Poker and Surfing Part Ii: Tournament Play
While Poker has the WSOP, surfing has its own prestigious ongoing tournament called the ASP. Poker has dozens of seasoned pros that continue to dominate tournaments such as Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chang, David Pham and Juan Carlos Mortensen while surfing boasts its own slew of living legends that continue to dominate surf contests such as Andy Irons, Kelly Slater, Taj Burrow, Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning. Getting to these tournaments for anybody is no easy feat and the competition for the contestants is always fierce. Part II will explore the similarities of these tournaments and the various strategies these gladiators must undertake in order to be true champions.
ASP
The Association of Surfing Professionals, most commonly referred to as the ASP, is widely regarded as the most prestigious surfing circuit in the world. Although many of the surf contests run by the ASP end up being battled out in sloppy three foot waves, they also score some of the most perfect and challenging waves in the world. When the conditions all come together spectators are given the treat of watching the absolute best surfers on the planet battle it out in some of the most incredible and dangerous waves the ocean has to offer.
The ASP began its road to creation in 1960s when structured competitions in surfing were just barely making their mark on the surfing world. During this decade surfers were competing purely because they were crazy about the sport and wanted to prove themselves to their peers. There were no sponsors and most definitely no surfing industry. In the early 1970s more and more structured competitions with monetary compensation began to emerge, and by the mid-1970s events started popping up all over the world. The loose agglomeration of tournaments was strung together in 1976 in what proved to be the embryonic stages of the ASP, and the rest is just history.
Just like the WSOP, there are dozens of roads to make it to the ASP. Almost all of the surfers that you see competing in the ASP circuit started off as young surfers battling it out when they were little grommets (surfer slang for a kid surfer) in tournaments at home as well as abroad for the more privileged. They keep earning their stripes until they are old enough (or good enough) to compete in the prestigious WQS (World Qualifying Series) circuit. The WQS is where the world's best up and coming surfers froth at each other for a chance at earning a place in the ASP. Some of the best surfers in the world never make it out of the WQS and into the ASP, not because they aren't great surfers but because they cannot perform under the added pressure of contest surfing.
For instance Dave Rastovich - considered by many to be one of the best and most stylish surfers in the world - opts to not even try to compete in tournaments. He earns a living simply as a freesurfer. Bruce Irons is an excellent example of a world class surfer that has trouble remaining in the ASP: Bruce, brother of Andy Irons, is an absolute animal in the water, known for pulling in deep into some of the most treacherous and shallow barrels in the business. Yet, for some unbelievable reason Bruce Irons consistently underperforms in nearly every single contest he enters.
The reason being is that it takes a very special type of surfer to win competitions that are basically at the highest level. There are less than 50 surfers that make it to the ASP world tour every year and to actually consistently win amongst the top surfers in the world is no easy feat. There is a degree of mental alacrity and competitiveness that such a surfer must have in order to maintain such consistent placements.
WSOP
Anybody with a television set these days has heard about the World Series of Poker - one can barely turn on the TV without seeing at least a couple of poker tournaments being fought out and more often than not the competitors are frothing over each other for a chance at winning a WSOP bracelet. It is not a single tournament, but rather a series of tournaments that are played annually in Las Vegas, lasting just over a month. A bracelet is awarded to the winner of each of the fifty-plus events which include all of the major varieties of poker. The series culminates of the $10, 000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event", which in recent years has attracted thousands of entrants who want a chance at the multi-million dollar prize. Winning this event is the pinnacle of any card player's career.
Just like the ASP, the WSOP's origins start way back towards the end of the 1960s. The original WSOP started in 1968 by Tom Moore of San Antonio Texas, and it was an invitational event held at the Holiday Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. This first inaugural event was won by Crandell Addington, who went on to place in the top ten of the WSOP Main Event an impressive eight times. His record stands to this day.
The series of tournaments that gradually came to be known as the WSOP began to evolve under the brainchild of Las Vegas, Benny Binion. Binion, a casino owner and poker player, helped to nurture the WSOP as well as the game of poker itself by changing the status quo: prior to the 1970s poker wasn't found at many casinos because they could not keep cheaters out, but Binion changed the security systems at casinos and now poker is one of the most popular games in the world let alone in casinos.
Just like with surfing, there are two different kinds of poker players. There are players who almost exclusively play cash games or online and tend to stay away from the big live tournaments because, frankly, they just aren't good at them. In surfing, those who tend to stray from the big competitions are called "soul surfers". I'm not sure if there are "soul poker players" but there might be. Regardless, just like surfing has many ASP legends so does poker. Some of the best known competitors at the WSOP include Phil Hellmuth who, with 11 bracelets, has won more WSOP events than any other poker player in history. Not far behind are runners-up Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with ten bracelets each.
Although there may not be "soul poker players", there are definitely those who are able to maintain a formidable reputation solely playing online and hardly bother to show up for the WSOP events. Some of these players include Chad "M8kingmoves" Batista, and Sorel "imper1um" Mizzi, Luke "resteal" Abolins and Eric "Rizen" Lynch.
The main difference between the WSOP and ASP is that you don't have to qualify to play in the WSOP: anybody with an extra $10, 000 lying around can have a go at a gold bracelet if they so please. The reality is that the vast majority of players that compete in the WSOP have been playing cards a long time and are using their winnings from previous tournaments and online play in order to afford the buy-in. On the other hand, just like the ASP has the WQS instated so that it can filter in hot up and coming rookies into the ASP, there are countless satellite tournaments available all over the internet that can and often to help players make it to the WSOP. A simple tournament on Full Tilt Poker can start a player on a path that could lead them all the way to Las Vegas. There are accounts of several players that have made it all the way to the final table of a WSOP tournament and they merely started out by playing small satellite tournaments online to get there.
Strategy
It's no coincidence that surfing and poker see the same faces placing in the top ten every single year. More for poker than for surfing, this is proof that the best in the business are not there because of some kind of fluke: they have found a way to master a game and can consistently beat the top 0.1% of competitors. Yet, what does it take to actually win an ASP world title or the WSOP Main Event?
First and foremost, anybody that wins such prestigious events has been endowed with exceptional natural abilities from God, Brahman, the Universe, Allah, Buddha or whatever entity you choose to worship. Secondly, these competitors have all spent hours upon hours honing their already unnatural skills.
The final ingredient is a fierce competitive nature. Although many of us would certainly like to paddle out in a deadly 10 foot pipeline, the truth is that most people are just simply not willing to put their bodies in that kind of danger to prove to the world that they're a good surfer. The same can be said of poker. It may not be as life threatening, but some of the best poker players have had to sacrifice a great deal in their lives and risk huge sums of money to get to where they are. It may not be physical danger, but financial danger that poker players risk.
When surfers are locked in a heated world title race, the competition can get unbelievably intense. Surfers begin paddling over each other trying to get their rival to miss a wave, they yell at each other and get surprisingly physical for a non-contact sport. In poker, players must have the ability to stare their opponent down in a heads up battle for hours on end, and some are known for making their opponents go on tilt through chatter or rudeness.
Point being that have a run at a world title or a bracelet is immensely challenging, but to actual take home the grand prize a competitor must want it with all of their heart and have the mental strength to not break their concentration.
This article was published courtesy of PokerSourceOnline.com.
Poker Source Online (www.pokersourceonline.com) is one of the most popular poker communities on the net, offering free gifts, money and freerolls to members since 2004. We are proud to offer 24/7 online support. PSO is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Swedish and Russian.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com
