The Re-buy Period Has Ended

by Aaron Angerman

The 2009 World Series of Poker will give away 57 gold bracelets, but you´re not going to get your hands on one through any kind of re-buy event.

There will be some noticeable changes for this year´s WSOP, which happens to be the 40th anniversary of the world´s greatest poker series. On the schedule are ten $10,000 buy-in World Championship events, which includes the Main Event. Also on tap are the $50,000 HORSE tournament and a special $40,000 No Limit event, commemorating four decades of the WSOP. Noticeably absent from the schedule are re-buy events of any kind.

If you´ve never had the chance to witness a WSOP re-buy event in person, I´m sorry to say but you may never get that chance to see true degenerates in action. Due to the supposed fear of pros with deep pockets re-buying and adding-on all their way to a bracelet, Harrah´s has decided to release the 2009 WSOP schedule sans re-buy events.

Over the last three years, the WSOP schedule has averaged five re-buy events per year. In 2006, the four re-buy bracelets up for grabs were earned by pros Allen Cunningham, Phil Hellmuth, Eric Froelich and Daniel Alaei. At the 2007 Series, Burt Boutin, Michael Chu, Alan Smurfit, Michael Graves, Rafi Amit and Erik Seidel used re-buy events to pick up some jewelry. Last year, Mike Banducci, Mike Matusow, Phil Galfond, Layne Flack and Max Greenwood snuck their wins in before the WSOP Player Advisory Council could end the re-buy parade.

Just looking at the last three years, the numbers don´t lie. Harrah´s has handed out 15 re-buy bracelets over the last three years, no less than 10 were pros and/or bracelet winners. Last year, Layne Flack used 22 re-buys in a $1,500 PLO event to capture career bracelet #6. To date, the record for re-buys seems to be Daniel Negreanu, who famously dumped 48 re-buys (at $1K a pop) on the table in 2006, only to come up way short anyways. But even "Kid Poker", a member of the Player Advisory Council, got behind the no re-buy idea.

In an interview with PokerListings.com, Negreanu says that in re-buy events, there is an "inherent advantage" for those who with deep bankrolls. "When you are giving away a World Series of Poker bracelet I think everyone should have an equal chance to win it, not just a chance based on how fat their wallets are."

Very true, Mr. Negreanu, but Harrah´s doesn´t seem to have a problem adding new big buy-in events every year. Doesn´t that price out those with dieting wallets?

In 2005, only the Main Event and the World Championship of PLO had price tags of $10K or more. With the addition of the $50K HORSE World Championship in 2006, the WSOP would spend two years with just three big buy-in events. That would all change in 2008, when the addition of a half dozen more $10K World Championship tourneys brought that total to nine. Throw in two more $10K World Championship events and a the special 40th anniversary $40,000 buy-in Event #2, the 2009 WSOP now has a dozen events with price tags in the six-figures.

Prior to the Players Advisor Council being appointed in 2007, the WSOP schedule had just three of 45 events carrying a price tag of $10K or higher, or less than 7 percent. Now, almost two years to the day after the council members were appointed, more than 20 percent of the tourneys on the schedule will cost $10K or more to enter. Sure, we have a dozen more tourneys to choose from, but if nine of those are out of reach to the casual player, why not just leave the re-buy events in there?

Nenad Medic, Kenny Tran, Rob Hollink and David Benyamine were each able to earn their first bracelet in 2008, conveniently each in a $10K event. Only Medic had to top a field more than 300 players deep and each $10K World Championship event payout list looks very thin on dead money. Not that these aren´t great events or some of the most deserving winners in the game, but

In 2007, at the peak of re-buy events at the WSOP, there were a total of six to choose from. Throw in the three $10K+ events and nine of the 55 bracelets could be considered geared for deep pocketed pros, or 16 percent. Realistically, with 20 percent of theevents catering to big bankrolls, you can say that the 2009 WSOP will give the pros a greater chance to take home braceletthanever.

Now don´t get me wrong, there was a great buzz in the air last year as "the Year of the Pro" swept through the Rio. Overdue notables were finally getting their moment in the spotlight, taking down tournaments that were open to all comers. The poker industry need to pros winning just as much as, if not more than, they need the Michael Chu´s of the world. But do we want to miss out on players like Chu?

Chu was one of the six to earn a re-buy bracelet in 2007. The Los Angeles based stock broker didn´t re-buy or add-on once on his way to almost $600,000 and his first bracelet. Sometimes you don´t need to re-buy, if pros keep dumping their chips to you.

There is some talk that the re-buys are too problematic for the WSOP staff to handle, so they are cutting them instead. Re-buys are the only transaction that takes place at the table, rather than the cashier or "cage". With 1,000 or so players in a NLHE or PLO re-buy field, it can be a little tricky keeping track of thousands of new chip stacks being distributed, leaving room for accounting mistakes and/or some sort of collusion. I would buy that reasoning much more than the "pros have an inherent advantage" excuse, which comes off as hypocritical when they keep adding new events that your Average Joe can find the scratch for.

Regardless of what the reason is, you won´t be hearing "RE-BUY!" screams around the Rio this year. Gone are the days when you would race around the room to see had the most casino chips behind their tournament chips, a tell-tale sign of somebody prepared to dump. Just don´t say act like by eliminating re-buy events and replacing them with $10K´s that you´re doing non-pros any favors.

Can´t make it to Las Vegas or the Rio? Poker Pages has your covered. Beginning May 28th, PokerPages.com will be providing live coverage of the 2009 WSOP from the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Our team of reporters will be providing the best in live updates and photos from the tournament floor. If you want to check on your favorite player, get the latest chip counts and bustouts, or just want to satisfy your tournament fix, PokerPages.com is your source for everything WSOP!

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