WSOP coverage starts on ESPN tonight

[Honolulu Blue]

Get ready for the Lon & Norm show, running from now until November (with plenty of reruns after that). More "I'm a bad poker player" jokes. More ex-wife jokes. More breathless calls - "It's a (insert miracle river card here)!" More famous names playing with their chips. More not-so-famous names playing with their chips. More bad beats. More all-ins. More bluffs. More Levitra commercials. Can't wait.

P.S. Special props for Sexy Announcer Lady. She probably looks like Kathy Liebert on a bad day, but I love her voice anyway.

[Ragone]

Why bother.. since we already know who won thanks to espn.com...

[Comey]

They're showing a lot of events this year, not just the main event.

[kcchief19]

I'll take Lon McEachern over one of the Van Patton kids anyday of the week and twice on Sundays. I'll give Mike Sexton the nod over Norman Chad, but I think my ideal team would be McEachern and Phil Gordon from Celebrity Poker.

I was also very surprised at the color commentary provided by Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negraneu during CardPlayer's coverage of the final table. I wouldn't mind seeing those guys fill in during tournaments they are not playing.

[SirFozzie]

The first few weeks are not even main WSOP events, instead they are "World Series of Poker circuit" (like the PGA tour, but not really) events from the Rio and other casinos before the WSOP opened

[Honolulu Blue]

The appetizers of the WSOP have been served. Now we get into the salad of the pre-main events at the Rio that happened in June and July. Those episodes start tomorrow at 9 ET, and there will be two a night.

My thoughts on the coverage so far:

* I liked the 2-hour first episode best of all and felt that the others were rushed at only an hour apiece.

* On a related point, the only one with star potential is Jean-Robert Bellande. An intelligent, manipulative talker type. Somehow I don't think we'll be seeing too much more of him in the next few years...

* The pros did well, but with one exception, didn't win. Jennifer Harman finished 2nd, as did Erick Lindgren and Phil Ivey (yes, I know Lisandro is a pro, but compared to Ivey's shadow, everyone looks amateurish). Esfandiari finished third. Only Jesus pulled out the W. I've always felt that unknowns have two substantial advantages over the pros - there are hours and hours of tape & DVDs of the pros out there available to be studied, but they don't know anything about them (that's why they're unknown, silly).

* Lon & Norm haven't changed, thankfully. I'm still debating whether a real analyst would help things.

* They only showed the "Here's how to play Texas Hold'em" thing in the first episode. Good because I already know how to play (I think... :( ) and they badly need the extra 90 seconds of airtime. Bad because that was a perfect time to get snacks. I kinda miss it.

* I think it's been a bit more of an all-in fest than it was last year. Worse than that, they've gotten into the habit of cutting into all-ins in the middle of a hand.

* Quick reviews of the notable commercials:

Milwaukee's Best (wusses getting smashed by beer cans) - Generally good. My favorite is the one where the guy talks to his girlfriend.
Milwaukee's Best (Jesus in the fridge) - Chris has some good lines, but for serious analysis, the hands they show are severely lacking.
Degree for Men - OK. Liked the ones with the dolls better (The Wuss, The Suckup, The Mama's Boy).
Levitra - The Levitra Babe is still a babe. What else can I say other than the fact that she's lasted way longer than Mike Ditka?

* "The Nuts" haven't been up to the standard set last year. Maybe it's because they've covered all this stuff before. I hope they get better once they start adding footage from this year.

* No Razz coverage, darn it. But somehow I think they'll sneak a few minutes of the ladies' event in there. Call it a hunch. :)

[Lathum]

I agree with pretty much everything blue said

I think Praled Friedman has star [potential, as long as he doesn't freestyle anymore.

[Subby]

I just finished reading Poker Aces and Kings and they claimed Prahlad Friedman (mahatma at UB) makes as much as 200K per month playing NL online. Amazing.

I don't know why, but I much prefer the ESPN coverage to the WPT. I think it might be the filmstock they shoot on...but it just looks so much better. My only gripe is that it gets ridiculously condensed...

