Anybody watching want to do an AIM chat?
I am watching the delayed coverage on TV, not following online. They are really not doing a great job of analyzing the play. They’ve botched the post-hand analysis a couple of times, especially on that last hand where Stasko (?) won with a higher two pair. They kept claiming he rivered the hand, when in fact he was ahead the entire hand. Esfandiari is usually really good, but he is stumbling tonight.
Congratz to Pius Heinz. They played about 115 hands heads up, which is pretty epic. They played past 2 am CST and I fell asleep. Last hand was won with an uneventful Ace High.
I was hoping Heinz would win with 5-7. He did “Catch-Up” several times.
It was nice to see both players were not walking billboards, Heinz did have a Boss Sweatshirt and Stanszko had a Czech flag, but that was it for advertisements.
Can’t say that I would have resisted the urge. If I was at the final table, I would have probably shaved the remaining hair on my head and offered it to the biggest bidder with a temporary tattoo.
A bottle of Heinz Catsup would have been a natural.
Well, I managed to stay up and watch the whole thing…what a heads-up tournament it was… it took over 6 hours, but if you have it recorded, the last two major hands you can skip to are:
Hand 115 was the last major turning point.
Hand 123 was the Coup De Gras.
It really was anybody’s game…lots of lead changes.
I really appreciate Esfandiari and Helmuth, those guys are good (had the correct reads on each player about 80% of the time); I learned alot from them about playstyles, reads, betting strategies, etc.
That was an awesome November 9 final table.
I give Antonio lots of credit. He’s giving the best reads he can, knowing he’s likely to be criticized when he misses (Pius “bluffing” with AA). It was really fascinating to listen to him think his way through the hands. He also did a great job satisfying both poker fans and possible newbies tuning in (he explained what a 3-bet was a few times). The whole booth was good actually. Lon and Norman were smart enough to realize Antonio was the one with the chops and bounce ideas off of him.
Unfortunately, I highly doubt 6 hour such live broadcasts would ever go mainstream. 
ESPN HD was the perfect channel to broadcast on…that was pretty mainstream, considering it was in the realm of sports. Just chatting with a couple of random folks yesterday and today, I found two people who wanted to know who won the tournament, because BOTH people watched it while working out at the gym on Tuesday night (these two people don’t know each other…a repairman in the High Desert, and the other, my son’s Occupational Therapist, 50 miles away). They didn’t plan on watching it, but since it was ESPN, and in a gym, they both were pretty interested loved watching it live (almost). Imagine that this alone happened at a lot of gyms and drew alot of people and the format that it was done probably will make next year’s tournament even bigger, and hopefully cover other WSOP events other than the $10k NLHE.
Hopefully.
Oh my. How did I miss Maria Ho prior to this? I’ve been neglecting the pokerz.
Sadly (as it were) I’m rather happily married to someone that makes Maria look like a Biggest Loser reject, but still.