WSOP ME champ and runner up (1 Viewer)

Silverback

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I think Koray Aldemir was a very worthy champ of the ME - WP
But the fact that George Holmes being a homegame type of hobbyplayer, is very good for the interest for the game. Bringing hope to the ordinary pokerplayer to be able to battle against the best
So happy for George and for poker

Thoughts?
Am I right?
Am I wrong?

BR Henrik
 
I think Koray Aldemir was a very worthy champ of the ME - WP
But the fact that George Holmes being a homegame type of hobbyplayer, is very good for the interest for the game. Bringing hope to the ordinary pokerplayer to be able to battle against the best
So happy for George and for poker

Thoughts?
Am I right?
Am I wrong?

BR Henrik
I doubt it'll have much of an effect. George doesn't seem to be much of a 'character' in the way that Darvin Moon or even Chris Moneymaker was. George struct me as a pretty savvy amateur who belonged on that stage. Maybe that'll be inspiring for future semi-serious amateurs but I don't see it inspiring a new boom or anything.
 
I doubt it'll have much of an effect. George doesn't seem to be much of a 'character' in the way that Darvin Moon or even Chris Moneymaker was. George struct me as a pretty savvy amateur who belonged on that stage. Maybe that'll be inspiring for future semi-serious amateurs but I don't see it inspiring a new boom or anything.
Yeah, the early millennia boom had a number of things going for it.
  • Rounders had peaked the interest of a lot of casual players (our five-6 player weekly 5 card draw/7 card stud games grew fast and, for better or worse, changed over to much more hold 'em).
  • Online poker meant you could play whenever you wanted to, even if none of your friends were around.
  • Then after Varkonyi (who was not very charismatic) won, ESPN upped the coverage and production values which made tournament poker more accessible to folks. I think Moneymaker was a more sympathetic character and people were more invested in his win because of it.
  • The 'characters' were still widely around. Now you have guys like Jungleman that are a bit out there and some of the veterans are still around like Hellmuth and Negreanu, and this year Doyle, but most of the players are the GTO/Big Math guys and they just aren't as exciting to watch for casual players.
So I don't see another boom coming unless some really engaging personalities pop up in a way that gets more mainstream attention.
 
I agree that there is not a new boom coming, but the game needs to be sold to the young generations, and they need to be able to identify themselves in some of the players, whether it be in players like Aldemir, Holmes, Kniep, Kornuth or some vlogger
So hopes are high for me, I think poker will be better, especially live

But good points you bring, and I agree
Still I hope the game will get even better
 
So I don't see another boom coming unless some really engaging personalities pop up in a way that gets more mainstream attention.
Yeah I think this sums it up when my buddy texted me the other day:

Dave: "So who made the final table this year?"

Mike: "I don't know. Let me look it up."

***20 seconds later***

Mike: "9 guys no one has ever heard of."

I think you might be on to something. Televised poker has become a very anti-social game. I was talking with a friend about the allure of the seniors events (for players 50+ y.o.) - he basically said 'because there aren't any kids in hoodies in those events'. You can see and talk to the other players.

Another problem is variance - it's difficult to win consistently. Probably more so than before. I'm a firm believer that the skill gap between those top guys is virtually non-existent.

Guys with big personalities like Hellmuth became famous because they won a lot. So they were constantly in the spotlight. So while you have antagonists like Will Kassouf that pop up from time to time, they never stay on the radar long enough to generate any momentum because they don't win. Even past ME winners - although they're immortalized in poker history - aren't not exactly household names in the same way that Ivey/Negreanu/etc. were/are.
 
Personally it was painful to watch! I don't understand all of this entitlement of taking 2 - 3 minutes for every single decision. It didn't used to be like that. Holmes was much better about it but even he was succumbing to it by then end. I understand there is a ton of money and decisions to be made but God it made me want to drive stakes in my eyes level of boring! How the hell is that going to draw in the you get crowd? It's starting to look like a seniors armature bowling tournament! Just not what poker is supposed to be about in my opinion.

I was rooting for Holmes the whole way! Was happy that cocky Oliver made it no further than 3rd! Good final table though and Congratulations to the worlds slowest poker player! Lol
 
This is why I preferred the delayed/edited WSOP ME version that ESPN used to show instead of the live streams that are shown now. Of course it was not live, but watching truly live poker can be pretty boring especially 2 card fold-em' especially with all the tanking for show.
 
Personally it was painful to watch! I don't understand all of this entitlement of taking 2 - 3 minutes for every single decision. It didn't used to be like that.
I didn't watch until they were heads up. It didn't seem as bad as it was in previous years. They were consistently taking about 10 seconds before every decision... which is to avoid giving away tells one would assume. I can live with that in a heads up match for the world title. But if that was going on when the table was full for every routine decision... that's pretty ridiculous.
 
I didn't watch until they were heads up. It didn't seem as bad as it was in previous years. They were consistently taking about 10 seconds before every decision... which is to avoid giving away tells one would assume. I can live with that in a heads up match for the world title. But if that was going on when the table was full for every routine decision... that's pretty ridiculous.
10 seconds? Again I am cheap and just watched the free hour each day... but even the final hand was an 11 minute video... I thought maybe it had the celebration... nope cut out as soon as the hand was over. I have zero issue with even 30 seconds, a minute... but almost every single action... come on man!
 
Personally it was painful to watch! I don't understand all of this entitlement of taking 2 - 3 minutes for every single decision. It didn't used to be like that. Holmes was much better about it but even he was succumbing to it by then end. I understand there is a ton of money and decisions to be made but God it made me want to drive stakes in my eyes level of boring! How the hell is that going to draw in the you get crowd? It's starting to look like a seniors armature bowling tournament! Just not what poker is supposed to be about in my opinion.

I was rooting for Holmes the whole way! Was happy that cocky Oliver made it no further than 3rd! Good final table though and Congratulations to the worlds slowest poker player! Lol
I agree with your statement about the tanking. I watched a TON of the ME coverage and the amount people were tanking made it difficult to watch. The 9 minute tank was such a meme.
 

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