Shane Warne, the Ashes, and the WSOP Main Event

As anyone who frequents Dr Pauly's coverage of the WSOP Main Event may have noticed, a gentleman by the name of Shane Warne has frequently turned up in his reports. Pauly has described the man as "the Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth of the cricket world", which is a pretty reasonable description. He is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers (for baseball equivalent, read: pitcher) of all time. Mostly for being able to do things like this:





That was probably just very confusing to all non-cricket lovers, but trust me - that was awesome. Warne, who has been retired for several years, is also well-known for his off-field shenanigans, including drinking, smoking, fornication, and gambling - all which only heightens any comparisons to Jordan and Ruth, I suppose.

At the same time as the Main Event was kicking off it's days 2A and 2B, a huge cricket event was beginning in England: the first Ashes test. The wikipedia article for the Ashes is worth a look, if you are in anyway interested. Apparently Warne promoted as being one of the lead commentators for the cricket series, but as the first test began, Warney wasn't about. As we know, instead of fulfilling his cricket obligations he was busy check-raising tourists in the Amazon room. Cricinfo.com even wrote an article about it, managing to get a ton of facts wrong. Some of my favourite quotes:

"The final table of this year's tournament takes place on July 15 - which, coincidentally, is the eve of the second Test at Lord's"

Well, no, that's not right - as we know the final table will be in November. July 15th is the last day of play for the Main Event before the final table, so I guess partial credit?

"Sky officials remain adamant that Warne will eventually arrive to fulfil his contractual obligations, but he is already reported to be US$100,000 up for the tournament, and given that the 2009 main prize is expected to exceed US$10 million, by the end of the week, there may be no easy way to persuade him."

Well, I hate to break this to the reporter, but unless Warne has a ton of side-bets or side-games going on, he's won jack shit in the tournament so far. And won't until 1200+ more players bust. And even then he'll score $21k... which is a net of 11k (assuming he paid the full 10k to get in, which I am prepared to assume). Oh, and the winner of the tournament will win $ 8,546,435, a figure which I was able to obtain via this great reference called "the internet".

I am also prepared to declare that Shane Warne will not, in all probability, win the Main Event. The odds are he will bust some time today, or at some stage before July 15th, with him having a great chance of winning $0. Other than that, the article was excellent.

Oh, and right now Australia are 4 for 463 in the first innings, a lead of 28 runs over England. Of course it's the third session of the third day, so a draw is the most likely result, but Australia has a chance and building a massive lead and trying to bowl England out before the end of the 5th day.

Your welcome.