Friday, 29th March 2024 00:46
Home / Uncategorized / WSOP 2012: All quiet on the outer tables
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I suppose we could call this a quiet period. There are all-in and calls going on everywhere, but as far as Team PokerStars Pros are concerned, none concern them. They play on while peacefully while the tournament life of others disintegrates around them.

That goes for three Team Pros at least.

While Daniel Negreanu does what he can with a short stack over on the feature table, the likes of Jan Heitmann, Marcel Luske and Vanessa Selbst keep things steady over on the tournament floor.

For Heitmann, that means laughing and joking with the players around him. He started the day with close to 800,000 and has had no major movement since. Despite a successful career so far, with cashes around the world, the German has only four World Series cashes since he first came to play here in 2004. He’s already topped his previous best in the Main Event four years ago, when he finished 585th.

A few tables along sits Vanessa Selbst, who, with every hand she plays, seems destined to reach the final day of play on Monday. Her progress today will determine two things: just how far she will advance and whether or not we are actually living in the era of Selbst, to which future players will be compared. Selbst looks unbeatable, and every pot she rakes in makes it more likely that her talents could become the story of the year.
Seated at the other end of the outer tournament area is Marcel Luske.

Luske, who typically wears a suit on occasions such as this, wears the same PokerStars track top that he’s worn for most days this week, along with the upturned sunglasses. There’s a reason of course.

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Marcel Luske

“Never change a winning system,” he said, echoing the thoughts of those in the sports book and Pai Gow tables of Las Vegas. “If I make the final table I’ll wear a suit.”

We’re still some way off that point, but Luske has a suitable arsenal of 600,000 chips with which to run his campaign. Luske first cashed in the Main Event back in 2003, when he finished 14th. A year later he reached tenth place but hasn’t cashed in the event since. That dry spell ends this year.

Four Team Pros remain in contention and it’s difficult to see any weak spots.

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