Barry Carter: First Impressions of WSOPE Cannes

How does the WSOPE in Cannes measure up against it's predecessor in London, and the WSOP in general? Barry Carter shares his thoughts.

Event #2 Winner Andrew Hinrichsen Photo Courtesy of PokerNews.com

We are a week into the first World Series of Poker Europe to be held outside of London. Obvious parallels will be drawn between the two host nations and of course, the actual WSOP over in Las Vegas.

This year it doesn't quite feel the same for me, but I must warn that I am incredibly biased. Being from the UK I went to the WSOPE every year since it started, so obviously it is going to be a different experience this time around.

I did, however, concede that it was very good for the WSOPE that the event regularly changes locations across Europe, and felt that France was a perfect place to bring in bigger fields than before.

It certainly looks like that it was a good move too. The numbers are indeed up on the previous year, and at the time of writing the first four events of 2010 matched with their equivalent event this year have all seen significant growth:

Event #1 (Six Max No Limit) 244 vs 360
Event #2 (PLO) 120 vs 180
Event #3 (No Limit) 582 vs 771
Event #4 (High Roller) 103 vs 125

Nearly a 50% increase overall. This is particularly impressive when you consider the impact of Black Friday. EPT London, which has always gone hand in hand with the WSOPE when they were back to back in London, saw a drop in its main event this year as a direct result of Black Friday and the WSOPE moving from London.

So with this in mind you could say that surely the WSOPE would have been positively massive had Black Friday never happened. It will be very interesting to see just how big the main event will be.

Bigger Fields, Smaller Buzz?

If I have one complaint about how the WSOPE is going down this year, it's that for whatever reason, there just has not been the same level of media attention surrounding it (Other than the French local media).

PokerNews are the only guys doing live updates, I am not seeing much gossip on the forums or twitter, the WSOP press team are providing us with much less material, and in general I am just not seeing such a buzz around it this year.

As someone who works in the poker media, I want to be reporting much more on this event. Most of the time that is not a problem and it is not hard to find updates, interviews, and images from both the event organisers and the major poker media.

Regretably, it has not been anywhere near as easy this year with the WSOPE. Yes there is the official updates and live streaming from WSOP.com, but that only tells part of the story.

Which is a real shame. I know the French media are going nuts for it, but for me the WSOPE should be about the host nation showing the rest of the world what they offer the poker community. I'm just not seeing that this year.

But all in all, it’s looking like the WSOPE is proving a big success and the event is surely going to go from strength to strength in the future. I hope it can have a successful few more years in France, and then move onto to another flourishing European poker market.

A Bracelet's a Bracelet?

Event #1 Winner Guillaume Humbert Photo Courtesy of PokerNews.com

Five years on and two locations later, can we consider a WSOPE bracelet to be a 'proper WSOP bracelet'? It’s a long running debate, one which there cannot be a truly correct answer because it is so subjective.

Many think in particular the fact that the fields are smaller than the ones in Vegas, and the fact that the event is now in France, make them a much 'softer' bracelet.

But the same can be said of some of the smaller none-hold'em bracelet events in Vegas. Yes they are pro heavy, but still considered the easiest route to WSOP gold. Field size certainly should not dictate the legitimacy of a bracelet event. 

The reality is that there is no extra skill needed to win a bracelet event, you don't need to be better at value betting or hand reading in a $1500 WSOP event than you do a $1500 side event at the PCA. Both require that you play well, and the variance goes in your favour.

The only metric that matters when determining whether something is a legit bracelet event, is if the WSOP decide it is one. A WSOP tournament is just an event like any other, but there is something so incredibly mystifying about putting a bracelet at the end of it that, for some people, it is the summit of poker success.

Cannes is likely to feature some softer WSOP events (The €10,000 main event might be an exception, or at the very least historically it has been one of the toughest tournaments in the world), but as long as there is jewellery, player of the year points, and Phil Hellmuth hanging around like a bad smell, the WSOPE will count as a genuine WSOP event.

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