Rate the World Series?

Poker players with memories that didn’t get erased through a summer of partying may recall that the main event at this year’s World Series of Poker began on July 3. After eleven days of intensive flopping, the field was trimmed from an impressive 6844 to a mere 9.

Rather than playing the final table the next day, it was delayed for four months so the company that bought the TV rights could broadcast tons of recorded footage of the preliminaries and whet the audience’s appetite for live coverage of the climax. That is now nearly upon us: the final players take their seats on November 9, a date chosen for symmetry as well as economics.

When the decision to delay the final table was announced, there was a reasonable amount of outraged bluster from poker professionals. Arguments that the scheduling would allow for coaching, that it would diminish the tournament and that it could provide scope for deal-making largely fell into ears deafened by the sound of ringing tills.

With some justification, some of the loudest hollers of protest originated from outside the US. Bah, they spat, it is an inconvenience typical of a nation that calls its (predominately) domestic baseball tournament the ‘World Series.’

However, because of events that few could have foreseen, it is unlikely we will hear complaints from Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov, the two surviving non-North Americans at the final table. Placed in 4th and 2nd respectively, both will have their pay-days significantly boosted by the crisis in the world’s financial markets.

Let’s assume that Peter and Ivan finish in 4th and 2nd.

Peter is Danish. The prize for 4th is $3.7m.

Ivan is Russian. The prize for 2nd is $5.8m.

If they had banked at the exchange rates of July 14:

Peter earns DKK 17,315,334.

Ivan banks RUB 134,831,034.

However using rates from yesterday:

Peter would earn DKK 21,807,282

Ivan would bank RUB 157,539,136

For those who can only salivate over prizes in their own currency, here is the first prize expressed in Euros:

July 14 – EUR 5,711,524

Oct 26 – EUR 7,167,070

It is a sizable difference, made even tastier by the knowledge that it ironically came about through the demands of The Man and the sponsors’ indifference to the concerns of the players.