WSOP FINAL TABLE 2007

[MuppieDoll]

so....... I watched pretty much every hand of the final table... Phil Gordon and this other guy were doing the commentary... he's a nice guy.... knows alot about poker. He's a decent player... has a WPT title to his credit (which therefore allowed him to write books) .... he knows allot more then this Norman Chad ninny who does the ESPN productions -- he's never played a hand in his life and is just a Don Rickles wannabe with his bad jokes.

Phil had lots of pro's on doing commentary, etc. Hellmuth, Ferguson, the whole lot... all the "Good Old Boys Club" - the whole bunch who always pick the pro and never have anything positive to say about the amateur players. Always criticizing the play of the amateurs and predicting doom and their undoing. I'm telling you, you could have $74,999,999 chips and Phil Ivey could be sitting there with a $1 white chip, and these self-effacing terds would start saying how you are about to blow it and still pick Phil Ivey to outplay you.

This Yang guy - an amateur with like 2 years of playing experience won it. You should have heard them ripping into him. He's doing this wrong. He's doing that wrong. Oh he's raising too much. Oh he's raising too little. Oh he doesn't know what he's doing. This will come back to haunt him. Yada yada yada. In the meantime, he started with like 6th stack out of 9. Took down like 6 of the first 10 hands with pure aggression while the "pro's" just sat there shell-shocked. Within 45 minutes he had the chip lead. He took down like 11 of the first 20 pots. By the time they were down to 6 players (less then 3 hours in) he had over half the chips in play. You would think they would have something nice to say about him? Nay Nay.

So he wins the thing. Now, here's the kicker. I watched Moneymaker final table online. He was a walking luckbox. Continuously made wrong decisions and got bailed out. Did they hammer him? NOPE. Raymer... did they hammer him and death root him? NOPE (he played well). Hachem? No death rooting there even though he was luckier then a pile of [censored]. Jamie Gold? NOPE.... they let him slide. He was the luckbox extraordinaire. He kept getting his money in with the worst of it and just got hit in the face by the deck for 4 straight days. Every wrong decision paid off.

Now, they get this poor shlump ... fat Chinese guy.... who they have PREDETERMINED is not the type of person that they think will be a good champion (defined as: how much 'sex appeal' can this person have for the next 12 months and how much $$$ bling can this dude put in THEIR pockets?) Once they decide that he ain't the type, all they can do is criticize his play .... NOW HERE'S THE KICKER..... I WATCHED EVERY HAND OF THE FINAL TABLE. FACT OF THE MATTER IS: WHEN HE GOT HIS MONEY IN, HE ALMOST ALWAYS HAD THE BEST HAND. In fact, by the time they got down to 3 people, the other 2 goons who were still there were only there because he had them BOTH all in with the best hand and they sucked out on him.


THEY COULD CRITICIZE HIS STYLE ALL THEY FREAKING WANT... THE LOUTS... here's an example... just one of many.
They were rooting so hard for their pro boy Lee Watkinson. Yang raised preflop, Lee Watkinson pushes all in. After thinking about it for 2 days, Yang calls. He has A9. Lee Watkinson, the good ole boys pick had A4. YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD THEM CARVING THIS GUY A NEW [censored] FOR WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS A "BAD CALL" !! Fact of the matter is, he had the best hand.

he did everything right ... he sensed that the pro's were playing too tight early and didn't want to mix it up... he confused them with unusually large and varied bets....and when he got a big stack, we used it like the sword of Damoclese and intimidated everyone with it -- if it was someone who they liked, they would have been jabbering about what a great job he is doing.

This guy will get NO CREDIT for winning this thing. The "pro's" will now use this guy as a reason why there should be some sort of change to the WSOP final table plot. Maybe a higher buy-in. Exclusion of some people. Or maybe, as I predict, the development of a new event ... a "pro only" event .. or an event for people who have already won bracelets -- all designed to keep this type of person, (WHO DOESN'T FIT THEIR PREDETERMINED PICTURE OF A CHAMPION, whose picture they don't think belongs on the wall with Doyle Buckteeth Brunson), out of it.... MARK MY WORDS.