[Honolulu Blue]

I think Praled Friedman has star [potential, as long as he doesn't freestyle anymore.

As a player, yes, Mr. Friedman is very good, and certainly could get better.

As a personality (which is actually what I meant), he'd be better off keeping the freestylin'. You never can have enough white boy wanna be rappers. :rolleyes:

[Lathum]

As a player, yes, Mr. Friedman is very good, and certainly could get better.

As a personality (which is actually what I meant), he'd be better off keeping the freestylin'. You never can have enough white boy wanna be rappers. :rolleyes:
if you say so

[MJ4H]

I just finished reading Poker Aces and Kings and they claimed Prahlad Friedman (mahatma at UB) makes as much as 200K per month playing NL online. Amazing.

I don't know why, but I much prefer the ESPN coverage to the WPT. I think it might be the filmstock they shoot on...but it just looks so much better. My only gripe is that it gets ridiculously condensed...
We used to watch him clean up the big NL games at UB. It was quite a sight. His name on UB (among other names) is "Spirit Rock"

[digamma]

I don't know why, but I much prefer the ESPN coverage to the WPT. I think it might be the filmstock they shoot on...but it just looks so much better. My only gripe is that it gets ridiculously condensed...
I can point to two words for why I prefer ESPN's coverage: Mike Sexton.

For some reason, I can't stand his commentary.

(That's not to say I enjoy Norman Chad--I just don't dislike him as much as Sexton.)

[Lathum]

We used to watch him clean up the big NL games at UB. It was quite a sight. His name on UB (among other names) is "Spirit Rock"
Did you notice anything in his playing style that makes him so much better then anyone else?

[Honolulu Blue]

I knew Norm was good for something. During one of last week's episodes, one player blew a kiss to another player. Norm said, "When someone blows you a kiss, that's a tell, and I don't think it has anything to do with poker." Heh.

Two more new eppies tonight. Carry on.

[jbmagic]

anybody know when the main event will be on espn, so i can set my tivo to tape it all.

i dont care really about the other events.

thanks

[Airhog]

Does poker fundamentally change from one limit to the next? Maybe the skill of the people you are playing. Sure the highs might be higher, and the lows alot lower, but If you play fundamentally sound poker, you should be able to win at any level if you have the cash to play at that level.

[Subby]

Does poker fundamentally change from one limit to the next? Maybe the skill of the people you are playing. Sure the highs might be higher, and the lows alot lower, but If you play fundamentally sound poker, you should be able to win at any level if you have the cash to play at that level. I would disagree with this, actually. I think the game gets a lot more aggressive and tricky as you move up levels. A-B-C poker won't cut it the higher you go because there will be a much smaller pool of opposing players that continually make the wrong decision.

I think you tend to find a lot more passive players at the lower limits - players that will call down with anything. That changes to a degree as you move up.

[Honolulu Blue]

anybody know when the main event will be on espn, so i can set my tivo to tape it all.

Broadcast of the main event is scheduled to start October 11. Back-to-back episodes each week through November 15, so 12 hours' worth overall.

Have fun.

[Honolulu Blue]

Some new twists last week, and one for this week:

* Two new Milwaukee's Best Light commercials. One had a guy patting the grease off a pizza, and the other had a guy baby talking to a little doggie next door. Both, deservedly, got swatted by huge beer cans. They're OK, but the others in this series are better, IMO. And so are the Jesus in the fridge commercials.

* Speaking of Jesus, he makes an appearance in the commercial for Harrah's latest money making opportunity - the official World Series of Poker video game. My interest is piqued, but I'll wait for good reviews to see if it's worth my time & money.

* It seems ESPN is running out of nutty things/people for "The Nuts", so they have a new feature - "The Best Hand I Ever Played". Not surprising they picked ESPN favorite and TOC winner Annie Duke to be the first one. And her hand was less surprising still - that TT laydown against Raymer during the TOC. It's all right, I suppose. It'll be interesting to see other hands.

