WSOP on ESPN thread (10/9 - ME Final Table)

[Silent A]

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His praying got worse and then some...
Lee Watsinson's wife and Yang go toe to toe with their
invoking of the heavens

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IIRC, Yang's praying started off at a high level of fanatical insanity but he toned it down as the table progressed and seemed to eventually pray in (insert Yang's first language here).

Too late for me to shift from the Anyone-But-Yang Club, but at least the event became watchable again.

[cbloom]

So are we all ready to get the ME buy in changed to $25k yet ?

[Silent A]

It should go to 12k or 15k first, and see from there. 10 to 25 is too big a jump.

[gusmahler]

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am i the only one that can admit.. that in this hand .. if i had held QQ and had run into Yang playing the hand the way he did against childs the thought would go through my mind. "the way this guy has been raising like nuts i bet i have him beat...

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The QQ v. JJ hand was very early, only the 9th hand. So Yang probably didn't have the huge raising reputation yet.

Here's the first 9 hands:
1. Yang raises UTG to 1.4M. 1 call. Yang raises flop to 2.5M. Yang wins.

2. Kravchenko bets 750K from Button. Yang re-raises to 2M in the BB. Kravchenko folds.

3. Lee Childs raises to 720k from the button and everyone else folds

4. Hilm raises UTG to 720k and everyone folds.

5. Lam raises to 800k from SB and everyone folds.

6. (First hand shown on ESPN): Kahn raises to 600k UTG. Yang and Kalmar call. Everyone checks the flop. Yang bets 1000k on the turn and everyone folds.

7. Watkinson raises to 600K. Hilm raises to 2M from the button. Watkinson folds.

8. Yang raises to 800k. Rahme calls from BB. Rahme checks the flop. Yang bets 1M. Rahme folds.

9. The QQ vs. JJ hand.

I'm not sure if 4 raises in 8 hands is enough for Childs to think that Yang had been completely bluffing. (I don't know what Yang's reputation was before the FT.)

[Zetack]

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I had a separate tab open with the PokerNews live coverage of the Final Tables, so I thought I'd compare the hands shown on ESPN with the actual hands.

1. Hand 6
2. Hand 9
3. Hand 14
4. Hand 15
5. Hand 18
6. Hand 21
7. Hand 28
8. Hand 40
9. Hand 42
10. Hand 48
11. Hand 50
12. Hand 55
13. Hand 56

Episode 2
14. Hand 58
15. Hand 60
16. Hand 78
17. Hand 92
18. Hand 95
19. Hand 108
20. Hand 127
21. Hand 129
22. Hand 149
23. Hand 167
24. Hand 169
25. Hand 205

During the last hand Lon said that Lam was "putting the pressure on early," referring to the earliness of the heads-up portion. Actually, it was the 36th heads up hand.

4 handed play lasted a long time, which is why there were such huge gaps in hands.

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This thing went 16 hours and only 205 hands? Under 13 hands an hour including shorthanded play? Wow.

[Silent A]

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I'm not sure if 4 raises in 8 hands is enough for Childs to think that Yang had been completely bluffing. (I don't know what Yang's reputation was before the FT.)

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But the thing is, you don't have to put Yang on any bluffs to call here. It's enough to simply realize that JJ is in Yang's range. You need a very, very tight read on Yang to fold here. Specifically: AA-QQ and AcKc. Given Yang's play, that's excessively tight by any definition.

Childs' thought process seemed to be, "I have such a strong hand, how can I fold? But Jerry played his hand like AA/KK". The idea that Yang might have JJ (or even TT) didn't seem to even enter his mind. Furthermore, I don't think he considered for a moment how his raise-call-lead line might look to Yang. It was all about "how can I fold this?" and "Jerry could easily have me beat".

[Zetack]

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i like how a lot of people here are saying how the christian god isnt affecting the cards in the wsop because hes doing other, more important things--like he isnt capable of doing several things at once.

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Because he's always known what Yang was going to do and say he doesn't necessarily have to do it after Yang prays or while multi-tasking. If he had a spare nano-second 6 billion years ago, for instance, he could've changed the cards then.

Or, he could have just set up the cards to favor Yang at the moment of creation, since, again, he already knew what Yang was going to say.

I imagine god may be incredibly bored at this point, which, when you think about it, may explain a lot.

[kudzudemon]

[ QUOTE ]
His praying got worse and then some...
Lee Watsinson's wife and Yang go toe to toe with their
invoking of the heavens

[/ QUOTE ]

Dear Jesus, protect me from those who follow you...

