WSOP Main Final Table

[Kurn]

A few thoughts on what I saw.

Pre final table: Some of the worst short stack play I've ever seen by Hille and Baumann.(there were others, too, but theirs was the most obvious) My best guess is that there is so much outside earning potential for being in the final 9, that just playing for that trumps playing to win.

Pace of Play: I agree 100% with Daniel N that tournaments need a "shot clock." Even with 2 hour levels, taking 2+ minutes on each decision effects other players much more than exposing a card when HU on the river to get a read.

Minraise mania: This reached its absurdist extreme with the outbreak of button limping 3-handed. Want an old-timer like Doyle to eat your lunch short-handed? Play like that. Prior to the final table I screamed every time the BB folded to a minraise. Really? With antes in there and 200 BB deep? Folding a2c is simply a math error.

Jesse's call: Maybe it was fatigue, maybe he just figured that with the relative stack sizes, he was a money favorite vs Merson's range (math wise, a correct assumption), I think he was reading Merson very well. Either this, or...

The Conspiracy Theory: I got this feeling a couple of times during the FT (and reading some blog reports). I would not be surprised to learn sometime down the road that Merson and Sylvia had made a deal away from the table.

Just my $0.02