What a list of winners we've had this WSOP.

As the World Series winds down to the Main Event this week, here are a few of the pros who have grabbed bracelets away from the mob of poker wannabes who've crowded into the Rio the last five weeks:

John Phan, Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, J.C. Tran, Nenad Medic, David Singer, Layne Flack, Dario Minieri, Blair Hinkle, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, Mike Matusow, Max Pescatori, David Woo, Kenny Tran, Phil Galfond and the ageless Scotty Nguyen.

My friend Nolan Dalla at the WSOP says pros have won 36 bracelets this summer compared to 11 by amateurs. But why have we seen the rush of pros taking down so many bracelets this year?

Here are three reasons I see for all the success (and hopefully I can join in as well!):

1) More pros playing more tournaments. Simply put, there are more men and women who play poker for a living than ever before. The under-25-year-old crowd mostly got their start online and have made the transition to live poker well.

Many of these new pros (young and old) have played more tournaments in the last two years than I've played in my life.

Three bracelet winners come to mind when I think about this. Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond plays nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt, and taking down the $5k PLO event was good for $817k.

Gromenkova: Learned the ropes at PokerStars.

Svetlana Gromenkova won $224k by winning the Ladies Event, and she learned her poker playing all the time at PokerStars as well as in Atlantic City.

Most people probably hadn't heard of Scott Seiver until he won $755k by taking down the $5k NLHE event this year. He cashed three times last year at the WSOP, and has now cashed four times this year.

Add the $175k he won for a runner-up finish earlier this year at the PokerStars Sunday Million, and that's closing in on a million dollars he's banked this year.

There is no longer a stigma to players who got their start online, and they've become knowledgeable and experienced through thousands and thousands of hands. You also see a big increase in the number of pros who are playing many events during the World Series.

Some pros used to focus even more on the juicy cash games going on than on tournaments, but I see more players living in the Amazon Room day after day. You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket, and playing more events gives pros more of a chance to take home the top prize.

It took a while, but live pros have finally started taking online players seriously.

2) Adjustments by pros. When online poker was exploding, many pros looked down on online players. These kids made wild moves at any time while speaking a poker language foreign to many of us. I think a couple of things have happened in the last two years.

First, pros have made adjustments to this new game. I can't explain the specifics of this, but we've just learned to pick off the bluff shoves and make the steal calls in abnormal situations.

Second, the edge within the pro community, I think, has gotten narrower. More players can change gears than ever before. Known for playing very aggressively, I used to be considered a bit strange.

Today there are many more very aggressive players, and I now consider myself selectively aggressive and a gear changer rather than just an uber-aggro player.

Lieu: First female Main Event winner?

3) Better structure. I think Harrah's finally understood what folks like the Venetian and online sites learned early: poker players like deeper, better structures.

When poker is forced to become a shove-fest, the edge pros have drops. Better structures mean more play, subtle moves, pot control, getting away from hands. Better structures lead to more pros at final tables.

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Will we have a pro take down the Main Event this year? I'm sure we'll see at least a couple pros at the Final Table, and I think this is the best chance in many years to see a pro take down the Main Event.

And I'm hoping that we'll see the first female Main Event winner to boot!

Cheers!

-- Liz Lieu
Pro Poker Player- Poker Diva

More Blogs from Liz Lieu:

• The Rio or the Bellagio?
• 28th Is Not Quite First
• Bagging Chips for the First Time!
• Feeling Good at WSOP but Aces Cracked Again
• My Thoughts on WSOP ME Final-Table Delay

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