pretty thin skin, she should be trying to figure out the correct decision rather than angle for a penalty

no self respecting player is going to try to get their opponents hand killed for talking about it

i expected way worse given the comments, but his voice is low, his banter is playful in nature, i see nothing wrong with it

LOL, But wasnt Stu Ungar well know for his table trash talk?

“I never want to be called a 'good loser.' Show me a good loser and I'll just show you a loser.”
Quote by Stu Ungar

I cant even add a word. I fkn agree with EVERYTHING you said +1

Things I've learned from the ME videos thus far:

1) Fossilman angle shoots
2) Shaun Deeb is grumpy (entitlement tilt likely)
3) Kassouf is a douche (simple solution though -- "floorman, please ask seat 5 to be quiet while action is on me")
4) The broadcast team constantly hammered home the "see? poker is a skill game - tell your congressman" when people were getting bluffed out of pots -- but, were eerily silent when players were taking terrible river beats after being all in as a big fave. Stop the ROT.

So great watching river decisions when you have nfi what the action was on earlier streets. They can't even find 10 seconds to narrate that in.

Having played with Will in quite a few events in England i would have to say his speech isn't out of line in my eyes. Is he doing it to gain an edge? Most likely, but he is also very friendly in his chat and does buy the table rounds of ice cream hahaha

This guy is the only watchable part of the main event.

Unrelated- did anyone else notice fossilman looks like he gained an extra 100 pounds or so

Can't tell if it's the guy's accent or talkthat tilts the **** out of me. Maybe the fact that they aired so much of it. It literally seemed like every pot he entered contained some prolonged rant/angle. I mean it is definitely +ev for him so whatever.

What u talk bout. This is an excellent thread. Adressing a (very) legit issue. Totally agree with op.

And this:

Wow that biatch tilted the living crap out of me, what a complete ****. I really wish she would have gotten the full Tony G rub in there but he restrained himself to a one liner. Also what a ****ing moronic comment; "wtf are you calling the clock on me it is for all my chips". If someone takes 10 minutes every ****ing time someone is all in, which happens quite often in a tournament, some of the older players would literally die a natural death.

He's being an ******* too but at least he is doing it to get some sort of an edge, she's just whining about people giving away information and rightfully calling the clock. Wish he would have T-bagged her right on that table.

Seems like a good time for a bump.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/62...ssilman-47665/

Nailed it.

Yeah, Matuson was out of line a bit, but not penalty worthy, just whining and annoying. She looks terrible during the entire exchange and didn't do herself any favors.

That said, Kassouf eventually crossed the line here and in a quite simple way. The floor told him to stop. He didn't. Therefore, penalty. To say that he **technically** didn't violate the floor's instruction to stop talking is BS. What he needed to do was comply with the floor's direction and then, if he had a problem with it, deal with it after the hand. It's not very different from getting a parking ticket you think you didn't deserve. You don't rip up the ticket and ignore it. You go to your hearing and plead your case.

Instead, Kassouf flipped the bird to the floor and left them few options. He effectively ripped up the ticket. If Effel doesn't issue a penalty, he loses the ability to control things going forward and that's just as important, if not more important, than a single hand or even a single orbit for Kassouf.

None of this means that I wouldn't want to play with Kassouf or that I think he's bad for the game. You could argue the second part of that: a guy who acts like this certainly drives **some** people away and probably people you want in the game, but that's a small part of the analysis.

We could have a completely separate conversation about whether "I'll show if you fold," is technically a rules violation. One interpretation of that statement is, "I will give you something, a benefit, if you fold." No question that, "I'll give you $100 if you fold," or "I'll buy you a drink if you fold," would be a rules violation. So why is "I'll show if you fold," any different? You are conferring a benefit to the player and influencing his action in exchange for that benefit. Is that a strained interpretation of the rule? Sure. But if you're going to argue that Kassouf **technically** didn't violate the instruction to stop talking, then you leave other technical arguments as potentially valid.

Finally, Kelvis, I'm guessing you're not on board with the idea that we need to make poker tournaments more friendly to women so we can increase field sizes.

What makes you guys assume gender played into this in any way?

You're a credit to our gender.

This. It's not like he was clarifying that he would show if she folded - that was 100% clear already since he kept saying it over and over. Whether you agree that he should've been made to stop talking or not, once he's told to, the penalty for miming the same thing shouldn't be at all surprising.

Grunching a bit, so pardon if someone already posted this. For more from Kassouf about this hand (and a few future ones), check out last weekend's PokerCast: http://pokercast.twoplustwo.com/

I'm in the camp that says he did nothing to deserve a penalty in that hand. Maybe he was worse in other ones and the one-orbit slap was a culmination of all of it, but I tend to believe him when he says he is never insulting or abusive with his "speech play."

guy is good for poker televsion, that's not nec the same as being good for poker. if you ever get the chance to play with him in a live mtt, you will realize that his *speech plays -- even if you find them entertaining -- simply slow the game down as ****. and it gets way worse when the cameras are on. pretty sure a lot of the fans here would reconsider after playing with him instead of enjoying him in pre-cut tv pieces.

props to him still, some of these lines were funny. floor acted well.

OP lost all credibility when he calls it the quote of the century. Kassouf is definitely entertaining in short bursts, but that doesn't make him any less of a douche. I think I'd shoot myself if I had to sit next to him on an airplane and listen to him talk incessantly about nothing for hours.

If his talking was meant to tilt people, it's working

Will have to give watching the other stuff a try later ...

Nobody has a problem with a "little table talk" but he's so relentless about it he crosses the line here and there and it definitely slows the game down just to deal with it.

He keeps talking even when it's an obvious folding decision for him. Got to balance your annoying range I guess. I don't know why anyone talks back, b/c a few times he gave his hand away and he doesn't need to be prompted to do it.

He definitely is one of those guys who pushes as far as he can get away with because lawyers can't help themselves with that ever so you've got to come down on him. if I was TD no way in heck when I say "you talk that's another round penalty" like he did that kassouff doesn't get at least 2 rounds.

I can see why she was annoyed though, I would be too, I don't like that she got into the guy calling the clock either but everyone gotta stop judging people so harshly when there's an obvious stress factor + it's on TV (and we don't know if something was edited out). Many of you would act poorly too.

There's nothing wrong with what he says, it's just the amount of time he takes to say it all. Talkative stalling is still stalling.

Polarising figure, I personally like him. He's entertaining and made the main event watchable.

The fold with Queens was awful!! I can't believe she is blaming the his "taunting" on that is so lame. It might take 30 seconds to think that over, but you make that call.

As someone that didn't really care for all his antics before this hand, that hand and what he said was pure gold. She acted like an idiot and got all butt hurt because he out played and out talked her.

Back in the day when Effel was running the wsop circuit events I met him a few times. I thought he was a friendly likeable guy. Boy how times have changed. My wife and I tried to speak with him a couple of years ago at the RIO and he was very rude. Plus it is well known that he kisses the top pro's asses and plays favorites but doesn't give a crap about anybody else. He needs to go.

Haha, what a character. Good for him.

I've seen 2/4 limit tables with more life than that table. Just a bunch of nits arguing over rules. So this is tournament poker.