Overachievers and disappointments at the 2010 WSOP

The 2010 WSOP is (mostly) over and some players have obviously stolen all the headlines, while others – much better quoted – have disappointed bitterly. It’s not exactly rocket science to point a finger to the best performers, as well as to those who had promised, hyped, then failed to deliver.

Let’s start with those who brought something to the table. Frank Kassela. This guy has definitely been responsible for delivering some of the biggest surprises for layman observers this edition of the WSOP. In poker circles, Kassela had been known for a while before the WSOP, but he truly delivered a breakout performance that instantly put him onto the map for the entire poker community.
Kassela was the only player who managed to win 2 WSOP bracelets this year, and on top of that, he finished 3rd in the players’ championship event. He cashed six times including a final table, so he’s definitely a serious candidate for the “Player of the Year” title.
The only player who could rob him of the distinction would be Michael Mizrachi, who may yet win the Big Dance in November. Another guy who looked like he was going to snatch the POY title away at one point through the Series was Vladimir Schmelev. Unlike Kassela, the Russian came out of nowhere quite literally and first shocked the poker world by finishing second, behind Michael Mizrachi in the $50k player’s championship event. It’s true that he did not manage to get his hands on the gold, but he reached the final table in 4 more events, a more than genuine proof of his green felt prowess. The really impressive thing about Schmelev was that this was his debut on the US poker scene, and he managed to accumulate more than $1.14 million straight away.

When it comes to overachievers, the British contingent should definitely be given a collective award. At times, it appeared as though the Brits were going to take over the series and surely enough, they won no fewer than 4 bracelets among them and made several final tables. Pras Bansi was the one who spearheaded the British invasion. Neil Channing made a deep run shortly after. Steve Jelinek pocketed some gold too, and Richard Ashby and James Dempsey had excellent runs in several events too.
Now on to those who disappointed. Spotting winners is easy, because they’re all in the lime-light, but singling out those who stood out by simply not showing up, is a different kind of challenge. When it comes to not showing up, one name is definitely the top of the list: Joe Cada. The reigning WSOP Main Event Champ only played in 16 events, which in itself is quite surprising, but when one tops it off with the fact that he didn’t manage to even get close to cashing in any of these events, the situation turns downright dire.
Barry Greenstein was definitely another no-show, and on my part I’d say Daniel Negreanu’s WSOP run was extremely disappointing as well, but that may only be in light of the possibly exaggerated expectations I’d built up regarding the PokerStars pro. Then again, based on the same line of thought, Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Annie Duke and Chris Ferguson would also have to be included among the let-downs.

It may be that this is a new time and age though and the WSOP window for the above mentioned names has closed. For Annette Obrestad though, that was certainly not the case. She was the poster-face of the series and there was a tremendous amount of expectation burdening her, to which it wasn’t exactly a surprise that she couldn’t live up.