WSOP Organizes Classic Rematches
WSOP and ESPN have come together to organize rematches of three classic poker games, in which history was made. The matches will be filmed on June 2 during WSOP 2011 and will be aired by ESPN on July 26. The telecast will include footage from the original matches.
2003 was a watershed year for poker. Henry Orenstein had invented the hole camera that enabled television viewers to see the players’ hole cards. Online poker had brought a flood of players to land based tournaments like WSOP. In WSOP 2003 online poker qualifier Chris Moneymaker, playing his first live tournament, reached the heads up of the Main Event with a legend of the game Sammy Farha, and won. The first WSOP rematch pits Moneymaker and Farha, but with an interesting twist. It will be played in a best of three format. The first match will replicate the WSOP 2003 chip situation. Moneymaker will start with 5,490,000 chips and Farha with 2,900,000 chips. The second match will reverse the chip positions. If the players are tied then there will be a third match with equal starting stacks.
In 1989 Johnny Chan reached the heads-up of the Main Event. He had won this event in 1987 and 1988 and was aiming for a hat trick. Up against him was Phil Hellmuth, then with zero WSOP bracelets. If Hellmuth won then he would become the youngest Main Event champion. That time history favored Hellmuth. This rematch will be a single game in which both players start with equal chip stacks.
Poker fans like to feel involved and the Internet is a willing medium. Fans will have to vote for one of the following WSOP Main Event heads up pairings for the third rematch: 1988 Johnny Chan vs. Erik Seidel; 2004 Greg Raymer vs. David Williams; 2006 Jamie Gold vs. Paul Wasicka or 2010 Jonathan Duhamel vs. John Racener. The rematch will be a single game with equal stacks. Fans will be able to vote on the WSOP Official Facebook Fan Page from May 2.
Of his rematch Moneymaker said, “Winning the WSOP Main Event was a life altering moment. Even though I’m agreeing to run it again against Sammy, I have been assured they can’t take away my title if my bluffs don’t work as well this time.”
Similar Posts:
- A Tale of Two Heads Up Losses
- 2011 WSOP Schedule Announced
- SuperStar Showdown: Blom seeking revenge on Haxton
- Ivey Favorite for WSOP Main Event
- Full Tilt Giving Away Fifty $10,000 WSOP Packages for FREE
Tags: Rematches Posted in
Leave a Reply