Las Vegas

Prior to the start of the 2015 World Series of Poker, I made my annual series of predictions for the event. Now that the November Nine is set, it is time for me to review my picks. I must admit, this WSOP was a bit disappointing overall. While attendance was technically up overall, most events saw dips in attendance.

On Monday night, there was a medical emergency during the ONE DROP High Roller involving a spectator. Fortunately, there was a doctor playing in the $1,500 NL Event and he was able to offer assistance. This scenario reminded me of a story conveyed to me a few years back by a couple of old school poker pros and was a great example of the poker gods smiling down on one of the good guys of the game. Dr Will Noyes, aka the Poker Doctor, was a well known player in the 1990 through the early years of the Poker Boom.

In this week's edition of Flashback Friday, we travel back in time to the 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. The 2001 Main Event was ultimately taken down by Carlos Mortensen and marked the last time that a "big name" pro took down the Main Event. Before you start debating me, by big name I mean pros that would be recognized by the average poker fans without having appeared in the Main Event. The final table of the 2001 Main Event featured a stacked final table for its day.

By now, most of you have heard about the Italian poker player who won $60k in a poker tournament, quit his job to turn pro and then couldn't get his money. This story reminded me of a potential turning point in my life where I was thinking about possibly trying to play poker professionally. It was late 2007 and I was contemplating what had been a fairly solid summer at the tables. I hadn't hit any type of life changing scores, but I was playing well enough that I felt that I would get there in time.

My very first WSOP event ever was the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Event at the 2006 World Series of Poker. I will always remember this for several reasons, the biggest being that it was the largest live Limit Hold'em tournament of all-time. Anyone that has played a limit tournament knows that it is the ultimate grind. Being a newbie to the World Series, there were times I would "check out" when I wasn't in a hand.