It took a few weeks and thousands of players but the 2010 WSOP has finally been narrowed down to a elite group of nine. The nine will play the final round of poker in November on television. Apparently, even today with the popularity of poker, main stream media still doesn’t get why anyone would want to watch all 57 events of the WSOP on TV; but hey, at least we get this final table.

Here’s the lineup:
Filippo Candio

Joseph Cheong

John Dolan

Jonathan Duhamel

Matthew Jarvis

Michael Mizrachi

Soi Nguyen

John Racener

Jason Senti

The final event of the WSOP consisted of good old fashioned No Limit Texas Holdem which, despite the numerous variations that exist in poker, remains the most popular way to play our favorite game of skill. Perhaps the popularity of Holdem was why there were over seven thousand entrants into this year’s events and 1,125 folks who handed over their $10,000 buy in for one last chance at gold.

The week long final event of the tournament cut down around 200 players at the end of every day. Early leaders quickly faded into non existence and major celebrity players didn’t make it to the final table. One of my personal old favorites and former champions, Greg Raymer left the competition on the very first day, in the very first plays. Poker is mostly a game of skill but the final game of the WSOP also reminds us that luck still plays a role in who wins the big one.

Michael Mizrachi seems to be having quite a tournament having already won the Player’s Championship. He’s my current favorite to win in November. As play ended for the four month break Jonathan Duhamel led the chip lead with 65,975,000 according to the WSOP homepage and Jason Sneti came in last place with 7,625,000.

We all know things could change quickly in the first round of play and I for one can’t wait for that final table to get underway.

Like most poker fans I am enjoying this cyber excitement around the super bowl of poker the WSOP main event. As we are still waiting for television coverage to begin and the live reporting from the uber poker blogs is just starting out, I don’t have much in the way of facts and figures to share. So it seems before things start getting a little hectic that we should recap the 2009 WSOP main event to see how the following seven weeks will stack up.

On May 27, 2009, the 40^th annual WSOP main event began at the Rio All Suite and Casino in Vegas. There were over 6,000 entrants overall from 115 different countries and 57 bracelets distributed for 57 events. There were almost 6,500 entrants into the No limit Championship event with Joe Cada taking home the gold.

The final table was played in November of 2009. The first four days took place in July but then the final day of the final event was prolonged, probably to gain more media attention. Television gurus still believe that people don’t want to watch the entire WSOP tournament from start to finish. I wonder why they think I want to watch a week of coverage from the French Open then?

Anyway…

The final table was still worth watching with the following players and payouts as a result:

1st Joe Cada $8,547,042

2nd Darvin Moon $5,182,928

3rd Antoine Saout $3,479,670

4th Eric Buchman $2,502,890

5th Jeff Shulman $1,953,452

6th Steven Begleiter $1,587,160

7th Phil Ivey $1,404,014

8th Kevin Schaffel $1,300,231

9th James Akenhead

Phil Ivey was one of several winners to take home more than one WSOP bracelet last year and I have a feeling he’ll repeat if not improve on that performance this year. Joe Cada was a 21 year old unknown from cash poor Michigan who took home over eight million bucks. I have to wonder how much the economy will play into the number of entrants for this year. We’ll have to wait and see.

Stay close for more updates from this year’s 2010 WSOP tournament.

Having both the ring and the bracelet means Berger joins the five other poker professionals who hold both pieces of jewelry. Berger got the bracelet back in 2002 after heads up play with Chris Ferguson. Winning in New Orleans was a victory for this little known Louisiana boy who intends to give at least ten percent of his poker winnings to charity.

Fred Berger has been making his name in professional tournaments for over a decade with big wins and close second and third place finishes to his name. He is married and owns a business in his home town of Slidell, Louisiana. There were a few moments in the tournament when Berger made some critical moves including an all in against an AK hand but he came out on top after defeating a number of tough opponents.

To date, Berger has seven first place finishes under his belt and nearly a million in poker winnings in the bank. His victory this past week in Louisiana gives him a free seat in next week’s upcoming WSOP main event in Vegas. Fred Berger will be another one to watch on the screen this coming week.

The WSOP 2010 Main Event is scheduled to begin on Friday, May 28 in Las Vegas.

Because of its location France is ideal for many European players. Whether from Belgium, Germany or even the UK, poker professionals can make their way to France without too much trouble.  France is one of the hotter locations for European poker this year and televising the event in the United States will be a boost to the French card playing street credibility.

In May a leg of the WPT will be held at the Aviation Club in the country’s capital city of Paris. The game is no limits Texas Hold ‘em and it should make for interesting viewing at this historic casino. Created in 1907 by European aviators the club boasts several restaurants and tables as well as a 100 Euro membership fee. With a dress code and a valet service, the Parisian club will be a taste of luxury for many qualifiers.

The second stop of the WPT in France will be at the Casino Municipal D’Amneville in Lorraine between the 2^nd and 6^th of November. The casino boasts 330 total gaming machines, six poker tables and ten additional gaming tables. With restaurants, bars and convenient hotels it makes for the perfect spot outside of the capital for playing poker.

Qualifying games are being held to see who’ll be involved in the main event tables. There are satellite games scheduled for the first week with five days set aside for what the Aviation Club is calling the WPT Grand Prix de Paris final. The main event will have a pot of 10,000 euros and be televised on the Fox Sports channel.

