Anyone who thinks his "blathering" doesn't bear results, just watch the last hand of episode 8. Lau clearly let Kassouf get under his skin and get stubborn. The guy is great to watch.

He's not great to watch for more than like five minutes. I can't imagine being at his table for 12 hours. He just repeats the same couple lines over and over. I don't think he would pass a Turing test.

I think that what TChan and Adam miss—after all of the talk over the past couple of years about how tanking is horrible—is that what Kassouf is doing is a form of tanking. He's slowing the game down for everyone.

He talks when he's facing a decision—which can be seen in later episodes when he just jabbers without having a hand to call with—he talks through his opponents' decisions, and he talks when other people are trying to think even when he's not in the hand.

Yeah, it's the thing he does to use every edge to get every chip, it's the thing he does to use every edge to get every chip, it's the thing he does to use every edge to get every chip, but frankly, so is tanking and staring.

Why not just bring a vuvuzela to the table?

Seriously, stop defending Kassouf.

116. Etiquette Violations: Repeated etiquette violations will result in the imposition of penalties assessed by the Tournament Staff. Examples include, but are not limited to, unnecessarily touching other participants’ cards or chips, body, or clothing, delay of the game, repeatedly acting out of turn, betting out of reach of the dealer, or excessive chatter. Excessive chatter includes, but is not limited to, talking or conversation that causes a disruption of participants who are in a hand.

Talk all you want when action is on you; don't disrupt another player's right to consider their action when it's their turn. This isn't that hard and the poker community defending this guy is making themselves look really bad. Just stop.

Guy seems to have sociopathic traits.
I wouldn't mind being seated with him though. He gives a ton of information and I'd be using his talk to my advantage.
I'm not condoning his behaviour as it appears to have upset a lot of people, which is obviously not good, but it's a mountain from a molehill kinda situation from where I'm looking.

He is terrible for poker and acts like a douche

That obviously is directed at players not in a hand since it says you should participants who are in a hand. If he's heads up in a hand, it's fine. #clutching

Did anyone check if he had the parts of the ESPN episode quoted 100% word for word? He wasn't explaining what happened, he was saying word for word what was broadcast on the episode.

He either has an amazing memory or has already watched the episodes he is in 5+ times each.

It seems to me as if it was intentionally written ambiguous enough to catch either situation. But, I don't know what the author(s) of that rule had in mind.

Or he repeats the same stock phrases thousands upon thousands of times. I'm actually not certain he could pass a Turing test.

But he wasn't just reciting his parts, he was doing Stacy (and her accent), Jack Effel, Cliff Josephy, etc.

After this weeks episode we can safely conclude he is the single worst person for poker in years. He is also an awful human being, period. If one of him were at every table Nobody on earth would want to play poker.

Few people are in more dire need of a serious beating.

that escalated quickly.

Lol, what on earth are you on about? Guy did nothing wrong, was personally attacked by a number of people on the table while they mocked him for being a low stakes player. Pretty sure mocking people for playing £2/£5 cash or $10 tournaments online is pretty bad for poker. How you think Josephy et al come off looking better is beyond me.

Would love to see the guys get Josephy on and find out why it's OK to be an asshat to people or Vayo on to find out why he lied about Kassouf - "He brought a woman to tears earlier, I wouldn't have a problem otherwise." What an idiot.

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. He broke several rules and was tanking every hand. He is awful for poker

His stalling was bad

His talking was annoying but part of his game, nothing to logically criticize there

The way the rest of the table acted was way worse for poker than Kassouf... elitism, negativity, gang mentality, just absolutely abhorrent

Call the floor, get them to penalize Kassouf with his stalling, and move on. The way the rest of the table reacted to Kassouf was worse than the way Kassouf acted (which was pretty bad)

If I am not mistaken they did call the floor for the stalling and he got away with a warning. And after that he tank folded on a 9h board against two all ins holding absolute air (can't remember his exact holding). Plus, after he was busted he asked for a penalty on a guy that was still in it which was also pretty ****ty imo.

Benger's outburst was obviously way out of line, so was the name calling but I am not sure we can judge which behavior was worse unless we played with him for long hours, watched him take a minute (or whatever it was) to look at his cards before every single hand and then listen to him talking non stop while tanking excessively. And the worst part is that even in his exit interview he seems oblivious to how bad his stalling is while on the other hand I think Josephy, Benger and the others have regretted their actions and their comments (that doesn't change the fact that they came off bad as well ofourse).

But I have to give him props because even in the heat of the moment, right before moving all in with his KK he said something like "Ok, do you want to gamble? I 'm all in!" Always the speech play lol

Reposting here because I've played with Kassouf. Can confirm that he knows what he does is annoying and at times rule breaking, and he's definitely not beyond breaking rules:

lol @ kassouf not being bad for the game, or that he didn't break rules. He contradicted floor multiple times about talking and stalling and disruptive behavior, how is that not breaking rules? You realize there's a rule that you have to listen to floor rulings right?

I think players at the table need to think about their own emotional stability.!

Great William Kassouf interview on the Thinking Poker Podcast. They are much tougher on him and don't let things slide. It's really revealing

I'm only about two years behind on Thinking Poker Podcast. So maybe I'll get to listen to it before 2019.

Thanks for this tip, listening now. Is the sound quality always this bad? Probably why I never subbed for it.

Well, they don't always have the crazy British guy talking over everything, if that's what you mean

No, the sound quality in general is pretty bad. The main host's voice is coming in extremely hot and overmodulating. I'm guessing he's talking through a gamer's headset via Skype. Or perhaps he's just too close to the mic. Fairly common thing in podcasts, as it has created opportunities for hosts with no experience in radio or professional audio.

That said...

GREAT interview. They did not hold back at all, never withholding from picking apart a few holes in his story. I also found them very fair, since most viewers seem to have taken an either-or, love-him-or-hate-him stance on Will Kassouf.

The funny part (which comes up in every interview) is that Kassouf says stuff like, "I'm not being abrasive, I mean no disrespect, but if you don't like it, then don't enter the tournament. Go home, sit in your underwear, and click buttons online." Yet giving someone an ultimatum is pretty much being abrasive and disrespectful.

Only about 15 minutes into the interview and I've already shifted from thinking he is moderately entertaining to thinking he is a legit douchebag. I have not watched any WSOP coverage, so maybe I'm late to the party on that assessment. The thing that rubbed me the wrong way is that he claims he takes so long to make a decision because he is not playing ABC and is thinking on another level. He sounds like that other guy who said his preflop decision tree is enormous. But based on the report from the Pokercast, he was tanking before he even looked at his cards sometimes. I'm crossing my fingers that they call him out on that later in the interview.