World Series of Poker 2012

[snowdenscold]

Wow, the final 3 took me over 3 days to watch - I watched a couple hours live, DVR'd several more hours thinking it would surely be over, and then watched the replay on ESPN3 yesterday in several chunks on Wednesday and Thursday. I watched the last 4.5 hours straight from about midnight until 4 AM this morning - I was completely exhausted but I had invested so much at that point I just wanted to see how it played out, and since Jake Balsinger was in it for so long, and I didn't know where he busted, I just watched straight through instead of trying to skip and find key hands. (plus you have very little control with a 12-hour video on ESPN3 - moving the bar one pixel jumps about 1-2 minutes)

[OldPhiKap]

Wow, the final 3 took me over 3 days to watch - I watched a couple hours live, DVR'd several more hours thinking it would surely be over, and then watched the replay on ESPN3 yesterday in several chunks on Wednesday and Thursday. I watched the last 4.5 hours straight from about midnight until 4 AM this morning - I was completely exhausted but I had invested so much at that point I just wanted to see how it played out, and since Jake Balsinger was in it for so long, and I didn't know where he busted, I just watched straight through instead of trying to skip and find key hands. (plus you have very little control with a 12-hour video on ESPN3 - moving the bar one pixel jumps about 1-2 minutes)

I hope they keep it on the Tres for more than a week. I watched a few hours, set the DVR, and it ran out of space about three hours short of the finish.

[JasonEvans]

Argh!! I set my DVR to record for 6 hours over the end time, which was the max allowed by my DVR... and I still missed seeing anyone get eliminated.

I don't know how they did it. I would have gotten frustrated and just started shoving at some point

There was some great poker on display at the final table. Really disciplined players who knew how to play position and were great at puzzling out hands.

There was one hand about an hour into the final 3 when Silvia laid down a 9 high flush to Merson's queen high flush. I have no idea how Silvia knew he was beat. Merson hadn't even put in the kind of bet that would cripple Silvia too badly, but Silvia just sensed something and folded. It was truly incredible. Antonio Esfandiari (who was excellent color analysis!) said he would have gone broke on that hand. I probably would have as well.

The really incredible thing was that both players were holding 2 hearts in their hand and the 3rd board heart came on the turn... but they managed to keep the betting sizes fairly small on the turn. That way, when the river brought a 4th board heart (a 6th heart for each of them), it allowed Silvia to be concerned about Merson having even 1 high heart in his hand, which is why Silvia folded. Simply incredible.

-Jason "loved watching real poker versus the heavily edited junk we see on TV that makes it appear everyone always has interesting hands" Evans

[JasonEvans]

Oooh, one more thing to add.

On the hand I described above, Silvia took about 4 minutes in the tank to decide to fold on the river. Daniel Negreanu has been on the warpath about guys who tank. It drives him crazy. I thought Balsinger did a lot of unnecessary delaying at the final table as well. Look, I recognize the importance in puzzling out the hand and taking your time so you do not give away whether it was an easy or a difficult fold or bet, but guys spending 2-3 minutes to make up their mind is a bit much.

Anyway, Negreanu has been tweeting a good bit about this. He wants to see a shot-clock in poker that would require action every 30 seconds -- maybe push it back to 1 minute for the final table of some events. He also says that he is going to start bringing a stopwatch with him to tournaments. If you are at his table, you get one 2:00 tank for free. After that, the next time you go 2:00, Daniel is calling the clock (which requires a player to take action in the next 30 seconds, I think). What's more, after Daniel has called the clock on you once at 2:00, he is going to call it at 1:45 the next time and 1:30 the time after that.

I love this notion!! The poker we saw on TV earlier this week, while a ton of fun, was unwatchable for all but the most die-hard poker fans. Speeding it up is a great way to make it more palatable and interesting to a more casual audience (though I know you will never get large mainstream viewing of a full final table).

--Jason "speed poker could be kidna fun... like Rob Salaburu did much of the time. He was great to watch!" Evans

[OldPhiKap]

Argh!! I set my DVR to record for 6 hours over the end time, which was the max allowed by my DVR... and I still missed seeing anyone get eliminated.

