{"id":6475,"date":"2017-07-23T19:43:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T02:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=6475"},"modified":"2023-06-21T10:40:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T17:40:07","slug":"we-have-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"We Have a Winner!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Main Event is over, played out live on ESPN. When I get knocked out of the ME, I always tell myself I\u2019m sick of poker and don\u2019t care about the ME. After a day or so I find myself glued to the screen. For poker fans, it\u2019s a great show!<\/p>\n

Several years ago the \u201clive stream\u201d (which has been replaced by the pay service Pokergo), showed the play leading up to the final table, with hole cards and pro analysts.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\u2019d ever seen on TV. It only lasted one year, the reason given, to me anyway, was that it wasn\u2019t fair to the players whose cards were shown, while others weren\u2019t. I guess they got over it, because there were feature tables, both main and secondary, throughout the event this year. Money talks.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 cards and get a line on his play. It\u2019s 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\u2019t do this, which I thought was great.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

The final table was played out over three nights. ESPN agreed to stay on until each night\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019re 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\u2019s an all-in showdown. I know they want to create drama, but I think they draw it out too long.<\/p>\n

What really saved the final table was John Hesp, a colorful 64-year-old amateur from England. He wasn\u2019t an especially talented player, but he had a run of cards that I haven\u2019t 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\u2019d on the 4th<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hesp hung on to come in 4th  <\/sup>place, and the final three of Blumstein, Dan Ott, and Ben Pollack would come back for the final night.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Temple<\/p>\n

John Hesp\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll tell you that the ME is the one can\u2019t-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\u2019t wait for next year.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Main Event is over, played out live on ESPN. When I get knocked out of the ME, I always tell myself I\u2019m sick of poker and don\u2019t care about the ME. After a day or so I find myself glued to the screen. For poker fans, it\u2019s a great show! Several years ago the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":6490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2,685],"tags":[1674,1671,1669,1318,1673,1672,1668,1517,1667,1670,200],"yoast_head":"\nWe Have a Winner! - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Have a Winner! - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Main Event is over, played out live on ESPN. When I get knocked out of the ME, I always tell myself I\u2019m sick of poker and don\u2019t care about the ME. After a day or so I find myself glued to the screen. For poker fans, it\u2019s a great show! Several years ago the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lasvegasadvisor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-24T02:43:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-21T17:40:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/wsop2017.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"652\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"367\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lva_tweet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lva_tweet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/\",\"name\":\"Gambling With An Edge\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/wsop2017.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/wsop2017.jpg\",\"width\":652,\"height\":367},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/\",\"name\":\"We Have a Winner! - Gambling With An Edge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-24T02:43:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-21T17:40:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#\/schema\/person\/93fac9ab8f32c7c3873ceb8cecc4aca6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/we-have-a-winner\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We Have a Winner!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#\/schema\/person\/93fac9ab8f32c7c3873ceb8cecc4aca6\",\"name\":\"Blair Rodman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/GWAERodman3Avatar.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/GWAERodman3Avatar.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Blair Rodman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/author\/blair-rodman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/wsop2017.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124958,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/124958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}