Chess players at World Series of Poker

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  • Chess players at World Series of Poker

    At least two Canadian chess players are playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It lasts for a month, and there are events every day - with entry fees ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.

    Jeff Sarwer (listed as being from Gdansk, Poland) - from what I can see, he has yet to win anything so far, after entering several events. With $440,000 in winnings over the last year, he can afford it.

    Antoine Berube (Quebec City) - $227,000 in winnings over the last year. He has entered at least one event.

    Both players are still alive going into the second day of a $1,000 Holdem event. There will probably be close to $4 million in prizes in this one event.

    http://www.wsop.com/tournaments

  • #2
    Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

    Sorry, I don't know much about how WSOP is organized, but my question is, Where does all that prize money come from? Is it just players' entry fees (as in most chess tournaments)? Sponsors? TV networks payments for broadcast rights?

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    • #3
      Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

      Most (all?) of the money comes from entry fees. An "entry fee" can come from one of several sources:

      1) The player puts up the whole entry fee himself.
      2) The player has a sponsor who puts up all/part of the entry fee. In return, the player gives publicity to the sponsor (e.g. by wearing a shirt with the sponsor's logo/name) and/or giving back a percentage of his winnings to the sponsor.
      3) The player has won a (or a series of) much lower entry fee "satellite tournaments" in which the first (or more) prize is a free entry to the main tournament.
      4) I'm sure some of the star players (celebrities, well-known poker players) get free entries.

      90-95% of the entry fees go back to the players (usually the top 10-15%). A $4 million prize fund leaves $200-400k for the organizers (less expenses which could chew up a lot of that).

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      • #4
        Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

        Originally posted by Ken Kurkowski View Post
        ... Where does all that prize money come from? Is it just players' entry fees (as in most chess tournaments)? Sponsors? TV networks payments for broadcast rights?
        100% of the prize money comes from the entry fees at just about every live or online poker tournament in the world, unless there is a guaranteed prize fund which I'll explain below.

        The entry fee for a $1000 event is usually listed as something like $930 + $70, meaning $930 for the prize fund, the rest to the organizer. This way everyone knows what to expect for the prize fund by multiplying the $930 by the number of players. Typically the entry fee is anywhere between 6% - 10% of the total buy-in.

        Broadcasting and advertising earnings are pure profit for the organizer. Organizers don't need to add to the prize fund since it's extremely rare when a poker tournament doesn't happen due to lack of entries.

        If an organizer is looking to entice players to enter, they can put up a guaranteed prize fund. This is especially popular online where you generally have a lot of traffic at any given time. You can set a low entry fee, and once you satisfy a certain number of buy-ins, your guarantee is met without having to put up any money out of pocket.

        For example, Full Tilt Poker has a daily $0.00 + $0.10 buy-in $1000 guaranteed prize fund with $0.50 rebuys and add-ons. None of the initial buy-in goes towards the prize fund, the prize fund is covered by the rebuys and add-ons. If a player loses all their chips within the first hour, they can buy more for $0.50 as many times as they like. If you're still in the tournament when the re-buy hour is up, you can add to your existing stack for another $0.50 during the break, and then there are no more re-buys or add-ons allowed. Once there is $1000 in rebuys and add-ons, the guarantee is met, and the prize fund starts growing. The site makes its money off the initial $0.10 buy-ins. It's not much, but when you consider that 3600 players enter just about every time, they make $360 per tournament without having to worry about putting out any of the prize fund.

        Last night's tournament had the full 3600 entries, and with 2,233 rebuys and 550 add-ons, the prize fund was $1,391.50, so the site satisfied the $1,000 guarantee without spending a cent.

        Too bad this could never work in chess... just not enough players with enough money to travel to a tournament with high prize funds and low entry fees, among many other reasons.
        No matter how big and bad you are, when a two-year-old hands you a toy phone, you answer it.

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        • #5
          Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

          I'll be there to play the Main event again this year.

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          • #6
            Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

            In the US, many chess tournaments have a "re-entry" option - which is about as close as you can get to a "rebuy" on poker.

            I once saw someone rebuy 47 times in one tournament in PokerStars.

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            • #7
              Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

              At least two Canadian chess players are playing in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It lasts for a month, and there are events every day - with entry fees ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.

              Jeff Sarwer (listed as being from Gdansk, Poland) - from what I can see, he has yet to win anything so far, after entering several events. With $440,000 in winnings over the last year, he can afford it.

              Antoine Berube (Quebec City) - $227,000 in winnings over the last year. He has entered at least one event.

              Both players are still alive going into the second day of a $1,000 Holdem event. There will probably be close to $4 million in prizes in this one event.

              http://www.wsop.com/tournaments
              Jeff won $1,864; Antoine finished out of the money. More events today.

              Comment


              • #8
                Jeff Sarwer

                Better than playing chess ?? $ 6,500 first prize in the upcoming Toronto Canadian Open.

                Would Sarwer still have a chance today? He currently is not listed in the FIDE rating list ( inactive I presume ). But I thought I saw an article a while back that said he had fairly recently played in some tournament in Poland ( where I believe he now lives ), or a neighbouring country ( maybe it was not FIDE rated? ). I believe it said he performed at a master level. Does anyone know about this? I believe he never did make a FIDE title.

                Also, his personal website has a great video clip of his younger chess days, and the life he, his sister, and his dad, lived. He won the WYCC U 10. Is he the only WYCC gold medalist Canada has ever produced?

                Bob
                Last edited by Bob Armstrong; Thursday, 17th June, 2010, 12:09 AM.

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                • #9
                  Jeff & Julia Sarwer

                  I inquired about this with David Cohen, who is a good Canadian Chess historian, and he advised that Jeff Sarwer was the only gold medalist junior boy Canada has had ( U 10 Open ), and his sister Julia (?) Sarwer, is the only gold medalist junior girl ( Girls U 10 ). He said he wasn't sure, but he thought the tournament they played in at the time was a World Cup junior event, not the World Youth Chess Championships, but he was just going from memory on that point.

                  It is true that Jeff never got a FIDE title, despite his impressive result and talent.

                  As to recent chess, David thought his only one is one in Poland, an active tournament ( not FIDE rated ). But he did perform at a pretty high level still, from my recollection of the article a while back that I read.

                  Bob
                  Last edited by Bob Armstrong; Thursday, 17th June, 2010, 12:08 AM.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

                    Originally posted by Bob Armstrong View Post
                    that Jeff Sarwer was the only gold medalist junior boy Canada has had ( U 10 Open ), and his sister Julia (?) Sarwer, is the only gold medalist junior girl ( Girls U 10 ).
                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Y...s_Championship
                    1986 San Juan (Puerto Rico) Jeff Sarwer (Canada) Julia Sarwer (Canada)

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                    • #11
                      Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

                      Suggest you re-read this thread:

                      http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/showthread.php?t=2574

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                      • #12
                        Jeff Sarwer - Recent Chess

                        Hi Stephen:

                        Thanks - that is the article I read that I was referring to. It clarifies that he played in 2007 in Poland in a Game/30 9 round rapid tournament and did fairly well:

                        " in Round 4 had my first real test against GM Bobras. I didn't play that well. I thought I could play a line with an interesting passed pawn that was in reality terrible. So eight or nine moves later when I reached the position I had calculated and saw in reality it was losing, I saved both of our time and just resigned. Thankfully that was the only game I lost in the tournament. I was quite pleased with the way I played the last five games. I followed less pointless plans and won three games against decent masters and had two draws with GM Jedynak and GM Wojtasek "

                        Bob
                        Last edited by Bob Armstrong; Thursday, 17th June, 2010, 12:07 AM.

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                        • #13
                          Jeff & Julia Sarwer

                          Hi Egis:

                          Thanks for the reference.

                          It appears from the article that the tournament at the time the Sarwers won in 1986, was called the World Youth Chess Festival - U 10 Boys ( Jeff ), and U 10 Girls ( Julia ).

                          According to the article:

                          " In 1997 the name of tournament was changed to the World Youth Chess Championships. "

                          Bob
                          Last edited by Bob Armstrong; Thursday, 17th June, 2010, 12:06 AM.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

                            Quebec City master/expert Antoine Berube came up with the $10,000 entry fee for Friday's "Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship" in Las Vegas. (Jeff Sarwer did not).

                            This is a 256-player one-on-one knockout event. When you lose all your chips to the other guy - you're out - otherwise you go on to the next round.

                            Antoine has made it to the round of 128. There are only 32 prizes - so he has to win two more rounds to win money.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Chess players at World Series of Poker

                              Antoine did not make it to the round of 64 - but it was a good effort.

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