I don't know how they did it. I would have gotten frustrated and just started shoving at some point

There was some great poker on display at the final table. Really disciplined players who knew how to play position and were great at puzzling out hands.

There was one hand about an hour into the final 3 when Silvia laid down a 9 high flush to Merson's queen high flush. I have no idea how Silvia knew he was beat. Merson hadn't even put in the kind of bet that would cripple Silvia too badly, but Silvia just sensed something and folded. It was truly incredible. Antonio Esfandiari (who was excellent color analysis!) said he would have gone broke on that hand. I probably would have as well.

The really incredible thing was that both players were holding 2 hearts in their hand and the 3rd board heart came on the turn... but they managed to keep the betting sizes fairly small on the turn. That way, when the river brought a 4th board heart (a 6th heart for each of them), it allowed Silvia to be concerned about Merson having even 1 high heart in his hand, which is why Silvia folded. Simply incredible.

-Jason "loved watching real poker versus the heavily edited junk we see on TV that makes it appear everyone always has interesting hands" Evans

Agree it was great to watch it on slight delay -- all hands -- and not the quick edit highlight reel. Gave you a better view of how it goes down.

I think Silvia was saved when that fourth heart hit. You are right that the third heart on the turn is where he could have gone broke. I don't recall who bet out -- maybe Silvia was thinking trap, I don't recall a pair on the board to give a full boat scare. Once there were four out there, though, how good does your 9 look?

Re: shot clock -- Negreanu likes loose play and it is in his financial interest to speed up the game. He is not above the sort of "you can't have this, you might have this, but then you would have done this"speaking out loud before acting thing too. I'm not a huge fan of Kid Poker personally although he obviously has major game. If there was a shot clock, though, I would propose one minute for the first group of levels. two for the second group, etc. to speed up the early play and leave the mulling to when the decisions become more crucial for the tournament as a whole.

Salaburu needs to learn that you can't make huevos rancheros in less than five minutes. I would get really steamed if the guy to my right kept firing chips in before I have moved mine in. I assume that's part of his schtick -- but it ain't my cup of tea.

[snowdenscold]

I agree that Antonio was a great 3rd color man. I have a good friend who is a professional poker player out in Vegas (finished top 50 this ME), and so with Antonio you got a sense of how pros really talk and think.
Also, if you thought the players got tired - imagine trying to come up with interesting stuff to say for 12 straight hours. But Norman, Lon and Antonio did a great job I thought.

In regards to shot clock - during the first 6 hours which I had on my DVR, I would occasionally fast forward until I actually saw someone do something and then start playing again. Not every time, but just to speed things up for me a little. Unfortunately on ESPN3 with a 12-hour slide bar, it was next to impossible to time so I just had to wait for them every hand.

[OldPhiKap]

Salaburu needs to learn that you can't make huevos rancheros in less than five minutes. I would get really steamed if the guy to my right kept firing chips in before I have moved mine in. I assume that's part of his schtick -- but it ain't my cup of tea.

I meant on my left.

[sporthenry]

Re: shot clock -- Negreanu likes loose play and it is in his financial interest to speed up the game. He is not above the sort of "you can't have this, you might have this, but then you would have done this"speaking out loud before acting thing too. I'm not a huge fan of Kid Poker personally although he obviously has major game. If there was a shot clock, though, I would propose one minute for the first group of levels. two for the second group, etc. to speed up the early play and leave the mulling to when the decisions become more crucial for the tournament as a whole.

Completely agree about Negreanu, it behooves him to put people in positions to act quickly with his loose style. As far as his kid poker, its just part of his shtick to scare people if he actually guesses your cards. The problem is that most of these pros like Hellmuth and Negreanu have probably been surpassed by players like Merson and no longer intimidate players like Merson.

As far as the clock, I think what many would agree with is a clock and then a few time extensions or like a chess type clock. I think eventually you'll see something or perhaps more time being called. I guess the respect was evident that they didn't call time but I also think a lot of the time, they took the time just to make it seem like they were thinking if they got re-raised on a bluff. I know it takes some time to think but most of these poker pros know the correct move in several seconds so you don't need the 5 minutes.

[OldPhiKap]

Condensed Final Three just starting on the deuce.