* Because ESPN is debuting some stupid reality show at 10 PM tonight, the new episodes are at 8 and 9 PM Eastern Time. Make a note.

[SirFozzie]

Some new twists last week, and one for this week:

* Two new Milwaukee's Best Light commercials. One had a guy patting the grease off a pizza, and the other had a guy baby talking to a little doggie next door. Both, deservedly, got swatted by huge beer cans. They're OK, but the others in this series are better, IMO. And so are the Jesus in the fridge commercials.

* Speaking of Jesus, he makes an appearance in the commercial for Harrah's latest money making opportunity - the official World Series of Poker video game. My interest is piqued, but I'll wait for good reviews to see if it's worth my time & money.

* It seems ESPN is running out of nutty things/people for "The Nuts", so they have a new feature - "The Best Hand I Ever Played". Not surprising they picked ESPN favorite and TOC winner Annie Duke to be the first one. And her hand was less surprising still - that TT laydown against Raymer during the TOC. It's all right, I suppose. It'll be interesting to see other hands.

* Because ESPN is debuting some stupid reality show at 10 PM tonight, the new episodes are at 8 and 9 PM Eastern Time. Make a note.


The WSOP game for X-Box is average to average+ It does have some neat games, but urgh.. they have three modes, one where you look at everyone in turn but slow as fuck, the other two fast, but all you get is the top down view.

I'm waiting for SackAttack to send me the Negreanu poker game (STACKED!) so I can see if that'll be the first game with a good Poker engine (play wise)

[Honolulu Blue]

Coverage of the Main Event starts tonight at 8.

[Samdari]

I missed the first 15 minutes or so. What happened that got Jennifer Harmon so peeved?

[Butter]

And why did that really old guy get a penalty?

[MJ4H]

1. She has QQ, flop QJT. Her opponent has 98d. River is Td, boating her, but giving opp an OESFD (open ended straight flush draw--though Jen has the Qd). River is 7d for the outer miracle straight flush to crack her Queens full. She didn't take it real well.

2. The old dude got a penalty for profanity. This year was the first year for this rule which dealt a 10 minute penalty for using profanity.

[dacman]

Poker ball cap: $7
Poker sunglasses: $30
Poker tournament entry fee: $10,000
Going all in against Sam Farha on the 1st hand: priceless

[SirFozzie]

BTW, I saw Jean-RobertBellande recently on TV, but it had only a tangential connection to poker, he was on the GSN pool-shark show "Ballbreakers" and he beat three other players for $20,000 (which he said he was going to use to enter the WSOP)

[Mr. Wednesday]

I missed the first 15 minutes or so. What happened that got Jennifer Harmon so peeved?The guy said the wrong things after hitting his only out to win the pot, and she was already understandably unhappy about losing from that situation.

[Samdari]

The guy said the wrong things after hitting his only out to win the pot, and she was already understandably unhappy about losing from that situation.

Do we know what he said?

[Mr. Wednesday]

I don't remember. All I remember is that his words seemed to be poorly chosen.

[Malificent]

He basically slowrolled her - he was already all in on the turn and after the river, made a little speech about how he might be going sightseeing or something before he turned over the absolute nuts. It was ridiculously rude behavior after hitting a miracle one outter to cripple her.

Very bad beat + semi-pro rubbing it in + basically getting knocked out in the biggest tourney of the year early in day 1 = really pissed off Jen Harman

She probably could've handled it better, but it wasn't bad considering circumstances. Had it been Phil Hellmuth instead of Jen Harman, we might have had an officially televised murder on ESPN.

[Honolulu Blue]

Two hours of final table coverage wraps up ESPN's coverage of the WSOP tonight. Call it Mike & the Eight Dwarves. Can Matusow pull it off?*
----------------------------
* I'm aware that the WSOP finished months ago. This is for the three people who don't know what happened.

[rkmsuf]

who doesn't know by now?

