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The 2008 World Series of Poker is winding to a close, and Poker Pros have stormed back this year taking bracelet after bracelet. Just yesterday, Scotty Nguyen took home a 2 Million dollar prize in the WSOP $50,000 buy-in Horse event, widely regarded by pros as the tournament that crowns the best overall poker player.

This is GREAT news for pros heading into the final and most publicized tournament, the World Series of Poker Main Event. The last handfull of years, amateur players have walked away with the main even prize, which has fruitfully been growing to astronomical levels.

This year also marks the first year the WSOP is making a change in the events format. The tournament will be played from July 3rd-July 14th, however when they reach the final table, the tournament will suspend until later this fall. The sizable break will enable ESPN to film the final table, edit, and air it all in the same day, so although you still can’t watch the final table live, you can see the final table on ESPN as a same day tape delay, unprecidented for the WSOP. Normally the tournament finishes up in mid-July and air’s in the fall to end ESPN’s “Season” of WSOP Event coverage. So we know well in advance who wins, leaving not much anticipation to watch the finale, but now, as long as you’re not a rabid internet follower of the WSOP, you’ll be able to see the winner crowned on ESPN before it hits newstands and national papers such as USA Today.

I’m going to put my money on Phil Helmuth this year. He’s due for a win, and what better place than the Main Event to get that 12th Record Breaking Bracelet. Helmuth, known as the “Poker Brat” is either loved or hated by fans of poker, probably by more than any other player around, mostly because of his errogance of stating many times how much better of a player he is than people he loses to. I think its funny, and hey, if you’re going to win at poker, you need that type of mentality to win. Who do you think will win it all this year? A pro? or Amateur? Easy money is on the amateur players, but I really feel like this could be the year a top pro breaks through to end the string.

The one thing I want to do before I die is get 10G’s together and play in the main event, at least one time. For now though, I’ve been saving up and will be playing a local tournament at the Casino on Friday Morning. I used to get to play a lot more, but its tough these days. I’m going to practice and try to stay sharp and hit the cash, so I can play in some more tournaments.