Online Poker

One of Poker.com's friends, Stuart Fox, finished 2nd in event 22 at the World Series - the $5000 NL Holdem.

He took home a handy $449k for his troubles. Well done mate!

In other WSOP news, the $5000 H.O.R.S.E. event is now running, with a host of big names in the hunt. Cyndy Violette is chip leader, with a host of other well known pros high on the standing also - Gavin Smith, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Greg Raymer to name a few.

The $3000 7 Stud Hi/Lo is down to 10 players, with Eli Elezra in the lead and Scotty Nguyen, David Sklansky and Thor Hansen on his heels.

This year's WSOP hasn't really seen many big names winning bracelets, but there has been a lot of star studded final tables. Apart from Phil Hellmuth and Allen Cunningham, all of the 'notable' pros have failed to capitalise once they get to the final table.

Here's a list of the winners so far, with the names of some pros I recognise that made the final table in brackets.

Event 1 - Steve 'MrSmokey1' Billirakis (Greg Mueller, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Kirk Morrison)
Event 2 - Frederick Narciso (Casino Employee Event)
Event 3 - Ciaran O'Leary
Event 4 - Mike Spegal (Gavin Smith, Marco Traniello)
Event 5 - Tom Schneider (Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, David Benyamine, Josh Arieh, John Phan)
Event 6 - Gary Styczynski (Varouzhan Gumroyan)
Event 7 - Burt Boutin (David 'Devilfish' Ulliot, Minh Ly, John Juanda, Humberto Brenes)
Event 8 - Michael Chu (Amir Vahedi, Shane 'Shaniac' Schleger, Maciek 'Michael' Gracz)
Event 9 - Alex Kravchenko
Event 10 - Will Durkee
Event 11 - Chris Reslock ( Phil Ivey, David Oppenheim, Marco Traniello)
Event 12 - Jason Warner
Event 13 - Allen Cunningham (Jeffrey Lisandro, Humberto Brenes, Gavin Griffin)
Event 14 - Michael Keiner (Barry Greenstein, Greg Raymer)
Event 15 - Phil Hellmuth
Event 16 - James Richburg
Event 17 - Saly Boyer (Katja Thater)
Event 18 - Saro Getzoyan ( Thor Hansen)
Event 19 - Francois Safieddine (John Phan, Humberto Brenes)
Event 20 - Ryan Hughes
Event 21 - Don Baruch (Daniel Negreanu, Erik Lindgren)
Event 22 - James Mackey (Stuart Fox, Michael Binger, Maciek 'Michael' Gracz)
Event 23 - Scott Clements (Andrew Black)

There's been talk around the internet of how Bluff & ESPN have been changing the final table filming schedule to show more 'name' players. But if poker is truly to be considered a sport, as many think it should be, then surely they should just be sticking to the pre-determined schedule of premier events, and whoever makes it to the final table is considered worthy of being on TV.

Otherwise they are just going to miss the next generation of star players. What's next - the Lakers play against the Celtics or Knicks in the NBA finals every year because they are the most popular basketball teams that would make the most advertising dollars for the league?

That's the equivalent of what Bluff and ESPN are doing at the moment - changing the schedule to try and eek out some extra dollars.

I'm sick of the TV coverage following Tiger Woods around this year's US open golf too. I don't want to see the poor guy getting angry, hitting out of the rough and falling further off the pace! Show us the guy that's winning - not only does he deserve the exposure, but on that day he is the best golfer - the player we want to see.

The same goes for poker. And the 'unknowns' are beating the 'name' players most of the time anyway. So when it's all 'unknowns' at the final table, c'mon show them on TV guys. We want to see the best poker players, not the prettiest or most marketable ones according to Harrahs, ESPN, Nike or anyone else. Let us make up our own minds about who is worthy of the adulation. If the same old names keep getting churned out people will tune out and not respect the game - and you'll slowly kill the ratings...