Before the 2012 World Series of Poker gets into full flow, we take a look back at last year's festival, which will go down in history as one of the most memorable WSOPs of all time.
Elky and Cody win Triple Crowns
 |
| Jake Cody |
The series started with a bang when Jake Cody became the third player to receive the prestigious honour of taking down the poker triple crown. The EPT Deauville and WPT London champion won the very first open event of the WSOP that year, the $25,000 heads-up championship, defeating Yevgeniy Timoshenko in the final. This meant that Cody captured the triple crown in just a 17 month period between the three titles.
Not to be outdone, prolific French tournament pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier also became a triple crown winner when he took down the $10,000 seven card stud championship just 12 days later.
Black Friday casts a cloud over the WSOP
2011 was always going to be a landmark year for the World Series of Poker, because it was the series that took place in the immediate aftermath of Black Friday. The chaos that would take place over at Full Tilt had not yet manifested, but there was a great deal of uncertainty over what would happen with player funds at the troubled site.
Some of the former FTP pros were getting hassled from disgruntled players during the festival, and as a result it was a WSOP with a rare lack of sponsored player patches on show. Most notably, from the FTP camp, Phil Ivey shocked the world by suing his former sponsors and boycotting the WSOP, in what he claimed was a protest at FTP having not paid out the players yet.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for the WSOP in the wake of Black Friday, as live poker numbers were up and the WSOP enjoyed a boost in traffic in a lot of the preliminary events.
Live streaming revolutionises televised poker
 |
| Hellmuth on the ESPN live stream |
It may have been a major step backwards for online poker, but 2011 saw a major progression in the way we watched the game. Every single bracelet event was streamed live online at the official WSOP site, and in many cases, the hole cards were streamed live too, with just a 30 minute delay. Coverage from the series, and in particular the main event, was also televised live on ESPN the same day.
This has paved the way for even more live streams from other poker events, including the WPT, EPT, iSeriesLive, and more. It has really set the bar high for televised poker, and we can expect more of the same this year.
Hellmuth reinvents himself
Maybe it was something to do with Black Friday, or maybe it was because he had just parted ways with long time sponsor UB, but we saw a different Phil Hellmuth at the series last year. Gone were the elaborate entrances and (for the most part) the temper tantrums; as we saw a more focused, calmer Phil.
This culminated in a remarkable three 2nd place finishes in bracelet events, which almost bagged him the POY title. The fact that these three events were all in non-hold'em disciplines also helped silence some critics who thought that he was "just a hold'em player". He is a long way off being a completely changed man, but Phil won himself a few new fans last year.
Pius Heinz is crowned champion
The icing on the cake of last year's World Series of Poker was the rise of German pro Pius Heinz. Poker was looking for a good ambassador following the events of Black Friday, and it found one in the 23 year old Heinz. Little was known about Heinz in live circles, other than he made the final table of a $1,500 bracelet event a week before the main event, but he impressed a lot of people on the live streams with his play as the event got deep, and as it was broadcast during the November Nine break.
Heinz put on a fantastic performance to move from the middle of the pack and set up a memorable heads-up battle with Martin Staszko on his way to the title. His victory captured mainstream media attention, particularly in Germany where he became an overnight celebrity.
He has since gone on to become a superb role model for the German poker scene and signed on to become a fully-fledged Team PokerStars pro, and did we mention he started his poker career at PokerStrategy.com?
 |
| Pius Heinz wins it for Germany |
by Barry Carter