HSP, 7/17

[Rottersod]

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it makes me sad that benza & kaplan have as much to do with the show as they do. then to read what everyone says in this thread about it bums me out more. this show would be perfect if they just let it play without the stupid commentary. it's at least once a week i find them talking over something i would much rather be listening to from the table.

WTF do all you guys care what Kaplan says as a bad joke?

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I enjoy them. They bring a lighter atmosphere to the broadcast and they don't talk over a smuch stuff as they did the first season. Benza is almost a non-entity on the broadcast. Kaplan brings the humor.

[Willy]

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it makes me sad that benza & kaplan have as much to do with the show as they do. then to read what everyone says in this thread about it bums me out more. this show would be perfect if they just let it play without the stupid commentary. it's at least once a week i find them talking over something i would much rather be listening to from the table.

WTF do all you guys care what Kaplan says as a bad joke?

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People need to understand that without people having only a marginal interest in poker but having an interest in watching games played for large sums of money, there would be no show. Kaplan is a great part of the show. Without him the general public would tune out, the ratings would drop and the show would be cancelled.

[doc_1982]

I can't wait to see Yukon Brad play in next weeks game. I guess the reason he's not in the credits is because he's not well known enough. And is Sheikhan actually going to play? I'm pretty sure he's been hanging around in the back since the first episode.

[kflop]

Benza and Kaplan were obviously referring to Kaplan with that comment. Since HSP went on the air, the only tournament I've seen him enter was the recent HORSE event. Last year I bet on him to outlast Ben Affleck in the final event and neither one played. Mike Sexton seems to play all the time in non WPT TV events and recently won a million dollars. It's my guess that Kaplan feels everyone knows this. Sometimes he assumes too much. I think Kaplan and Sexton are friends. At least I know they were both close with Stu Unger

[mlagoo]

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Gabe: "Some older players who didn't have discipline have had to go on to other professions like professional poker announcers" - a self-deprecating comment. AJ then said "Anybody come to mind?" Gabe: "Mike Sexton is the only one I can think of".

It was just as much a fun poke at Mike Sexton as it was Gabe poking fun at himself.

- T

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see i just didnt see it that way. because its not like kaplan is a poker player. hes just a comedian/actor who plays poker.

anyway someone said they thought maybe the two of them were friends, which makes a lot of sense, so i'll just assume that's the case.

[Scooterdoo]

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Esfandiari may be the real fish in this game. Too bad cuz I like his style but he's playing against some real high stakes players here who won't just fold to his raises.


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Yeah, he needs to move back down to where they respect his raises.

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I don't agree. Many of his bluffs worked just fine and the 88 hand where he got stacked was not terrible. He had a winning draw and probably felt that his semi-bluff had a strong chance of succeeding (Harmon could have had lots of hands that she would have folded in that situation). As it turned out he had to call and had about a 40% chance of winning the pot so it wasn't like he got outplayed there. That was just one of those hands... he got aggressive and needed a bit of luck on his side.

Now I do agree that he was smarting on the 2nd hand where Harmon bluffed him off of his QQ. He just didn't want to get stacked again and wasn't playing his best poker at the time.

I really didn't like Brunson's all-in. As Daniel correctly called it, he's not doing that with AA/KK so he's probably trying to represent AQ, but does he bet $97k with TPTK when what he really wants to do is get the other guy to play along if he has that hand. Just not sure what he was thinking there.

Of course MM's quick call of $40k on the river with top pair horrible kicker when both the flush and straight draws get there will go down in the HSP hall of shame. Now if he thinks it through and gets some kind of read on DN and makes the call then fine. But he didn't even think about it. Not sure what that was all about. For him to win that pot DN would have had to be calling the turn with nothing at all just so that he could represent the flush and straight on the river if they get there. Now that's certainly possible, but I just don't buy it that MM even thought it through enough to make that kind of decision.

[Scooterdoo]

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seriously, brunson, wtf w/ak...?

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If Negreanu had 99,1010, or JJ and folded people would've been calling Todd a genius. Just like last week when DN folded the nut flush to Todd's bet.

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The problem with the push is that it's unnecessary. If DN has 99 1010, etc., with a pot of $50k he is more likely to call a $97k bet than say a $40-50k bet.

I watched last years Pot limit final table at the WSOP. I think it was the 2nd or 3rd event. Flack is playing a pot with that young kid -- first name Tom. There are 4 people left and the two of them are by far the big stacks, the other two players are not even close. There is big preflop action (I think Layne bets the pot, Tom reraises the pot and Layne reraises him and Tom calls).

Anway, the flop comes something like JT5r, Tom immediately pushes (he had quite a bit left) and Layne instantly calls. Turns out Tom had AK and Layne only had AT. I could not believe Layne made this call so quickly. I saw him a few days later and he told me that the only hand that Tom pushes so quickly with given the preflop action was AK (e.g., he loved his hand preflop but what hand would he love and be so quick to overbet the pot given that flop. If he hit anything he probably either value bets or thinks about it for a bit). Brunson's push was similar.

BTW, Tom was left with a bit more than the blinds but managed to double up a few times, get heads-up with Layne and beat him for the bracelet. It was pretty impressive. It was a shame it wasn't televised.

[MeanGreenTT]

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Gabe: "Some older players who didn't have discipline have had to go on to other professions like professional poker announcers" - a self-deprecating comment. AJ then said "Anybody come to mind?" Gabe: "Mike Sexton is the only one I can think of".

It was just as much a fun poke at Mike Sexton as it was Gabe poking fun at himself.

- T

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see i just didnt see it that way. because its not like kaplan is a poker player. hes just a comedian/actor who plays poker.

anyway someone said they thought maybe the two of them were friends, which makes a lot of sense, so i'll just assume that's the case.

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Looking at the last 10 years, let alone the last 20, I think you'd find that Gabe has been more of a regular card player than an actor/comedian.

[Admo]

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Last year I bet on him to outlast Ben Affleck in the final event and neither one played.

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Are you sure Kaplan didn't play in the ME last year?

I didn't see him at a table, but a few minutes before the dinner break on Day 1A he was standing in the cab line telling a bad beat story to someone and looking very down. (like Main-Event-busting-out down)

[fish43]

>>>Of course MM's quick call of $40k on the river with top pair horrible kicker when both the flush and straight draws get there will go down in the HSP hall of shame.<<<

Here's what I think Mike was thinking:

Mike was sure that Daniel didn't have the flush because of Daniel's comment about the J of hearts before the river. (I couldn't believe it when I heard Daniel yapping away about the J hearts... talk about giving info away). If Daniel was really on the heart draw he wouldn't be talking about it. So when the heart fell, Mike decided Daniel was going to bluff the flush and he would check/call him. If it had been any other heart... Daniel bluffs, Mike calls with T2 and tells Daniel how bad he is...