[MuppieDoll]

correction... Watkinson had an A7 not and A4 .. .that was a typo

[MicroBob]

This forum is about internet-poker.
The WSOP/tourney-circuit forum is down the street.

Also, my understanding is that he truly was not a very good player and got quite lucky.
This seems to be the general opinion.
your ideas that he was criticized because he didn't have sex-appeal seem kind of weird.
If he played well people would have noticed it and not cared what he looked like.

[cobrakai111]

Why are you so angry?

[Backspin20]

Microbob has been quite angry as of late. Put some fangs on the "the cat"

[RoundGuy]

This is the Internet Gambling Forum.

I assume you intended to somehow work in an analysis of how this will affect online poker -- but you forgot.

If that was not your intention, then, WTF?!

[pariah8]

Actually from the little bit I've read he knocked out someone at the final table his J8 vs KJ all in preflop, are you telling me he always had the best of it, sounds like a pretty luckbox play when his 8 spiked on the turn.

He also won a lot of coinflips. Not to say that getting your money in with a coinflip is terrible, but just because your ak beats JJ and than your 88 beats AK (both hands that he won) doesn't mean you dominated anyone, it just means the deck hit you well. It's always said that to win a tournament you are going to have to win the coinflips.

Not saying the criticism of Yang is deserved or not and of course Gordon is going to be biased (probably jealous he isn't there instead), but to say Yang just pwned and was never lucky on the final table is also absurd, due to the amount of people in the ME he is lucky just to be there.

[verybaddd]

"On the last hand, with a huge mound of cash deposited on the felt, Lam moved all-in with an ace and queen of diamonds and Yang called with pocket eights.

When a queen, five and nine came on the flop, it looked like Lam, waving a Canadian flag, would be on the verge of a miracle comeback, making a pair of queens for the lead.

But a seven on the turn and a six on the river gave Yang a straight, sealing a win in which he dominated the final table from the moment the nine finalists sat down."

hitting runner runner to make a straight - i would consider that skill

[MICADOO]

The final table was a freakin donkfest and The only pro (LW) got sucked into the donkfest by going all in with Ace rag preflop against a donk call with a higher ace rag? The only good thing out of this final table, it will encourage more donk plays in tourney's now, by fish that watch this when it comes out on ESPN, and think the plays made at this final table are they way you win. LOL, I can't believe that Lee and Scotty thought they could bluff their tournament lives against these donks and not get called. Farha, Gus , any pro would of laid down against Lee and Scotty in those situations, but not these donks. Come one guys , you cant bluff these donkeys off any hand, especially when they hold ace rag pre flop, or post flop bottom pair, ever!! I figured Scotty and Lee would of know this, apparently not.

[grando]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, my understanding is that he truly was not a very good player

[/ QUOTE ]

perhaps

[ QUOTE ]
and got quite lucky.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd very much disagree

at the beginning of the final table he was winning pots left right and center without showdown

he ran sick hot in his first 3 all ins, sure: making a pretty good call with A9 vs. watkinson (which was a bad push obv), an overpush with J8 that got called by KJ (a borderine bad call by villain), and some other hand I don't remember that wasn't terrible

throughout the table I was just recalling the super system ideology that, if you're stealing and stealing and stealing, then you're going to have to take some all ins with the worst of it - but he managed to get money in in very good spots (save the JT call which was clearly terrible)

after the supper break he was easily the best player at the table, and between the supper break until kravchenko was eliminated, he ran like total [censored] but still didn't lose many chips - as he was totally owning blinds and uncontested pots

lapoker17 was praising his play, and until 2 hours later I didn't realize how much he really was running the table

the other 3 were huge weak-tight nits that sucked - and the russian guy broke my heart...