[kingfc22]

All I have to say is Kanter is on one heck of a lucky streak

[Subby]

I know I shouldn't be this way, but I freaking hate Aaron Kanter. :)

[kcchief19]

I'll take Aaron Kanter over Joseph Hachem any day of the week and twice on Sundays. At least Kanter somewhat acknowledged his incredible luck -- Hachem just pretty much confessed to being the greatest thing that's happened to Australia since the magical summer of 1983 when America was obsessed with Men at Work. What a pompous ass. I just about threw up when I was watching CardPlayer's coverage original and read he won with 37o.

I'll give him reluctant credit for playing tight when he was short stacked and making good moves. At the final table he was lucky in the regard that he never caught pocket kings against aces like I believe Matusow did and suffered a river suckout to Kanter like most of the table did at some point it seemed. Obviously he had to play great poker to make the final table, but I don't think he played the best poker at the final table. I think Black and Dannennmann both played better poker at the final table, aside from the dreaded T9 vs A6 hand. I thought Black risked way too much with just nines and Dannennmann risked way too much with just sixes and got lucky. Of course, both were infinitely more likable than Hachem, which is clouding my judgement.

I'm just dreading a year of "I'm Joseph Hachem -- come play with me on PokerStars.net" commercials. Like he would be caught dead playing on the .net skin. And that "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!" crap annoys the ever living piss out of me.

Can you tell I'm on tilt right now? :)

[rkmsuf]

Seemed like a good guy to me.

What's the big deal with 37? Doyle Brunson has made a living winning that way.

[Subby]

Hachem was playing 5/10 NL on Stars last night...

[MJ4H]

Hachem was playing 5/10 NL on Stars last night...

Yes he's been playing that since late last week. I think his point was he won't be caught dead playing on the pokerstars.net site (which is play money only).

I like Haschem. He seems very likeable, was very gracious to the crowd when he won (saying thank you very much repeatedly to them), and obviously is a pretty solid player. Good for him. The aussie chant is pretty funny. Doesn't annoy me at all. I'm happy with the new champ.

[Butter]

I thought he was generally positive and the whole Aussie thing didn't annoy me either. I probably won't like him as much as Raymer, who goes out of his way to be gracious, but it's a good thing that Dannenmann didn't win, because I was annoyed at his grandstanding against Lederer earlier in the tourney. But hey, he still won $4M, so that's not too bad.

[dacman]

Going all in against Sam Farha on the 1st hand: priceless
At least he got a flushie!

[Subby]

Yes he's been playing that since late last week. I think his point was he won't be caught dead playing on the pokerstars.net site (which is play money only). Sorry - I wasn't trying to dispute Matt - just throwing out that tidbit. I agree that it would be funny if any of those guys ever played at .net.

As long as Aaron Kanterdonkey didn't win, I'm happy. :)

[MJ4H]

As long as Aaron Kanterdonkey didn't win, I'm happy. :)

amen. I stayed up all night listening to the live audio by cardplayer the night of the final table. I think the general feeling was most of the night either Andy Black or Tex Barch would probably win eventually because they played pretty strongly and had a good amount of the chips for much of the night. I still found myself surprised a bit that those guys just kind of went out with a whimper after having such strong positions at the final table. Kanter, not so much.

[rkmsuf]

the only thing I didn't care for were the too frequent girlfriend reaction shots. gag.

[Samdari]

I stayed up all night listening to the live audio by cardplayer the night of the final table.

Wow, just wow.

I watch televised poker all the time, but have repeatedly said that it would be god awful boring to watch one live, with all the non-interesting hands and such. I cannot imagine listening to one on the radio, let alone losing all too precious sleep for it. On this live audio, do they reveal the down cards? Or is it like the mid-80's Dick Van Patten WSoP broadcasts where you find out the cards only when they're turned.

[Subby]

Wow, just wow.

