When a marked card is discover at the table, the floor should replace the card AND destroy the offending card at the table in view of the players. Marked cards have a tendency to show up again if not destroyed. We witnessed several times at the World Series where cards were removed from a deck only to be reintroduced to the deck sorting pile and made into a “previously owned” deck for play at another table.
I mean if poker is a major sport and is going to compete on that level then let’s act like a major sport. A baseball that is thrown out of play does not get recycled into the game later and they cost $14 a piece. Now how much exactly does a four of diamonds cost?
Historic No-Limit Stud @ Sihoki Harvey’s
LAKE TAHOE, NV–So I played yesterday, and am now a step closer to my dream of becoming a footnote in the almanac of poker history. Turns out that yesterday’s $300+40 No-Limit Hold’em/7-Stud was the first event of it’s kind … ever. No, I’m not referring to a “major” event taking a 13 percent vig (!) … I’m saying that the 7-stud was played no-limit, too. I guess the WSOP Circuit is the place to experiment.
Anyhow, the gametime revelation that this structure wasn’t going to shift between short-handed NLH and traditional 7-stud totally screwed with my strategy of extreme gear-shifting … and for players who rely on math in limit games, traditional 7-stud expectations sorta went out the window, too. Party-playin’ friend David Wong told me on break about a Stud hand he thought he misplayed because he didn’t know his straight- and flush-draw percentages with three cards to come. “I think I should’ve pushed,” he said.
Indeed … foreign concept in 7-stud.
I think the WSOP folks expected this format to add some young-guns fireworks to a traditionally slow old-man’s game. But because it was new to everyone, that’s not really how it happened. There were 47 players in this “historic” event, and we were deep into Level 3 when I went out in 46th place.
Wild Wild West
Those of us in the struggle to regulate Poker and bring it into modern times in states like Texas are often fond of saying that Poker used to be relegated to “smokey back rooms” and played by “road gamblers” etc. This is a useful juxtaposition to the modern day televised game and freerolls in bars across the nation.
Unfortunately, when you make poker as illegal crystal meth you get some of the same symptoms:
(from yesterday’s San Antonio Express News)
California Teacher Wins WSOP Ladies Circuit Event
LAKE TAHOE, NV- Traci Dougherty and Fan Armstrong were battling it out at the WSOP Ladies Circuit Event when I arrived at Harvey’s yesterday evening. Play began around 10 a.m. with 106 players. Doughtery, a school teacher from Auburn, Calif., was ahead.
In the final hand, Armstrong, a Foster City, Calif. poker dealer, went all in with K-4 and flopped a king putting Dougherty behind. Armstrong had hopes of a comeback, until Dougherty’s A-Q joined a jack on the river giving her the straight to win the event. Armstrong received $3,496.
Dougherty had no plans to play in the Tahoe ladies event, but a friend talked her into it during a game at her card club, Deuces Wild.
A cash game player, Dougherty began playing tournaments two months ago. Out of the ten tournments she played recently, Dougherty said she’s made it to the final table in all but one.
Armstrong’s first place win gave her $6,662 as well as her first major tournament victory.
