ESPN has deemed Tuesdays as ‘Poker Night’ to debut each new WSOP 2008 telecast. We FINALLY get rid of some of the noxious WSOP 2007 reruns. Those reruns can now replace all of the even more obnoxious WSOP 2006 reruns. And those, hopefully, can be shitcanned for years until they become interesting again as ancient history. I know what you are saying: ‘They are better than the Australian Rules football ESPN would play instead.’ I guess.

For those who might be interested in some different things to look for with each week's new telecast, I’m turning over each Monday’s columns to a brief deconstruction of the telecast event’s final table.

Here’s the $10,000 Pot-Limit Holdem, Event #1 final table

Seat Player        Hometown         Starting Chips   Chip Rank
1 Mike Sowers...Thomasville, NC...675,000...4th
2 Chris Bell...Raleigh, NC...455,000...6th
3 Amit Makhija...Brookfield, WI...525,000...5th
4 Patrik Antonius...Helsinki, Finland...230,000...9th
5 Andy Bloch...Las Vegas, NV...2,115,000...1st
6 Mike Sexton...Las Vegas, NV...1,130,000...3rd
7 Phil Laak...Dublin, Ireland...425,000...7th
8 Nenad Medic...Niagara Falls, Canada...1,200,000...2nd
9 Kathy Liebert...Las Vegas, NV...285,000...8th

For those of you who have been following tournament poker for a while, you know that most final tables have common results. Normally the finish is predicted by the start. Players generally will end up within two places of where they begin.

So the starting chip leader has only one direction to go – DOWN! And down could cost a bundle. (Hint: That’s why they make deals)

First, second or third place finishes all have about the same likelihood for a starting chip leader. Conversely, the third place starter is as likely to finish in first place as fifth. That’s the two-place ‘up or down’ rule for final tables. So the news to me is always 'who' breaks the rule. And 'how much' are they paid for breaking the rule.

The Win/(Loss) column below shows how much each player deviated from his or her starting chip value.

Spoiler: If you don’t remember who won this event and would like to be surprised, don’t read on.

Here’s how Event #1 ended.

Finish Player Starting Chip Rank Payout      Win/(Loss)
1 Nenad Medic...2nd.....................$794,112.. .$409,464
2 Andy Bloch...1st..........................$488,048...($133,128)
3 Kathy Liebert...8th......................$306,064.....$157,944
4 Mike Sexton...3rd........................$248,160...($118,393)
5 Amit Makhija...5th.......................$198,528......($11,633)
6 Chris Bell...6th............................$157,168......($34,898)
7 Patrik Antonius...9th...................$124,080........($9,823)
8 Mike Sowers...4th.........................$99,264...($149,672)
9 Phil Laak...7th................................$74,448...($109,863)

As you can see, there is nothing unusual about Nenad Medic beating out Andy Bloch for the bracelet. Medic started second in chips. But Andy had such a large beginning chip lead over Nenad, Bloch lost a great deal of his initial chip value by finishing second.

The surprise is how well Kathy Liebert did starting eighth in chips. And how poorly Mike Sowers did in reverse.

On this Tuesday’s first ESPN telecast, you might want to focus on the key hands that turned around those two player’s fortunes.

What do you think?

Love

Mike Paulle

Email: mikepaulle@aol.com

Please look for this blog on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays