Written by Tim Lavalli
 LAS VEGAS/Thursday, 25 October 2007

The PokerBowl 2007 ran this past weekend at the Palms in Las Vegas. The Poker Bowl attempts to emulate other sports leagues, in which 25 U.S. cities competed for a national title. Doyle Brunson was there, as were Mike Matusow, Scotty Nguyen, Kenna James and literally dozens of name professionals.

I headed down to the Palms to watch several of the matches and found the players having a lot of fun with an unusual format. Each “City” had six players, most of the players not in any way actually associated with the city they were playing for. The format had five opening rounds of five teams each. Five teams meant thirty players, so the event began with three tables of ten players, which including two players from each team. Players were seated so that they were never seated together and the play continued until only three players remained at each table.

The final nine moved to the second round final table and played until only one team was left standing. Remember, it was a team event so if the two remaining players were from the same team, the round was over. Obviously, chips were being dumped from one team member to another but actual signals were against the rules, although enforcement was difficult to see, as were any potential signals. I will say that teams with a strategy seemed to fair better in the early rounds but eventually cards and skill took over at the final tables.

The five winning teams from the preliminary rounds met yesterday in a final round of play. The result will be a Fox Television show scheduled for January, 2008 and as with many of these poker flavored shows, the editing will make or break the product. Bet on the Cincinnati team, if you are a gambler.