Exactly where I've been on this whole thing.

Which is why I have generally stayed away from the discussion. Too often people have misinterpreted this stance as saying "Nash is stupid because he's religious" or, further still, "religion is stupid." (And a few people HAVE said something like that.)

wat?

Casino olympics is the stone nuts!
You must be jelly bro.

Now you do have a point with regard to CGI horse racing..,

Come on you jerbus freeaks. Lets fight on the intetwebs.

This pokercast was huge for my drive home today. Woulda been bored without you clowns.

Oh and by the way, Matt's ruling seemed absurd to me.

@renodoc: Yeah, taken out of context that statement looks kind of ridiculous

refering to the hand where gavin had 10 10. Gavin he had aj. just a thought. i woulda folded also. it just makes sense to wait for a better spot.

Nice cast, like always

I don't understand what you are saying, but you do realize that Gavin flopped a full house, right?

Ya, he understands that.

What he's saying is a large portion of villian's range is AJ and Ole G should fist pump call river.

I don't see it at all but that's like, his opinion man.

I just think the way the betting went i'd give my opponent 95%aj and 5 %something better. assuming my foe believes i flopped a q maybe putting me on qj with my flop bet. If he was thinking that way, he would tank-all in on river. i would weigh the 5% missread against 1st place prize. I understand i've got a fullhouse, but by folding, i got a 100% to stay in the tourney. It's hard to say that if your not in the hand, but with all the things happenning around that table, i would have to imagine myself playing at that table in this tournament. I would assume the table was one of the most storyed tables of the tourney. This table had a big impact on the outcome of the remaining 9.

You fold 95% spots waiting for better spots?

Jeff Sarwer was not featured in Searching for Bobby Fischer, although it is a persistent rumour. That film was about Josh Waitzkin, another chess prodigy who has since left the game. The moves of one game actually played between Waitzkin and Sarwer were used in the film, but that's it afaik.

Great show as always guys.

Personally I have no issue at all with mike and adams' comments regarding the player missing a saturday in the main event and its it is sort of refreshing that they didn't tip-toe around the story. However, in this world you are never going to be able to question a decision based on a religious reasoning without armies of offendees crawling out of the woodwork to make the fact known. I suppose you guys expected it.

My two cents (not that anyone is interested):

I am not an especially religious person, but it is my understanding that people take days of rest as a sort of 'sacrifice' to their beliefs. Instead of doing something they normally would (work or play) they instead dedicate that day to their god (and thought/contemplation, or meditation, or good deeds or whater). A sort of sacrifice of time for their beliefs. It seems to me that if this is the case, then entering the tourney knowing you will have to sacrifice a day is exactly the sort of thing their day of rest is for. They don't live their lives around the fact that saturday is a loss. They run their lives as everyone else and accept that saturday is lost. In these circumstances it would seem positively daft NOT to enter the tourney.

Yes, from a poker perspective the decision to enter is beyond poor. But aren't we supposed to encourage people to make dim choices at the poker table? Don't tap on the glass etc... If he wants to add 'dead money' to the pool, possibly don't call him out on it (not that he'd care i'd wager).

But it also seems to me that there is more to poker than just making +ve EV decisions. The poker world is very proud of its WSOP main event. Its a festival of poker. Thousands of random amateurs stump up lots of cash for the chance to play their dream tourney. The fact that anyone who wants to play and has the money to enter can is celebrated by all and sundry. You want to play?... sure pull up a seat. Live the dream. Play for the experience of the biggest stage. etc. etc..etc...

Maybe this guy really loves his poker. Maybe it was his dream to play in the main event. Should he pass on his dream just because he knows he has no shot of winning big? Maybe he thought he loves poker so much that just entering (with a legitimate shot of getting his money back to be fair) was worth the 10K. Maybe he wanted to tick the box 'played the main event' on his list of life goals. If this is the case, no, his entry was far from stupid. Setting fire to ten bags? maybe. But perhaps his money bought him an experience.

We cant have a celebrated event where we are proud that anyone can ennter on one hand, and on the other berate a guy for entering because he has no shot. Sometimes we have to accept that people will play simply because they want to and, well, its fun.

^^ Amen.

This is the best post in the players defence by far.