The World Series of Poker returns to the Rio for one last dance on September 30th, with around 90 live poker events meaning poker players bracelet dreams can come true again in Sin City itself.
With the biggest poker festival in the world running through to late November, it should prove to be an authentic Autumnal experience for the tens of thousands of players expected to fight it out for the biggest prizes in poker.
We’ve taken a look into our crystal ball, which may or may not have been purchased in a Las Vegas trinket store, to find out what might transpire.
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The Rio Heats Up… Literally!
It’s a long-held legend that the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino suffers from an over-active air conditioning system. For years, this has been the cause of much consternation from players. Walking into a giant chest freezer from 120-degree Vegas heat is a little extreme, but what if the worst happened and the air con broke?
It would be the highest irony in the world if, in the final year that the Rio will host the WSOP before it moves to Bally’s in 2022, the place turns into a giant oven. With health concerns threatening to overload players with panic before the pressure of pandemic poker even begins, the last thing anyone needs is for the Rio to suddenly turn into a sweatbox. Which of course makes it extremely likely to happen.
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A Female Player Makes the Final
It’s been far too long since a female poker player made the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. What do you mean, you can’t recall Barbara Enright’s heroics in the 1990s? Well if you can’t, that may be because it’s been three decades.
The fact is, since Enright’s heroics, female poker players have got even better. Over the past few years, it feels like female players have been getting closer and closer to the Main Event victory. Perhaps this year will see at least one female player get back to the final and go all the way. We certainly hope so.
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Hellmuth Not the Winning Phil
For more years than perhaps even the Poker Brat cares to remember, Phil Hellmuth has been top dog in Vegas. With 15 WSOP bracelet wins, though, is ‘Big Phil’ due to a dry streak? Surely it’s time not just for other players to join the massed ranks of winners, but other Phils specifically.
Think about it and there are more great players called Phil than any other name. From Phil Shing to Phil Ivey, through Phil Hui to Phil Laak, there are superstar Phils everywhere. We’ve got a Phil-ing… ahem, feeling, that another Phil than Hellmuth will be celebrating come the end of November.
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Joe Cada’s Record Under Threat
When Joe Cada won the WSOP Main Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker aged just 21, he not only outlasted 6,493 others but eclipsed Peter Eastgate’s record as the youngest-ever winner, a record Phil Hellmuth himself set aged 24 back in 1989.
Cada’s record has, of course, stood since 2009 and in the 12 years since, poker players have – like policemen – got younger and younger as a demographic. So why hasn’t someone younger won the Main Event? It is only a matter of time before it happens, and with Cada turning 22 only a few days more after his victory, it would take virtually any 21-year-old to win in order to set a new target. We think it’s got every chance.
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COVID Controversy
There can be no question what is going to be the biggest source of drama at this year’s live WSOP and it’s invisible, soundless and – so far – unbeaten. COVID-19 has been stalking the planet with its ultra-transmissible nature for 18 months now and after the pandemic closed down last year’s World Series, the poker world is preparing for battle in 2021.
With masks no longer mandatory, but vaccination a must, dealers potentially excepted in some cases, confusion could easily cast the cards in COVID’s favor. Just like the final conflict of Game of Thrones, though, this is a battle between good and evil, alive and dead. If poker players mask up and keep their distance from each other (sounds like every player’s party we’ve ever been to), then everyone should remain unscathed.
On the other hand, should poker players not follow guidelines, they could miss out on the chance of lifting a bracelet slightly higher than the felt at their table and having their bleary-eyed picture taken at 2 am. If anyone tests positive for COVID and misses a final table had been chip leader, we’re going to see more fireworks than on the Strip on the 4th of July.
Which way will it go? Like the majority of bust-outs in the latter stages of the many WSOP events, it’s a coin flip.
Want more WSOP? Read about what the World Series of Poker was like — in the 1980s.
