2003 WSOP question

I've been reading a bit about the 2003 WSOP and Moneymaker's crazy story (believe it or not I've never really read the whole thing, despite being a gambling junkie).

Anyway, I'm reading this article from Grantland which is great, but I'm confused. Down around footnote 5 they start talking about how after he won the satellite, he didn't have enough money and was selling off his action. But didn't winning the satellite get him the seat ($10,000 value) for free? The story doesn't make sense. I'm wondering if he was just selling his action because he didn't think he had any chance of cashing, which would have potentially been a smart move. But the way the quotes are written, it sounds like he's trying to raise the $10,000 entry fee:

Quote:

Gamble: Chris called me, so we went to a sports bar down in Franklin [Tennessee], and he said, "Listen, here's the deal: I got this seat and I've got X amount, but I'm short." I wrote him a check for $2,000. It was like buying a lotto ticket.

Anyway, either it's poorly written or I'm really confused. Can't anyone play in the WSOP, you just pony up the ten grand and you get a seat?

Reads to me like he needed money to go there. food lodging, etc. And lotto remark sounds like he sold a share of his winnings.
I read somewhere he was hoping for a lower finish and cash at the time he entered the satellite.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Anyway, either it's poorly written or I'm really confused. Can't anyone play in the WSOP, you just pony up the ten grand and you get a seat?

Yes. That's how i understand it. A buddy of mine played in this year's WSOP. He is just a regular guy from our home game.

His wife bought him a seat for their 25 yr anniversary. He said he would have been happy with just a blow job.

I'm not aware of any screening process that he went through (for the WSOP, not the blow job).

I went to Vegas with him in July to root him on. He exited on day one.

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Quote: AcesAndEights

Can't anyone play in the WSOP, you just pony up the ten grand and you get a seat?

Yep. You can also win a seat there. I don't see any upside to NOT letting anyone enter. If some chump wants to blow their money on the entrance fee, that's on them.

A few years ago, my wife won a $10K seat in a WPT event at Foxwoods. She won it by being the season winner in the pub poker league we play in.

The requirements for entry were only slightly more stringent than a regular tourney.

All tourneys at Foxwoods require an ID and player's card. The WPT event required the addition of signing a release to appear on TV, and an agreement to fill out a biography questionnaire if she makes it to the final table.

In other words, anybody with the cash can get in.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

In other words, anybody with the cash can get in.

I always assumed there was also an exclusion list. If your wife had blatantly cheated in a lesser WPT event earlier in the season, would they have barred her from the tourney even if she had the $10k or won-entry?

If they barred cheaters, the field would be at least 10% less. add felons and 30% less.

Quote: rdw4potus

I always assumed there was also an exclusion list. If your wife had blatantly cheated in a lesser WPT event earlier in the season, would they have barred her from the tourney even if she had the $10k or won-entry?

Good point.

My "anybody with cash" comment was meant as a general concept. Certainly if a specific person is barred for whatever reason, that's a different story....and might need a case-by-case decision.

Quote: rdw4potus

I always assumed there was also an exclusion list. If your wife had blatantly cheated in a lesser WPT event earlier in the season, would they have barred her from the tourney even if she had the $10k or won-entry?

Well, yeah. And if you use self-exclusion from any CET property, bye bye WSOP.

I think the only grounds for exclusion is having only $9,999.

Quote: KeyserSoze

Yes. That's how i understand it. A buddy of mine played in this year's WSOP. He is just a regular guy from our home game.

His wife bought him a seat for their 25 yr anniversary. He said he would have been happy with just a blow job.

I'm not aware of any screening process that he went through (for the WSOP, not the blow job).

I went to Vegas with him in July to root him on. He exited on day one.

that's hilarious

If you win a seat in the WSOP you can't sell it. If you win two or more seats you can sell the second seat, etc. But you can't sell the first seat.

Okay, so he was just asking his friends for money for the expenses of getting there, and selling off pieces of his action.

That makes sense, but I still say the article was poorly written.

I was at practically every WSOP from 1992 to 2004. Some of the scuttlebutt I heard about Moneymaker was he actually came to town to sell the seat, but was informed that he couldn't sell it. He had to play. His father was purported to have 20% of the action. Chris tipped the dealers off real well. Him and his father threw a party with the girls of Glitter Gulch. And Chris got invited to the Doyle and Chip game where he dumped off a big chunk before deciding he was outgunned.

The first WSOP I watched was in 1992. I didn't have enough money to rub two quarters together but it was fun. There were about 230 entrants. The number kept climbing every year by about 50 to 100 players. The Moneymaker series in 2003 had about 850 entrants. Then the floodgates opened. In 2004 I believe there were over 2400 entrants. The line to sign up went from Benny's Bullpen, upstairs, down the escalator, out the door, and down the street.

I was in Vegas in 1995 and stumbled across the final table of the WSOP in Binion's. Watched for a while, that was the only year a woman made the final table (Barbara Enright) and i watched as she got knocked out on a cooler

Quote: Johnzimbo

I was in Vegas in 1995 and stumbled across the final table of the WSOP in Binion's. Watched for a while, that was the only year a woman made the final table (Barbara Enright) and i watched as she got knocked out on a cooler

What a coincidence. I was standing on the escalator watching when Barbara got knocked out. She moved all in with pocket 8's. Brent Carter called her with 6-3 of diamonds, flopped two pair, and Barbara exited fifth.