The Main Event is over, played out live on ESPN. When I get knocked out of the ME, I always tell myself I’m sick of poker and don’t care about the ME. After a day or so I find myself glued to the screen. For poker fans, it’s a great show!
Several years ago the “live stream” (which has been replaced by the pay service Pokergo), showed the play leading up to the final table, with hole cards and pro analysts. I thought it was the most exciting poker I’d ever seen on TV. It only lasted one year, the reason given, to me anyway, was that it wasn’t fair to the players whose cards were shown, while others weren’t. I guess they got over it, because there were feature tables, both main and secondary, throughout the event this year. Money talks.
The 30-minute delay means that a player with friends who are in the stands, watching on their phone or pad, can get info on his opponents’ cards and get a line on his play. It’s why players were constantly leaving their seats and talking to coaches or supporters in the stands. I wish there was a way to prevent this. It gives pros a further advantage over amateurs. One table made a deal that they wouldn’t do this, which I thought was great.
The day they played from 27 players to the final nine was riveting. I was dog tired, but stayed up until 2 am, when it finally ended. For the past ten years, the final table had been played in November. Starting this year, after a two-day break, the final table would be played out. I like the way it was done this year, but, personally, I don’t know if two days would be enough to recover from seven very long days of play. I hope I get a chance to find out.
The final table was played out over three nights. ESPN agreed to stay on until each night’s play was over, which lasted about six hours. I assume their ad revenue was better for this than for whatever 30 for 30, or some other rerun, they might have.
While the streamed action was fast moving when there were two or three tables, because they could switch back and forth, play at the final table, while interesting, was terribly slow. Two players, Damian Salas and Bryan Piccoli, were maddeningly slow, taking sometimes 20-30 seconds to make obvious folds. I can see taking time for tough decisions, but if you’re going to fold, stop the stalling and just fold! A lot of players were watching the telecast, and the slowness was an obvious irritation for everyone. There has to be a solution for this. Another thing that takes too much time is when there’s an all-in showdown. I know they want to create drama, but I think they draw it out too long.
What really saved the final table was John Hesp, a colorful 64-year-old amateur from England. He wasn’t an especially talented player, but he had a run of cards that I haven’t seen for a long time, and was endlessly entertaining, having the time of his life. He and the eventual winner, Scott Blumstein, were far-and-away chip leaders, and the play was pretty boring as the other eight players, after Ben Lamb got ko’d on the 4th hand, were playing extremely tight, waiting to move up the pay ladder. With John leading Scott by about 25k, they got involved in a pot where John had AT, Scott had AA, and the flop came A-6-5. The turn was a ten, and John was in big trouble. A good player could probably have gotten away cheaper, but John moved in on the turn, drawing dead. There was a collective moan, from poker fans who were enjoying the Hesp show, and especially from ESPN.
Hesp hung on to come in 4th place, and the final three of Blumstein, Dan Ott, and Ben Pollack would come back for the final night.
The final night featured much more aggressive play, and with Salas and Piccoli gone, it moved quicker. There was a lot of light raising and three-betting, post-flop bluffing, and overall good aggressive play. The key hand was a three-barrel bluff by Blumstein against Ott. Blumstein moved all-in on the river in a huge pot with king high and got Ott to fold 88. Blumstein played very well and picked up a lot of hands, eventually wearing down Ott, and winning the title with A2 vs A8 when a 2 hit the river.
John Hesp’s epic run was great for the game of poker. It showed that 60-somethings can compete in the big show and have a great time, and it will undoubtedly compel some older players to give it a shot. With over 7,000 players, someone has to be the luckiest, and John made good use of his turn. Scott ran well and played well, and deserves congratulations for a job well done.
The luck factor in poker tournaments is significant, but good players use their skills to build up chips so they can survive losing a big hand, or amass a huge stack when they win a flip or two. If you ask pros, they’ll tell you that the ME is the one can’t-miss event of the year. The super-slow structure gives you a chance to wait for good spots, and the plethora of bad players create a huge overlay. I can’t wait for next year.
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A couple of comments:
1) I agree, no need to wait to burn and turn the flop, turn, and river. This alone on the feature tables cost precious time and they get less hands played overall.
