World Series of Poker players retool after break

LAS VEGAS — Part of the marathon of the World Series of Poker involves players waiting to get back to the tables - back to their chip stacks and dreams of winning - after going as many as four days without playing.

The 1,251 players who began only their second day of play Tuesday had been away from the main event since last week, and when they sat down they faced a new table of competitors that had been randomly drawn.

To win money, they still needed to wade through more than 3,000 remaining players to be one of the final 666 playing no-limit Texas Hold 'em. Few, if any, were thinking about the crown and top prize of US$9.12 million.

"It's a long grind fixing to come," said Mark Garner, a 44-year-old investment broker from Little Rock, Ark., who began the day with 194,900 chips - the most among those playing Tuesday and second overall in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Henning Granstad of Oslo, Norway, who was scheduled to play Wednesday, has 242,950 in chips.

"All that was was a good start. It wasn't a finish, it was a start," Garner said.

Garner, who won $495,000 for finishing 25th at the main event in 2006, said he spent the weekend relaxing, gambling very little, and attending a show with his wife.

John Duthie, a poker professional from London, said it's important to disregard what happened on the first day, refocus and learn about each new player at the table.

"Just try to relax and get into each hand," Duthie said as a masseuse kneaded his arms at the table.

At this point in the tournament, the leaderboard is relatively meaningless because players can bet all their chips at any time. Chips have no monetary value, but allow players to compare their position in the tournament with other players. To win, one player will have to amass all the chips in play, leaving everyone else with nothing.

As play continues at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in the tournament that will whittle down to nine final players over 11 days, it becomes increasingly important for players to collect chips because minimum bets and antes rise every two hours.

Poker professional Barry Greenstein said the days off don't mean as much to him as beginning Tuesday with 21,500 in chips, more than players begin the tournament with but a relatively small stack to start the second session.

"There are a lot of hands that I've had to fold because I didn't have chips to fight it out and try to bluff people with," Greenstein said. "I've got to play better quality hands - big cards and big pairs, stuff like that."

Ben Sarnoff, a 50-year-old lawyer and poker player from San Francisco, said his good fortunes the first day weren't carrying over, and said he took some hits to his chip stack.

"It's so early still that it doesn't mean much," he said. "Usually you get a chip stack, you're playing the next day. It was really weird to have a four-day break living with a chip stack. Real unusual."

Tournament officials began splitting the field in 2004, when they could no longer accommodate the growing amount of players. In 2003, 839 players packed Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas for the main event, and a fire marshal threatened to shut the series down, tournament media director Nolan Dalla said.

That year, Chris Moneymaker won the US$2.3 million top prize, ESPN expanded its coverage of the series and the popularity of the event exploded.

Last year, 6,358 players entered the main event and California psychologist Jerry Yang won $8.25 million for the top prize. This year 6,844 entered.

News Added: 09 July, 2008

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