I love the World Series of Poker. I have had dreams come true at the WSOP and I have had some of the greatest poker disappointments in my life happen at the WSOP. I have seen this famous poker competition change, grow, and go through a complete renaissance in the poker world, most of the changes have been for the good. Poker has become a spectator sport drawing television audiences of millions and life-changing money can be won. People come from all over the world to participate, to play against the best in the world and to hope for miracles. The fine folks at Harrahs have listened to player's complaints and have made changes to this annual poker fest with the best of intentions. In the past we (poker players) have complained about the breaks, the restroom facilities, food availability, lack of room for spectators, having to play in a big tent, ability of the dealers, etc. All of these complaints have been addressed and as far as I know, fixed. Huge KUDOS to those who made it happen. There is an old joke about poker players and their complaints: If a casino put a brand new Rolls Royce in the prize pool, the winner would bitch about the color!

The WSOP keeps getting better and better, regretfully, there always seems to be another big boo-boo that needs fixin. My mama always said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well one thing is broke at the 2008 WSOP and that is the amount of chips given for the lower ($1000 and $1500) buy-in events. Last year, the ladies in the ladies event were going to start with $1000 in chips. The ladies whooped and hollered so loudly that we were given another $500 chip each. Blinds started at $25-$25. That was better but not good. This year, we started with the $2000 but the structure had changed and we began play at $25-$50 blinds. Anybody who knows anything about tournament poker knows that amount of ammunition is not enough. One mistake or one bad-beat and you are either dead or down for the count. I am only talking about the ladies event because that is the only WSOP event that I have played this year. Thursday, July 3, I will have taken my seat in Amazon Orange, table two, seat two for the main event, day 1-A. If it crosses your mind, send me some good thoughts. Back to the challenge at hand. I repeat, the executives of the WSOP do listen. This is a fact from the positive changes we see made from year to year. They even sent out a survey to see what we liked and what we didn't like this year. I believe a lot of the ladies let them know that they were unhappy as Jeffrey Pollack has already relayed to me that the ladies will get more chips next year. He even told me how many. However, I am not going to say how many, because I am going to try to talk him into more.

There are some smaller competitions going on all over Vegas during this "Poker Tournament Storm" that happens early every summer. I have played many of these events because I am a pro player looking for the best overlay. The following are some of the conversations I have heard at the poker table in the last couple of weeks.

"Any world championship should not be about how to play short-stack poker from the first deal." This was from Rob Campbell from Boston, Mass. He continued, "I came to town to play event #49 in hopes of parlaying into the main event. When I realized I would only have $3000 in starting chips, I changed my plans because I could play three or four events at Caesars or the Venetian and still win my $10,000 buy-in."

In another discussion I heard: "Do you realize that the Venetian and Caesars not only give a lot of play with a great structure and a lot of chips [from $7,500 to 12,500 and $25,000 for their main event] They both are 'Player of the Year' point events!"

Greg Banner had this to say, "Two years ago, I came to Las Vegas to have my first WSOP experience and to play one $1,500 event. I've come a long way as a poker player and now it's all about the value to me. I'm out here for five days and I'm looking for a nice payday. A bracelet is a tremendous dream but I feel much more confident that I can make money at these outlaying events. Deep stack tournaments are such a great value!"

Personally, I want to play as many WSOP events as possible. I want the fame, the glory and the opportunity at another bracelet but for this year, my time was spend making money outside the Rio. The main event and all of the higher priced events remain a great value but until the smaller buy-in events become a better value, I'll be working elsewhere. I have to snicker when I call $1000 and $1,500 events low buy-ins, it is quite hefty to this gal's bankroll.

So ... let's see what the WSOP folks come up with for next year to take care of this one and hopefully last) big complaint about the WSOP.