[ononimo]

[ QUOTE ]
Anomaly.

Table full of cautious amateurs playing not to lose...
Versus pros that would need more action and play to win.

If MM had doubled up early...
Would have been a completely different game.

Personally...
I think that this one will be soon forgotten...
And demonstrates just how small time pro poker still is.

They MUST change the format...
Of the World Poker Championship.

Now that it's becoming a major sport...
Make it more like golf.

Players ranked, say, top 200 in the world...
Plus exemptions for previous final table appearances...
Plus ** lifetime exemptions ** for previous winners...
For a total of maybe 300 pros...
Would get in.

You can still have the 6000 cattle call entrants...
But they must play qualifying rounds...
Until down to an equal number = 300

Then the tournament starts...
With 300 exempted pros plus 300 qualifiers.
This would guarantee a Final Table...
With at least 5 legitimate pros.

Poker will NEVER be taken seriously until they do this...
And get rid of comical, drunken meltdowns like Steve Lazar's.

[/ QUOTE ]

what the hell does "be taken seriously" mean anyway? seriously by whom?

when people spout off about how the WSOP needs to be more exclusive, it becomes painfully clear to me that they don't have the slightest idea what is responsible for the massive boom in poker's popularity in the first place.