2003 WSOP DVD
Review by Scott Bonz
One of the biggest poker events in history hit the shelves as ESPN released the 2003 World Series of Poker a while back. The $10,000 buy-in tournament at Binion's Horseshoe Casino is the most famous annual poker tournament. The DVD captures all seven episodes of the televised broadcast without commercial interruption. It features commentary by Lon McEron and Norman Chad, who both add a lot to the coverage.
The main focus of the event is then-27-year-old Chris Moneymaker, who turned a $40 online entry into a dream of a lifetime. Chris battled his way through a massive 839 players to win the event. The DVD captures the emotion, strategy and amazing luck all the players much go through on the way to crowning a new world champion.
The two-disc DVD set contains a few bonus features including some clips from ESPN's Cold Pizza and Pardon the Interruption. The DVD does not contain the extra clips that were televised, such as "The Best of the 2003 WSOP" or "Amazing All-Ins." As a result, I feel the bonus features are a bit lacking-but the tournament coverage more than makes up for it.
The 2003 WSOP is the pinnacle event that brought most of the world into the poker world. Every poker player today has seen a portion of this tournament. The broadcast also made household names out of poker players, such as Phil Ivey, Moneymaker, Scotty Nguyen, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Sam Farha, Sam Grizzle, and Annie Duke.
Some of the highlights include Scotty Nguyen's big bluffs, Phil Hellmuth and Sam Grizzle jawing at each other, and finally Chris Moneymaker knocking Sam Farha out of the tournament with a full house against top pair. All of this and more are featured on the 2003 World Series of Poker DVD which retails for $27.96. Any person who has any interest in poker must buy this DVD. There is nothing better to do then play some online poker and watch the WSOP. It is a must have!