Rudy Edwards

I just finished a nearly 14 hour marathon of watching the ESPN Pay-Per-View of the WSOP Main Event Final Table. The PPV did not include hole cards, I assume to maintain the integrity of the game, and that made it kind of retro enjoyable. I'll have fun finding out what the players actually had when rewatching the ME on regular ESPN later in the year.

I wasn't rooting for Yang at all. Don't get me wrong, he deserved the win. He was the most aggressive player at the table, and he made some bad calls, but overall he owned the table. His "bad calls" were only slightly bad, and they made anyone afraid to play back at him without a real hand. This meant that he was able to steal pots away consistently from the other players. It took some cards for the strategy to work, and a little luck, but he got it, and it did work. Hell, he was probably all in with the best of it more times than not.

I wasn't rooting for him, because I was bothered by his blatant religious zealotry. If a man is religious, and says a prayer, or appeals to god in a crux moment, more power to him. Yang didn't shut up about how god should deliver him pots so he could bring glory to his name. In an interview with his wife, which lasted less than a minute, she made 3 references to prayer and talked about absolutely nothing else.

If Yang was right, that God was making him his vessel by allowing him to win the WSOP, doesn't it imply that God took an active hand in the other players losing? Professional athletes usually know when to shut up about this sort of thing. They thank god for their blessing, and that's it. Yang came across as a charachachure, and it was annoying.

Aside from that, I had a really good time watching the marathon final table with my friends. not seeing the hole cards allowed us to talk a lot more about what they might have, and there was real suspense, not just fake suspense creating by drawing out the turn and river cards. I think there might be some market for a poker show that presents games to us this way, but shows the hands that get folded or mucked after the fact. You could even give one player's perspective but not the other's, creating extra drama.

I was also surprised at what a feature Phil Gordon's gambling degeneracy was on the show. They did not stop talking about, and making prop bets on the side. I guess the people who watch this on PPV are mostly poker players anyway, but I was taken aback a bit by how much of it was going on.

There was some real entertaining poker to watch. I wish I had a DVR to record it, and rewatch some of the best parts.