Aldemir had to have been one of the fastest acting players out of the final 36. Tanking would have been far worse with other players.

They kinda had Lon/Norm talk poker strategy after going to the live format on ESPN and it was possibly even worse than this. Talking strategy is not what Lon and Norm do.

I will give it to Lon though, judging by his Hendon it appears that he really didn't even play poker tournaments before 2013. Given the # of cashes he's had since then it does seem that he took criticism to heart and tried to improve his familiarity with the game. Norm on the other hand is a mixed-game player who has never even cashed in a no-limit tournament

How about this for a concept? For the main broadcast, maybe have at least 1 or 2 players that are in the top 3,000 on the all-time money list. I know this concept is kinda out there but it's just a thought.

I missed that one thankfully.

Salas 1.0 in the year Blumstein won tilted me so hard he put me off watching any of last year's coverage.

Or you could say that most of the top players just really suck at branding. They've put plenty of time into getting great at the game and not enough time into marketing/social media/etc. I'm sure there are reasons for this, including the energy they expend grinding tournaments, but I'm certain there are good players out there that are more than capable of building themselves into a star.

It's not even that hard to get recognized. A dude wore a superman costume a few years ago, didn't even bother to wear a costume this time, and people were still talking about him.

There might be a few that are capable but the vast majority simply don’t have that skill. And those that do try to are usually very awkward and cringey when they do (I’m looking at you Jungleman).

Edit: I should also add that the majority of top players have no interest in branding themselves either.

I wonder who was the best modern WSOP ME winner, benchmarked against their peers at the time. Merson, Jacobson and Aldemir are pretty obviously top3, but Merson was more of a cash player, and Jacobson was already past his prime when he won the ME, so Aldemir is very likely the best one.

Sammartino would probably be number 1, though, if he didn't lose that HU.

If we're lucky the WSOP will learn from this and move on from lon and norm. Even Mike sexton stepped down and let Dunst take over and he was far better than these two. Nothing lasts forever. Give them a nice little send off. Sheeeit, put em in the HOF as a thank you for all they have done. But from now on the gig belongs to Ali and Nick. They mastered the art of commentating the livestream and deserve to be the new voice of the WSOP. Tonight's stream would have been infinitely better with them in the booth.

I'm sure that is the case, but at the same time I'm also sure at some point there will be a tournament player who desires greater fame and fortune than the other players and will be able to successfully execute a social media strategy.

Aldemir is a great proven world class player but the number one principle of marketing is "product differentiation" and the guy is just too stereotypical and common - boring. The only thing the promoters can do is just wait out this next few months and hope someone more marketable comes along winning the 2022 main event.

Holmes would have been awesome but it just wasn't meant to be.

Some number twos, however, had been successfully marketed in the past:

Avis: We are number two but "We try harder"
Pepsi used blind taste tests where it beat number one Coke

But there is not much time to pump up Holmes. Better just live with what is and then hope for a more marketable number one next time around.

Negreanu and Hellmuth are major monomaniacal egomaniacs. The game needs more of them, characters with polarizing personalities that one either loves or hates but can never feel neutral about.

Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, and Amarillo Slim were colorful Rounders. Stu Ungar was a colorful degenerate. Johnny Chan was the "Oriental" express.

Unfortunately, many of today's top players are by necessity hermits who come from caves, never used to daylight. As a result, many develop highly studious and stoic but very dull personalities.

Maybe, a narcissist, like 90% of today's successful vloggers, can break thru in the near future.

I hate it when the GTO bots wins. GG Holmes.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Putting aside what I agree with or not, you have a way with the written word. great style.


Holmes would would have without a doubt gotten scores more media here in the US.

Another german pro wins main... snooze. Whether any of that is good or bad for poker... not really. Everything good or bad for poker is just signal noise compared Online Poker being legalized. Thats the only thing that matters in the good or bad discussion.

p.s. re: bolded part. Is there another kind? Let that sink in. If he was white, would you have said "well put together white guy" Dont want to derail, but felt compelled to call out. dont want to start a fight, I do the same and am learning to catch myself because its just wrong.

Love the Hallalbabraosasaa. PokerGo needs to put Nick/Ali type teams in the booth for the streams. The streams are for poker players. CBS Sports should edit in what ever audio they think will help create a good show for casuals for aired edited shows. Plethora of options for that. But even for edited shows, If I made a list of 1000 people to choose for that, Norm would be about #812. Sorry, we love you, you will always be part of the game and history from your early days commentating (which was all awesome then), but its time to move on

All in all a pretty impressive WSOP pulled off by the WSOP Team. Given the seemingly impossible headwinds/challenges they were facing.

Bye Bye Rio. Its been good to know you. Dont let the unlocked door hit you in the butt on the way out. Wrecking ball incoming (literally).

Hellloooooooo Vegas Strip. I hope WSOP uses the move to re-invent, freshen up and modernize the series. The Vince Vaughn thing hints that they are at least going to try some new things moving forward.

Moving away from ESPN is a bigger negative than all of the the rest of this stuff put together.

Damn I was really rooting for Holmes. The average Joe takes down the main story would have been amazing after Moneymaker had a good run also. Not to be this year but definitely there would have been more media interest if Holmes had taken it down.

As main events go this one was pretty good and had me interested all week. I have not been able to say that for a while and caused a bit of FOMO for me.

Lets hope for a shot clock next year as its clear its needed.

Has anyone worked out the actual payouts after tax etc. I'm guessing Oliver will take home as much if not more than Holmes?

Top tax bracket in the US is >$250k paying 40%. They are both paying the same rate. So Holmes is still taking home like $800k more.

UK residents don't pay tax on gambling winnings so assuming the Brit had his papers in order he'll get his full amount.

Germans I don't believe pay tax on gambling winnings so payout after tax would be

1st 8m
2nd 2.58m after 40% tax
3rd 3m

This was discussed earlier and seems Germans would pay tax. Although Aldemir lives in Austria I believe which may have different rules

Yes. IIRC the 1M one drop that antonio won when three handed had some sicko tax rate ICM stuff , if they made a deal they could have all made more vs uncle same getting so much. But I guess sometimes its not just about the money, and I am sure there was so much staking/swaps going on it would have been impossible to work out

of course, much less after Uncle Sam takes his cut.

go on ...

qft

ppl like this is the reason why we can't have nice things in the world.

saw he was temp-banned which is like giving a yellow card in soccer when it is obv a red card is warranted.



i lol'd

exactly. with the move to the Strip in 2022, time to freshen up and modernize the Series. step 1: hand Lon and Norman pink slips.

check this link either later today or tomorrow. Russ Fox always breaks down the final table payouts (post tax implications) on his blog.

http://www.taxabletalk.com/

Did Pokergo even advertise on 2p2? I would have paid to watch if I knew it was streaming somewhere.

If you've been active on 2p2 recently and missed the hundreds of references to PokerGo streaming the main event then I'm pretty sure you would have also missed any adverts of there were any

I rarely come to this forum and basically forgot about the WSOP with the new dates. But a banner would have done it.

May I ask was he sick or what's the reason you say that?

Because Holmes was from Georgia (Columbus? Atlanta?) would have put a much needed spotlight on getting gambling passed in the Georgia state legislature. Year after year, it is brought up in the session. And year after year it fails. At the very least, some attention would have been brought to the issue. Still, his 2nd place finish might still bring attention to this issue. Although as far as I can tell, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has yet to run a story about Holmes' fantastic run. Which isnt surprising.

And yes, it would have been great for an "average joe" to take it down.