Who Else Plans to "Go Dark" During the WSOP

[okterrific]

Its just not worth the hassle to try to go dark. Ive tried this the last two wsop's and failed.

In 04 i accidently read in sports illistrated the winners name (raymer) at the time i never heard of him before and i just read one short sentence. The name didint sink in and i forgot it. Then a couple weeks b4 04 wsop aired PokerStars was nice enough to have a big pop up congratulating Greg Raymer for his WSOP win.

In 05' i heard over the radio ( a non poker show) that a mortgage broker won the event. So a couple episodes in i knew either Steve Dan. or joe hachem won.

Its just not worth the hassle. You have to avoid every poker site, poker forum, and sportcenter for a few months. And even then u might find out by some passing bystander bringing it up or reading it on some news scroll.

[ QUOTE ]
Its just not worth the hassle to try to go dark. Ive tried this the last two wsop's and failed.

In 04 i accidently read in sports illistrated the winners name (raymer) at the time i never heard of him before and i just read one short sentence. The name didint sink in and i forgot it. Then a couple weeks b4 04 wsop aired PokerStars was nice enough to have a big pop up congratulating Greg Raymer for his WSOP win.

In 05' i heard over the radio ( a non poker show) that a mortgage broker won the event. So a couple episodes in i knew either Steve Dan. or joe hachem won.

Its just not worth the hassle. You have to avoid every poker site, poker forum, and sportcenter for a few months. And even then u might find out by some passing bystander bringing it up or reading it on some news scroll.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did so well last year. Until like 5 days after the Main Event ended, I thought it was finally safe to watch SportsCenter. Sure enough, on the top 10 plays of the week, I see a dark-skinned man celebrating with the Australian flag wrapped around him. Obviously, it didn't take long to figure out which guy won once I started watching.

[okterrific]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Its just not worth the hassle to try to go dark. Ive tried this the last two wsop's and failed.

In 04 i accidently read in sports illistrated the winners name (raymer) at the time i never heard of him before and i just read one short sentence. The name didint sink in and i forgot it. Then a couple weeks b4 04 wsop aired PokerStars was nice enough to have a big pop up congratulating Greg Raymer for his WSOP win.

In 05' i heard over the radio ( a non poker show) that a mortgage broker won the event. So a couple episodes in i knew either Steve Dan. or joe hachem won.

Its just not worth the hassle. You have to avoid every poker site, poker forum, and sportcenter for a few months. And even then u might find out by some passing bystander bringing it up or reading it on some news scroll.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did so well last year. Until like 5 days after the Main Event ended, I thought it was finally safe to watch SportsCenter. Sure enough, on the top 10 plays of the week, I see a dark-skinned man celebrating with the Australian flag wrapped around him. Obviously, it didn't take long to figure out which guy won once I started watching.

[/ QUOTE ]


Sportscenter is just one of many enemies that stand in the way of this quest. Believe me it would be more enjoyable to not know the winner b4 hand but once you factor in the things you have to do to accomplish this task it becomes not worth it fast.

[ QUOTE ]
why not play the main event and win yourself

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh I'm playing. I was just figuring worst case scenario.

[xxx]

Last year I followed it live on a webcast.

It was in many ways better than the TV footage. Every hand was discussed, and they had drop in pros offering estimates of how poeple were playing. Also, live is always better.

[nath]

Once you go dark, you never go... bark?

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
Last year I followed it live on a webcast.

It was in many ways better than the TV footage. Every hand was discussed, and they had drop in pros offering estimates of how poeple were playing. Also, live is always better.

[/ QUOTE ]

Though it's incomplete, the live online coverage of the past two years was much better than ESPN's edited TV coverage. By waiting for the TV show, a person is depriving himself of the better show.

[DVaut1]

[ QUOTE ]
Though it's incomplete, the live online coverage of the past two years was much better than ESPN's edited TV coverage. By waiting for the TV show, a person is depriving himself of the better show.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is how good the online coverage is:

I was out there last year, and my buddy came with me. I busted on Day 1A. On Day 1B, we go back to the Rio Pavillion around mid-afternoon, hoping gather some news about what has happened that day in the ME. We get a bunch of sketchy, incomplete hearsay from other observers (Guy One: "I think Phil Hellmuth was over at table 80, but he's not there anymore, so I think he got busted"; Guy Two, responding to Guy One: "No he's over at the TV table now and I heard he's got a huge stack"; Guy Three, responding to One and Two: "No, he just got his AA cracked by 72o, he's been crippled and he's almost out"; Guy Four, responding to them all: "No, he had AA and doubled through the guy on his right, so now he really does have a huge stack!", etc. etc.) So my buddy and I hang around for a while (don't really find out anything -- other than what we can see with our eyes, which isn't much, because it's so crowded); then later that night, we head back to our hotel room, go to CardPlayer, and catch up on all the news.

We wake up around noon on Day 1C, planning to head back to the Rio just to find out what's going on. As we're walking out of our hotel room, we just look at each other and say "[censored] it, let's just go check on CardPlayer".

In other words, online coverage is so good, it's better than being there live.

[Mr. Orange]

I tried this for the Heads Up Poker Championship and it didn't work. That was a minor event, not as well covered and occured within a shorter window(event to TV) than the WSOP so I don't think you'll have much luck.

[El Diablo]

okt,

So you're telling me that last year you heard somewhere that a mortgage broker won the WSOP and then a couple episodes in you notice there are two mortgage brokers playing. And those two guys end up being 1 and 2. That's funny.