Tournament Tidbits

Bay 101 Shooting Star Tournament – Once again, I had the privilege of visiting Bay 101 for the annual Shooting Star tournament. As usual, it was a sellout. Executive President Marko Trapani has a great concept that enables his local players to rub shoulders with many of the world's best players. Everybody always has a great time, and this year was no exception. Bonnie Rattner will provide full coverage and results of the tournament's events in the next issue.

Bellagio – Doug Dalton, Bellagio director of poker operations, recently called me to announce that Bellagio will not be issuing W-2Gs to any winners of its tournaments. Additionally, all tournaments will feature guaranteed prize pools as follows:

• $3,000 buy-in events – $250,000

• $10,000 buy-in event – $1 million

World Series of Poker, Best Overall – For most players on the tournament circuit, the World Series of Poker defines the year. The buy-ins and side games are so huge that it is almost impossible to have a good year without having a good May.

For a busy pro, tournament buy-ins for a year can easily be in the $200,000 range, with the World Series accounting for up to one-third of that. For many players, World Series tournament buy-ins represent more than half of their annual tournament buy-ins.

Even recreational players who play $5-$10 in their hometown cardrooms and often play $20-$40 in the side games at tournaments find themselves playing $50-$100 at the WSOP.

Strangers who have no clue whatsoever about poker ask me if I play in the World Series when they find out that I publish Card Player.

Card Player recognizes the importance of this event, and as such will be making special reports daily on www.CardPlayer.com, as well as setting up a just-for-the-fun-of-it "Best Overall" scorecard that will be updated on our site daily.

We will borrow Commerce Casino's scoring system and give points to the top 16 finishers per tournament (but they must be in the money) as follows:

1. 50 9. 16

2. 44 10. 14

3. 40 11. 12

4. 36 12. 10

5. 32 13. 8

6. 28 14. 6

7. 24 15. 4

8. 20 16. 2

The player amassing the most points will indeed earn "bragging rights" for the year, as the best players in the world will be competing for an entire month.