Druff: WSOP

[Pooh]

Hi Druff,

Can you share with us some overall assessments of this years WSOP?

Did you feel there was a different vibe this year, being a full year away from Black Friday?

Were there less players and was it noticeable?

Were the fields stronger or weaker than previous years?

Do you have any regrets from the series this year? Now, knowing how the series panned out do you wish you folded into the money in that first event then possibly getting hot and going deeper?

How many players do you think the Main will get?

Did you meet Slim T/Rawolf and was it everything you hoped for?

Did you wear any PFA gear during the tournaments?

Thanks.

[Dan Druff]

Did you feel there was a different vibe this year, being a full year away from Black Friday?

There was a lot less excitement and fanfare. Looked like a lot of people just showed up and played, and it no longer had that "This is a big thing!" vibe anymore. Press coverage of the WSOP seems to be at its lowest point since the poker boom started in 2003.

Were there less players and was it noticeable?

The "donkaments" -- the $1000 and $1500 full-ring NL events -- seemed to continue to do very well. I haven't looked much at the non-holdem event fields, but the limit holdem event fields were way down, aside from the $1500 event which did well attendance-wise.

Were the fields stronger or weaker than previous years?

Hard to tell. I think I ran bad with starting tables, as most events I played featured tougher-than-expected first tables, but friends and acquaintances of mine were bragging about the ease of their starting tables at the same events. I liked my first table at the $3000 Limit event (aside from Ray Henson being on my direct left), and I liked the starting table at the $1500 Ante Only event (before a few of them busted and they filled those seats plus the empty seats with good, young online guys).

I will say that there seemed to be fewer outright awful players in the fields, but there did seem to still be a healthy number of semi-donks.

Do you have any regrets from the series this year? Now, knowing how the series panned out do you wish you folded into the money in that first event then possibly getting hot and going deeper?

The "refusal to fold to $11k" continues to haunt me every time I brick another event. I keep wavering on this one, but I convince myself (and I think accurately) that I was right to be playing to win a bracelet with 19 left, and not to squeak into a $6k profit on a 5k event. But yes, that one still hurts.

I don't really have any other regrets, except for a few marginal hands where I folded pre-flop instead of playing them, and then would have flopped huge. I always wonder if those moments would have made everything turn out differently. Tournament poker has a major "butterfly effect" with every decision that you and others make.

One little known fact is that I should have busted without making money in the infamous "seat cover spinning" $1500 Limit Holdem event in 2005. In the middle of Day 1, I was very short-stacked and had 88. The button 3-bet me, and the SB inexplicably folded JJ, not understanding that doing so is terrible when a big stack is isolating a shortstack. (It's also terrible in general in limit hold 'em, barring a great read.)

The button had AK, board ran out blank for both of us, and I doubled instead of busting thanks to that terrible JJ fold. I ended up finishing 3rd for $116k, and I think it's safe to say that the next event I won would have probably turned out differently had I finished differently in the $1500 event. So in a way you can say that I owe my bracelet -- and about $450k -- partially to that idiot folding JJ.

This type of stuff makes me think about how other things would have turned out differently had I played some marginal hands differently.

How many players do you think the Main will get?

6800

Did you meet Slim T/Rawolf and was it everything you hoped for?

Met him briefly, and he was an interesting guy, similar to what you hear of him on the radio. Unfortunately he didn't feel well and could only be with me for about 5 minutes. I did book a $400 bracelet bet with him for two events ($200 each), where I agreed to give this site a $20,000 freeroll for each event if he wins a bracelet in them. I believe one has already passed without him winning, but the other is coming up (Event #53).

Did you wear any PFA gear during the tournaments?

Don't have any yet.