Winning the World Series of Poker

Author: Simon Dexter

Poker is frequently compared with many things, some of them not altogether complimentary, but I cannot recall it ever being referred to as a genuine meritocracy. Nevertheless, following the World Series of Poker's protracted denouement earlier this week, it's clear that poker is a game which, if you play consistently well, you can win, irrespective of your current standing, and the same applies for online poker as well.

In a tournament as long as the WSOP, it would be reasonable to expect the best poker players, like cream, to eventually rise towards the top; this is precisely what happened. None of poker's 'big names' made the final table because the remaining nine played better than any of them. While well-established poker players were off doing more TV interviews and photo shoots following elimination, the world's best players were competing for a first prize of $8.5 million.

“The world's best players?” you may exclaim, pointing out that three, including the eventual winner, had never cashed at the World Series of Poker before and another three had won the grand total of $37,500 between them. Of the final competitors, only two were in possession of WSOP bracelets, but my point is that everyone was there on merit. Moreover, the fact that the main event did not boil down to a protracted contest between poker's biggest reputations should give hope to anyone who plays the game of poker.

Why? Well, in short, most of the guys who made the final table proved beyond doubt that given a combination of practice, tenacity, skill and yes, an occasional dollop of luck, anyone can become world poker champion.

Granted, the usual suspects were in evidence throughout the protracted proceedings. Phil Hellmuth collected $637,000 for winning a $1,500 buy-in no limit texas hold 'em affair, while Allen Cunningham, one of poker's most consistent performers, added to the $4.3 million he trousered last year by winning the world championship pot limit hold 'em title and $487,000. He also managed a sixth and fourth place finish this year and was heavily backed to collect a sixth World Series of Poker bracelet at the final table.

But apart from the guys who contended with the media intense glare during the event's closing stages, an increasing number of unknown poker players performed remarkably well.

Consider William Durkee, who won a poker jackpot of $566,000 at the end of the first week; the guy looks about 12 and many observers watching him play as though he'd spent most of his life in a Mississippi riverboat's smoky poker room expected his mother to suddenly burst in and demand he gets to his bedroom – now! James Mackey, who won almost three quarters of a million dollars in a no limit hold 'em event looks even younger. Imagine the amount of homework this pair now have to catch up on.

On the WSOP's concluding Friday, as the field was being culled from 337 to 99, it became increasingly evident that another 'unknown' amongst the poker experts, possibly even two, would make the final table as former world champions fell by the wayside. However, few people expected that a third of players making the summit would arrive with little in the way of 'form'. That they did is testament to poker's inherent meritocracy and, in John Kalmar's case, to the extraordinarily high cost of changing his airline ticket.

The 34 year-old from Lancashire had failed to cash once during the preliminary tournaments and the night before the main event began, he endeavoured to amend his air ticket and return home early. However, the cost of changing his flight back to the UK was around 0. Instead of leaving, Kalmar entered the remaining mega-satellite at the Rio and ended up winning a $10,000 seat. Earlier this week, his fifth-place WSOP finish earned him an incredible poker prize of .25 million.

Kalmar is a regular at Midlands and northern poker clubs and keeps his eye in with plenty of online poker games, although perhaps not as much as Hevad "Rain" Khan, a 22-year-old from upstate New York.

Prior to his arrival at the final table, Khan's claim to fame consisted of his incredible ability to play multiple online poker games. He has competed in as many as 43 games simultaneously on his home computers; imagine what he will be like with our Pro-View tables! He had already collected k in the WSOP preliminaries, but walked away with $956,000 last week.

Phillip Hilm, who lives in Cambridge, is another player dedicated to playing online poker, while South African Ray Rahme qualified for Vegas by winning a poker tournament in Africa. Eventual winner Jerry Yang is another big internet poker fan, although he actually grabbed his World Series of Poker seat by winning a 5 satellite at his local casino!

Yang's determination was evident from the outset as he took his seat at the final table ranked eighth in the chip count. He had to play aggressive poker from the start, a tactic which more established players may have jettisoned, but Yang, a qualified psychologist, understood that it was the only way he could win, an approach which paid enormous dividends – all $8.5 million of them.

As the curtain falls on another enthralling WSOP, packed full of exciting poker action, most of us who plug away playing online poker can take great heart from the appearance of so many apparent greenhorns at the event's business end. The Oxford English dictionary describes a meritocracy as "a group of persons selected according to merit". As the world championships proved, you do not need to be a big name nor have a merchandise range named after you to be a contender in top poker tournaments; if you're good enough, you can win it – on merit, not on reputation.