2) So much for Norman Chad’s theory that a 2 on the turn or river never changes anything! 🤣
I believe the path to victory for Ott was there had he capitalized on what would have been a hero call with that pair of 8’s against Blumstein’s bluff on that big hand, although it was a scary bet to call on the river with a potential club flush being out there besides for a straight, and the Ace of clubs was out there on the flop from what I remember. On that key hand I think Ott should have re-raised Blumstein on the turn.
I didn’t particularly agree with Blumstien going all-in with AQ in that 3-way all in hand once when it was down to 3 players, knowing that Pollack was all in with Q,10 and Ott with K9. I thought he should have stayed out of the hand and prayed that Ott would have put Pollack out of the tournament. With 2 players already all in before the chip leader has to act why take a risk on doubling up your opponents? However with Blumstein being the chip leader and waking up with suited AQ it could be hard not to go all in when you already know your going to be a millionaire and he had a decent hand to end the game.
When it finally got down to being a heads up match I thought Ott could have still won but I thought he made quite a few mistakes and he didn’t mix up his game enough. It would have been nice if he would have played a bit faster, his little $5 million raises with rags wasn’t enough to scare Blumstein off a hand, especially when he started to wake up with hands and had a massive chip lead. The announcers at one point stated that Blumstein had won like 15 out of 16 hands, most of those hands Ott was just bleeding chips to his opponent, raising with junk and getting taken off pre-flop, I thought it was horrible. It would have been nice to see Ott fold some of those junk hands in order to preserve his stack to give him a chance to go deeper in the game.
Last years Main Event was more exciting to watch when it got to heads up action. I loved watching the pro Gordon Vayo get steamrolled and quite literally ran over by the amateur Qui Nguyen. That was embarrassing. I still remember that A9 hand that Vayo had, he hit top pair on the flop with top kicker and an amateur managed to push him off that hand because he had more guts & heart, I believe a ten came on the river and that was the only over card to Vayo’s 9. I’ll never forget that!
In the ’70s and 80s, Philadelphia had so many tough and well-trained boxers that managers of up-and-coming fighters from around the country would take them here (to Philly) to find out just how good they really were. In the boxing world it was called “The Philly Test.”
With two of the last three main event champions being Philly boys, has Philadelphia become the most challenging poker city in the world? Possibly, and if so, does that mean that a mediocre player like myself is actually much better than the average Midwesterner or West Coaster? Hmm, maybe I should get out more.
If those who run Philadelphia casinos were smart they could capitalize on this new phenomenon by inviting players from around the world to come take the Philly poker test.
Makes sense from where I’m standing.
On a different note, I watched more of the main event this year than I ever had and enjoyed every minute of it. In the past I was always lukewarm about it.
The Philly poker test? Keep dreaming. Philadelphia is well known for being a city riddled with bums, addicts, and degenerates alike. Who would want to go out to that dump to play with the degenerates that frequent Philly casinos?
Yes, as you point out, Philadelphia has its fair share of bums, addicts, and degenerates but–and forgive me if I’m overloading you with facts here–so does every medium to large city in the United States, if not the world–even Las Vegas. However, if you are correct and Philadelphia does in fact have many more per capita degenerates than other cities in the country, then the answer to your question should be YOU! As an AP (or an aspiring AP), shouldn’t you want to “go out to that dump,” as you so eloquently put it–and quite often at that?
By the way, and again forgive me if you already know this, but apparently another thing Philadelphia is well-known for is Caucasian people with penchants for sandwiches made with thinly-sliced beef, Italian rolls, and melted yellow cheese. I found this out ironically by playing poker online. I was in a tournament and got heads up when my opponent starts insulting me about what a terrible poker player I was. At some point, his friend joins the chat to apparently lend support and, during the conversation, informs me that Philadelphia is “full of cheesesteak-eating honkies.” I thanked him for the enlightenment and went on to win the tournament.
It’s no surprise that the Northeast U.S. has the highest population density so it’s natural that the NE would have the highest concentration of degenerates in the U.S. Besides, I don’t have to travel so far away to watch a degenerate and his cash part ways over a card game. 🙂