Team PokerStars WSOP Success

By Brad "Otis" Willis on June 18, 2007 10:40 AM | Permalink

Some people feel that poker is a game of chance, that successful players are merely lucky players. Some people suggest that simply being in the right place, at the right time, with the right cards in your hand, will make poker riches inevitable. I disagree.

You know that saying about cream rising to the top? It comes about because in any bottle of whole milk there's always a thick creamy top layer. I used to fight with my brothers every morning over whose turn it was to pour the top milk on our breakfast cornflakes. The scientific explanation for the phenomena of a creamy top to a bottle of milk is that the fat particles in the cream are lighter than the regular milk molecules, thus the light cream floats above the skim milk.

You may be wondering what this has to do with Team PokerStars and WSOP success? I'd suggest that it is not the lighter molecules of our Team PokerStars players that is causing them to rise to the top spots in tournaments. No, it isn't that. It has to be some classy play that's seeing them reach final tables and win big.

Anyone who thinks poker talent is a meaningless concept should study the results for WSOP 2007 so far. Many players you'd recognise from your favourite TV Poker shows are fighting through big fields to reach final tables.

Team PokerStars players have had exceptional results:

Event #1 World Championship Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) - Steve Paul-Ambrose 4th for $146,259

Event #7 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Re-buys - Humberto Brenes 8th for $79,710

Event #13 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em - Humberto Brenes 3rd for $197,348

Event #14 Seven-Card Stud - Barry Greenstein 4th: $33,698, Greg Raymer 6th for $19,680

Event #17 World Championship Ladies Event No-Limit Hold'em - Katja Thater 4th for $70,216

Event #19 No-Limit Hold'em - Humberto Brenes 7th for $55,918, ElkY 9th for $29,124

Event #20 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Eight-or-Better - Greg Raymer 4th for $41,460

Event #21 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout - Daniel Negreanu 3rd for $101,351

That means two final tables for Greg Raymer so far, with Brenes going one better. Humberto Brenes has played six events at this year's World Series and reached final tables in three of them! I just totted up the total and that's ten final table appearances for Team PokerStars in just this first fortnight of WSOP 2007.

I have talked a lot about the cream of the poker world, but of course there are also many regular PokerStars players who will play in this prestigious poker event. Last night saw PokerStars host its biggest WSOP satellite yet, a staggering 220 PokerStars players won Main Event seats. Brad 'Otis' Willis will surely be following the progress of any PokerStars player with a story to tell on PokerStars Poker blog.

So what else can I say about Team PokerStars, or indeed cream? Well... cream is sweet, it's rich and it tastes just great on hot apple pie! Team PokerStars players must find it sweet to reach WSOP final tables, it makes them rich, and if there was a hot apple pie Final Table they'd probably want a piece of that too.

Watch out for more from Team PokerStars in the coming weeks of WSOP, and don't forget the excitement of the Main Event begins on July 6th. Here's a few pictures of our stars courtesy of ImageMasters Photography.