ESPN Coverage of the 2010 WSOP Main Event by Linda Johnson

I’ll admit it. I’m mesmerized by ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP Main Event. As I watched the Tuesday night episodes, I jotted down some thoughts on scrap paper so I could discuss my observations with some of my poker friends. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the scraps of paper in any type of order, so here are some random thoughts and observations about the 2010 Main Event in no particular order.

The Staff

The WSOP staff did an incredible job of running the event. In fact, it was probably the best series ever. Tournament officials have a difficult job, but sometimes I have to scratch my head and say, “Really?”

For example, why was it not until day three that Ted Bort got a penalty for distracting and annoying his opponents by barking like a dog? Why did one of the Tournament Directors allow rabbit hunting several times when it is clearly against the rules? In fact, at one point, the Tournament Director even reached across the table and turned up a card after a player had folded. Really?

The Commentators

Norman Chad comes up with some good comments at times, such as these gems:

In response to Scotty Nguyen asking, “Where’s the closet bathroom?” Chad joked, “You’ve been playing here for years and you don’t know where the bathroom is?”

At one point, Bort got up and went to the corner of the room and let out a muffled bark. Chad’s response was, “His water bowl must be over there.”

After Chris Ferguson was eliminated, he stopped to say goodbye to one of his opponents. “Jesus just blessed seat five,” said Chad.

Chad said, “Johnny Chan has given each of his six children one of his bracelets and still has enough left for each of the Mizrachi brothers.”

Chad’s best line: “Under the gun is the new hijack.”

The Players

Kudos to WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kasella, who won two bracelets, made three final tables, and cashed five times. I believe it was Kasella who, during an interview about a particular hand, said, “I almost threw up in my shoe having to call that one. I bet $10,000 on the river holding pocket jacks on a board of 3-Q-9-7-Q and got raised $33,000. I made the call and beat my opponent’s 8-8.”

Phil Laak made a bet that wasn’t called and the players asked him what he had. He offered to show the hand for $20. Two opponents immediately put up $10 each and got to see the hand.

I love Tom Schneider’s outfits. Can you say loud?

Josh Arieh was all-in with A-K versus Dan Harrington’s A-Q. Arieh was still in the lead on the turn and asked Harrington if he wanted to run it twice.

Jean-Robert Bellande has gotten unlucky the past few years at the feature table. This year fairly late in the tournament, his pocket aces got cracked by his opponent’s pocket kings when a king came on the river.

Nick Rainey reportedly played 16,000 sit and gos in one month.

Congratulations to Gavin Smith for cashing in four out of the last seven Main Events. That’s no easy feat with the size of the fields.

Johnny Chan made an amazing run at the title again this year. On day six, he was one of the chip leaders, got moved to a new table, and was dealt pocket kings against one of the other chip leaders, who was dealt pocket aces. Soon after, he was dealt pocket jacks against pocket aces.

I loved the story about Gary Kostiuk, who suffers with MS. In his interview feature, he said that playing in the Main Event was on his bucket list. He was living the dream and loving his experience. At one point when he was all-in with A-9 versus his opponent’s A-10, he said, “I don’t want to stop playing; I’m having too much fun.” He survived the all-in. After he got knocked out, he said it had been the best week of his life.

At one point, a statistic appeared that Matt Affleck had played 33% of the hands dealt (19% was average). I’m sure we all felt his pain when he got his aces cracked just short of the final table.

Fukke Beukers was my favorite name of any player in the Main Event.

The advice from Johnny Chan should be remembered: “Never underestimate your opponents.”

Sometimes poker can be so cruel. For instance, with only 120 players left, Tony Dunst got his aces cracked by A-Q. Joseph Cheong took a horrible beat in a $25 million pot with pocket aces against Filippo Candio’s 7-5 after all the money went all-in on a 6-6-5 flop. Candio made a straight on the river. Neither of the players whined or complained about their beats.

Scotty Nguyen is a great player. He made another deep run, but got eliminated with pocket jacks by an opponent holding pocket tens.

Andy Bloch gave some great poker advice in his featured interview. He said, “You can’t lose focus. Don’t let all the chips in the middle cause you to make a mistake.” He talked about a hand he played against Mike Sexton in which a queen came on the end to give him two pair. He made a value bet and was facing a huge raise by Sexton. He thought a long time before folding and said, “The chances that he could be bluffing were worse than the odds that the pot was laying me.”

Congratulations to the four Mizrachi brothers who cashed in the Main Event. I enjoyed seeing how they sweat each other and cheered for each other.

General Observations

The young players are scary. They keep the pressure on and aren’t afraid to 3bet and 4bet with nothing.

3% of the Main Event entrants were women in 1990, the same percentage as this year.

I hate it when a player knocks someone out and then says, “I’m sorry.” If you put a bad beat on someone, my first suggestion is that you stay quiet. If you must say something, a comment like “Tough beat” is more appropriate than “I’m sorry.”

The Main Event really is a young person’s game. Out of the final 366 players, 205 were in their 20s and only 25 were over 50.

I liked the Full Tilt ads that were shown on one episode highlighting the November Nine players. Apparently the ads were pulled because there were a lot of complaints from viewers that they were “spoilers.”

Some of the players are wearing so many patches that they look like NASCAR drivers. Being on the Board of Directors of the Poker Players Alliance, I was particularly happy to see so many players wearing the PokerPlayersAlliance.org patch.

Many players are superstitious. For instance, Filippo Candio wore the same shirt every day. He said his routine was to get up at 11:20, have coffee, and take a cab to the Rio at 11:30 (Hmmm, when did he take a shower?).

I hate that television rewards players who behave badly by featuring some of them in breakout interviews.

In closing, ESPN and the media deserve kudos for doing a great job of recording the events of the 2010 World Series of Poker. I’m sure this year’s stellar coverage will encourage more attendance next year.