As someone who considers themselves a Christian, albeit probably more theologically liberal than most, I found the prayers at the final table a bit disconcerting. Having grown up in a strict Pentecostal household, with sincere parents who walked the walk as well as they talked the talk, I was told that you prayed for strength to use your abilities as well as possible, not to have a pile of money fall into your lap. Before sports, we prayed to stay healthy and prayed for the other team to do the same. This whole mercenary prayer thing is disgusting. It is exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught, and even if you question JC’s deity, his philosophy is about as morally sound as any you’ll find.

That said, Jerry Yang seems like a good person, and someone who will put his money to good use. His praying, to me anyway, sounded a little more supplicant than Lee Watkinson’s girlfriend, who sounded forbiddingly self-righteous. Her recitations sounded accusatory and vaguely threatening. She is, I’m sure, sincere…she is also probably borderline nuts. Life’s tough, and we have no right to deny anyone the philosophy that gets them through it, but that scary prayer/threat thing she did, basically wishing ill to befall Mr. Yang, is the kind of exclusive, holier than thou [censored] that gives Christianity a bad name. Well, that, and the inquisition. And the crusades. Oh, and biblically endorsed oppression, and shooting doctor’s at abortion clinics, and…aaah, the hell with it.


My take on it this: I have three healthy children, a wonderful family and good friends, a comfortable life. I’ve survived serious illness, and my mother was declared cancer free after battling one of the most virulent forms of the disease. I’m pretty blessed, I don’t think I’ll push my luck spending prayer credits asking for my pocket threes to hold up…

Also, Jerry Yang won because he decided that he was not as good as the others at the table, and had to be aggressive to win. He did it masterfully, and even when things got dicier for him, his adjusted his strategy, but did not abandon it. He played to win, while others were playing not to lose. It was textbook.

He was also classy in his winning, and, to get back to the subject at hand, gave thanks when he won. I may not agree with him asking God to stack the cards in his favor, but he seemed to lack the spiritual conceit inherent in most Bible thumpers.

That being said, I’ve always felt that religion was what happened when man took spirituality and screwed it all up. So in that mindset, I would like to present to you a thumbnail guide to poker/theological belief systems:


Poker Catholics-had their aces cracked because they masturbated

Poker Jews-have had their aces cracked so often, it just seems normal

Poker Lutherans-Their aces being cracked was preordained from the beginning of time, and no amount of skill/luck and/or preparation and study was going to prevent it.

Poker Hindu-had their aces cracked because they killed a family of four with a meat cleaver…in a previous life

Poker Buddhists-Their aces and their subsequent cracking were mere manifestations of illusion, and, as such, their aces were not cracked.

Poker Muslim Zealots-Cracked their own aces so they could spend eternity in the bosom of Allah and cavort with their 72 virgins

Poker Taoists-Aces get cracked

Poker Zen-“My aces and I are the same, and transcend being cracked”

Poker Agnostics-Don’t know if their aces were cracked or not, and frankly, don’t think it matters

Poker Atheists-Still can’t believe their aces got cracked.

Poker Satanists-Smiled as the dark lord cracked their aces

Poker Baptists-Aces got cracked, AND they’re going to hell for playing cards

Poker Mormons-All four pair of aces got cracked while multi-tabling, must now spend two year on a bike telling others of how they survived

(multi tabling=polygamy…get it?)

Poker Pagans-Resent the destruction of living, sentient trees to create the cards upon which were aces that got cracked

Poker Unitarians-Whether of not their aces were cracked, it’s important that they play in accordance to the dictates of orthodox strategy

Poker Scientologists-Spent over 10k to have someone tell them why they shouldn’t worry about their aces being cracked

Poker Jehovah’s Witnesses-Will be knocking on your door at seven tomorrow morning to tell about their aces being cracked, and offer you a copy of Watchtower.

Poker Nihilists-Rejoice in aces being cracked; can now resuming staring into an abyss as dark and cold as the ace of spades


If I offended anyone, well…I just don’t care…

[MasterShakeJr]

Far from offensive IMO. If we can't laugh a little at ourselves and our beliefs (and I lol'd at this), it's just not worth it. Well played.

[JDesab]

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Yet he crushed/dominated/raped the table?????? Are you sure you even watched the entire ppv, or dreamed up your own version? At any given point he was just two hands away from being knocked out. Just any top pair against a better hand would have done post-flop, or someone picking up a dominating hand pre-flop against him (at worst). Guess what, it didn't happen...it ALMOST did many many times, but it ultimately didn't. And not to mention he was one race away from being only 3:2 chip leader at heads up...no way would Lam have stuffed that one up at that point against this easily trapped player.


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not sure what you're saying here.

how much better position would someone want to be in. as i remember he was never worse than twice the stack of second place. that's a commanding lead. it's hard to imagine a larger lead held throughout the final table.

when you're up 4:1 against an opponent .. you are two all ins away from losing. that's not a bad position.

so your argument that he was two hands away from trouble really doesn't say that he was in any trouble at all.