It should make for interesting viewing. The minimum buy in is $100,000 ensuring some big names to watch on the screen. The ego explosion of the multi bracelet winners should be a great side entertainment as should the amateur wild card entrance.

They call the wild card the “loose cannon” and several online qualifiers will be playing the role with one amateur player at each final table. Qualifying games are being held between March and June and those that get into the final 200 have to send in a casting video to get on the actual show. Probably to check they are not totally crazy and are pretty enough for the tube.  Yeah them’s the breaks right?

The games will be played and shot in Las Vegas and the PokerStars website claims to have Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Rousso already signed up for the action. The show will begin to air in June 2010.

Think you have the ability to be a loose cannon for the show? Or maybe just a weekly viewer? Whatever the case PokerStars is hoping you’ll stay cool and indoors this summer and catch the latest tips and tricks from the best in poker’s professional world.

We could always use a few new moves right?

What else are we gonna watch? Reruns of the WPT from three years ago…again?

Andrew Feldman, the ESPN.com Poker Editor, and Laura Lane, the ESPN The Magazine columnist will also be a part of the program with Lee. Lee is overly excited about the debut of the show saying “This is a show that is needed in the industry and it’s unique in its time. It’s going to be a solid show with ESPN production value. It’s really going to start setting the standard for poker shows.”

The show will air each week on Tuesdays on ESPN.com for three months and will end with the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event in November. The viewers of the show will be able to submit questions and comments to the show’s hosts and the show’s guests via email, Twitter, and Facebook while the show is airing.

The show is really the first of its kind, especially for ESPN.com, since they haven’t aired a poker-only show on their website before. They have aired live poker events on their network and fictional poker television shows on their network before but never on the ESPN.com website.

“With everything that goes on in poker, there is news every week. During the WSOP and leading up to the November Nine, there’s absolutely a market for this to be on television. There is an audience out there. Look at how many people watched last year’s Main Event. A live poker series would be a good lead-in to future ESPN shows,” Lee said.

So, if you enjoy poker so much that you can’t get enough of it there will always be something on television. FOX Sports Net and Comcast Sports Net constantly air poker tournaments that take place in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and other cities around the country. These two networks are famous for airing poker tournaments on a daily basis, no matter how large or small the tournaments actually are. These networks actually use poker tournaments as filler material during the afternoon when there is nothing else to air or late at night after  the local sports news has ended.

There have been plenty of television shows over the years that have documented poker players or have been fictional shows detailing fictional poker players to go along with live coverage of poker tournaments. There have been poker movies made recently, such as Maverick, Rounders, Oceans 11, and many more for people to enjoy.

At the start of the game, before a pair of cards came down a chute, the group of guys was asked a question about girl stuff. If the guys got the question correct they would then take control of the game. If the guys got the questions wrong the girls would be able to answer. If their answer was correct they would then take control of the game. But, if the girls got the question wrong the guys would take control of the game by default. The questioning would alternate for the first two rounds of the tournament.

The other show on our honorable mention list is The Best Dame Poker Show. The show features 24 players locked in a room with poker pros Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. Season two of the show ran from January to March and it included seven episodes. The show aired nationally on televisions all over the country. The 24 players made the cast either by posting a YouTube video, passing a live casting call, or qualifying via an online competition.

High Stakes Poker features one hour episodes that began airing on GSN in 2006. The show includes poker pros that buyin to hold’em games with a buyin of $100,000. All seasons of High Stakes Poker have been filmed at different locations in Las Vegas, Nevada. The show is currently in the middle of its fifth season, which began on March 1st of 2009.

Some of the poker players that have appeared on the show include the following:

Daniel Alaei, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Dr. Jerry Buss (LA Lakers owner), Fred Chamanara, Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Dr. Amir Nasseri, Daniel Negreanu, Mimi Tran, Sean Sheikhan, Bob Stupak, and Jamie Gold.

Finally, the number one show on our top 10 poker television shows list is The World Series of Poker on ESPN. The first WSOP tournament occurred in 1970 but the first to be aired on ESPN occurred in 1988. ESPN has aired the tournament from 1988-1995, 1997-1998, and 2002-present. The winner of the tournament in 1988 was Johnny Chan and the runner up was Erik Seidel.

Part six of our series detailing the top 10 poker television shows will include honorable mention shows or shows that didn’t quite make our cutoff for the top 10 list.

Poker Royale, number four on our list, aired briefly from 2004-2005. During that brief period there were actually seven series that aired. The show featured no limit Texas hold’em poker. Episodes of this show run as re-runs periodically on GSN. The show originally aired on Friday nights from 10-11pm as part of GSN’s Casino Night block. At the conclusion of the show the host was John Ahlers and the commentator was Robert Williamson III.

The shows tournaments featured a variety of different battles between different groups. One popular matchup was boys versus girls while another popular matchup was celebrities versus pros.

Show number three on our top 10 poker television shows list is The World Poker Tour. The World Poker Tour aired on GSN, Fox Sports, and the Travel Channel. The tournaments held on this show take place all over the world but the majority of them take place in the United States. The show began airing on television in 2002 with two hour episodes. The championship at the end of each season is held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The previous winners include:

• 2003: Alan Goehring
• 2004: Martin De Knijff
• 2005: Tuan Le
• 2006: Joe Bartholdi
• 2007: Carlos Mortensen
• 2008: David Chiu

Episode five of our top 10 poker television shows list will include the number two and number one shows on the list. The number two show is High Stakes Poker on GSN and The World Series of Poker on ESPN.