I watch televised poker all the time, but have repeatedly said that it would be god awful boring to watch one live, with all the non-interesting hands and such. I cannot imagine listening to one on the radio, let alone losing all too precious sleep for it. On this live audio, do they reveal the down cards? Or is it like the mid-80's Dick Van Patten WSoP broadcasts where you find out the cards only when they're turned. A lot of it has to do with the color commentating. I didn't listen to the final table (so MJFH may want to correct me here), but iirc Phil Hellmuth was doing it and was just really entertaining. He pulled a bunch of name guys in during the broadcast and just had a good time. I think it was value-added for sure...

[MJ4H]

No, hole cards werent known until they were shown at the table.

This broadcast was at 20x more entertaining than any poker broadcast I've seen on TV. Hellmuth and the others were VERY entertaining. They talked more about what was going on without knowing any cards than the normal TV announcers did while knowing them. It was absolutely the most entertaining poker broadcast I've ever experienced, and everyone I know that listened to it agreed. I did doze off for maybe 2 or 3 minutes a couple of times all night, but it was summer break for me (I'm a teacher), so I didn't have to be anywhere for about a month at that time.

[SirFozzie]

Wow.. I just read the spoilers for the ESPN Tournament of Champions (to be aired in a three hour special on Christmas Eve)

Some MAJOR major fireworks goin on.. and some from players you expect, and some from the last player I'd expect, from watching the WSOP on Television)

[rexallllsc]

Wow.. I just read the spoilers for the ESPN Tournament of Champions (to be aired in a three hour special on Christmas Eve)

Some MAJOR major fireworks goin on.. and some from players you expect, and some from the last player I'd expect, from watching the WSOP on Television)

Where can I view these spoilers?

[rkmsuf]

cardplayer.com has a live update log for each day of the tournament.

after reading it I can't wait for this to be on.

[panerd]

the only thing I didn't care for were the too frequent girlfriend reaction shots. gag.

Yeah but I think like day 3 or 4 they showed a shot of either Tex's wife and the Cantor guy. Her breasts were practically falling out of her zip up shirt. Less of the Aussies and more of her would have been all right.

[rexallllsc]

Yeah but I think like day 3 or 4 they showed a shot of either Tex's wife and the Cantor guy. Her breasts were practically falling out of her zip up shirt. Less of the Aussies and more of her would have been all right.

The "Aussie!" thing was funny for about 15 minutes. Then I was begging for Hachem to get knocked out.

[SirFozzie]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=2219654

ESPN article about the ToC final table.. warning, spoils EVERYTHING.

[Honolulu Blue]

I didn't see any thread started on this, so I'll post my comments here, in this old thread.

This originally aired on ESPN on Christmas Eve, and I'm sure it will be rerun dozens of times on the ESPN family of networks. It was an invitation-only event that featured 120 or so players who finished well in the WSOP circuit events, the WSOP Main Event final table, and three ringers (Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth). $2 million total prize pool, winner got a cool mil, final 9 got paid.

Anyway, let's briefly cover what was missing:

* Levitra wasn't a sponsor. I'll get to the sponsor for this event in a little bit.
* No Milwaukee's Best Light as a sponsor, meaning no commercials from them, and no "Hold 'em or Fold 'em".
* No segments of "The Nuts". I'm sure you're disappointed. :( They did, however, sneak some of the nuttier folks in there. I'll cover that in a little bit also.

A few things were different:

* The TOC was held at Ceasars Palace.
* The table sponsor was Sobe Adrenaline Rush, and they had some commercials scattered throughout the coverage. I'd seen them before; they're OK, but the MBL commercials wear better.
* They counted down the top 10 moments from this year's WSOP coverage, same as last year.
* A musical montage of WSOP events to Keith Whitley's "Heartbreak Hotel", again, same as last year's TOC.

I really liked this show, and I encourage you to see it when it's rerun again. Try to see the full 3-hour version. Some good poker playing, quite a few familiar faces, and lots and lots and lots of smack talk.

[SirFozzie]

and from folks you wouldn't expect either!

Plus you get to see two folksfamous for their Mouth (hellmuth, who is now the Hellmouth to me.. and Matusow) go to war for most of the event.