as: “information as to wagers, betting odds and changes in betting odds shall be presumed to be intended for use in professional gambling.” Finally, the law prohibits websites such as mine from providing links to online poker sites, or sportsbooks, for my readers to enjoy in their spare time.

This, my friends, was one of the main topics of discussion among the many operators I spoke with at the WSOP. Basically, people were stymied how the U.S. House of Representatives could pass legislation that banned online gaming, ‘to protect the morals of our children’, and yet they would allow people to bet on horse racing online. Perhaps if we all agreed to wear top hats and frilly Kentucky Derby bonnets they would allow us to play poker online?

When I left the exhibition hall however, and began mingling with the poker players themselves, the topic of discussion was entirely different. Politics was the furthest thing from their minds, and they were more concerned with how an amateur online poker player, for example, could go all-in with J-10 offsuit, and hit a J-10 on the flop, making the pocket Kings of the traditional poker player counterfeit, all the way to the River.

Along with pro & semi-pro players being 'off balance' playing against amateurs who'd never played in a professional poker tournament before, there was also frustration over the sheer number of players entered into this year's WSOP. To give you an insight into how much the field has grown over the past 10/years I have listed 4/years below:

1996 WSOP Championship Main Event - 295 entrants.
2000 WSOP Championship Main Event - 512 entrants.
2004 WSOP Championship Main Event - 2,576 entrants.
2006 WSOP Championship Main Event - 8,773 entrants.

This years event was roughly 50% larger than last year's number of 5,619 entrants, and we can only anticipate we'll see the same growth next year. Having spoken with several amateur players who'd been eliminated, and by their own admission, they were astounded by the number of players, and the event itself, because they'd only played online up until the WSOP.

A professional poker player will tell you that they're uncomfortable playing againt the amateur poker players because you never know whether they're following the conventional guidelines of poker, or not. If the pre-flop betting is heavy, a pro may muck an A-4, but the amateur may go all-in with a K-5, hoping to get lucky on the flop.

So, needless to say, different new methods of holding the WSOP in the future were bantered about, and even Daniel Negreanu proposed a unique, and apropos concept, on his blog. Essentially, there would be separate tournaments for bracelet and non-bracelet winners (or pros, and non-pros). Therein lies the problem - a boatload of seats were given away to online poker players with little to no experience in professional poker tournaments. Perhaps, if there's an online WSOP event for amateurs, and a Brick & Mortar (B&M) WSOP event for professionals, and the best of both fields then compete in a smaller showdown, we would see more of the pros we all enjoy watching?

Actually, right now I'm looking at the stats on CardPlayer, and other than Allen Cunningham, I cannot find a name I recognize among the remaining 27 players vying to go to the Final Table of the WSOP. You can be sure though, that come August 10th, I will be tuning in the final table on ESPN pay-for-view to see if my bet for Allen Cunningham to win-place-show comes to fruition.

Where will I be moving you ask? Just outside of Reno, Nevada, where I will be covering the action of WPT & WSOP Circuit Events for our PokerAllstar site, so stayed tuned, and also be watching PokerNewsweb this fall as we will be offering freerolls for our loyal members & readers.

Good luck, and happy gaming.

Kurt

Editors Note: Kurt Stine is the publisher and editor of the ComKings network, which includes: PokerNewsweb, PokerAllstar, and GamingInvesting.