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

[Zybomb]

I think the basic logic behind these smaller and smaller sized raises was even (the most extreme, a min raise) offering the BB between 4:1 and 5:1 on a call (depending on ante size) it was still unprofitable for the BB to play bad cards (i.e cards they wouldn't call a 3x raise lets say) OOP against tricky opponents capable of barreling multiple streets... so even against a BB who defends nearly ATC, they are still coming out ahead when combining the fact of the extra chips saved the time they are 3 bet and fold (since 3 betting is so much more common these days)

As far as the button limping thing that Merson initiated (and was followed eventually by others), I think the logic behind that was 2 parts.

1) It forced Jake Balsiger to play the hand (assuming Sylvia didn't raise) and Merson thought he had a giant postflop edge vs him and could make more profit in getting Balsiger to make large post flop mistakes than he would to steal his blind, which is much easier to counter (just start 3 betting a lot)

2) It kept things from getting into a crazy leveling war of 3 4 and 5 betting preflop, where there's only so much edge that one can have when everyone only has 2 cards, as opposed to post flop where players can make glaring errors

not sure how keen on it i am, but I do know a fairly respected tourny player who was talking w me this past summer on how if it's folded around to him on the button, he likes to limp a lot hands rather than raise against Blinds who will 3 bet button raises a lot. He says a lot of the time the SB will complete putting extra money in the pot and then on most boards the blinds will check, he will bet and the blinds fold. Something along the lines of people not fighting much for limp pots and playing way too straight forward. In fact he said pretty much the only time he button raises is against players whose blinds are easy to steal pre and do not defend often.

Again just a point of view, not sure how much i agree or disagree

[Wes]

People fold the same amount to a Min raise as they do to a 3x so it gives the raiser better odds to steal so not surprised that is the norm. Next Thing is going to be calling a min raise and leading the flop, you know stuff I did 3-4 years ago.