People who were around the Moneymaker year get nostalgic about Lon and Norm but they absolutely suck. And the more you listen to them the worst they are. I know I'm supposed to pretend they're great poker boom blah blah blah but they are awful and have always been awful.

Nick Schulman is amazing.

Lon and Norm edited WSOP shows are great. Schulman and Rast live commentating is amazing.

Matt Kiefer still in this main too. Was wearing the Shawn Kemp Sonics jersey yesterday. He was on Solve 4 Why podcast a few months ago. Working on the Doyle documentary. Has some funny YouTube videos:

Aaah, good catch. Yeah, that's probably it.

Hell, we all know many people who have done very well for themselves with some timely investments. They might not have done so well that they can just give away thousands to strangers, but definitely well enough that they hold jobs that don't otherwise pay all that well. You look at what they do, then you see where they live, and it would make you go "hmmmm" if you didn't know that they got in on Intel in the early 1990s or whatever.

When it comes to Bitcoin, we have seen this same phenomenon but exaggerated by a massive order of magnitude.

EDIT: That Johnnie Vibes video is gold.

EDIT: No wait, they're all gold.

They're awful edited and ten times worse live.
They absolutely hit the lottery that year getting hired right as poker blew up. Perfect storm for them.

This is definitely each to his own. I like the live, especially late night when just chilling.

lol "went on a tirade"

within 10 mins had made a second post that i was dead wrong

but carry on carrying Lon's water like the white knight that you are

We all appreciate the post indicating you were wrong but it should have been followed by a timeout in the corner for at least a few days of coverage imo

But you were using it as the final evidence to “Get him out NOW” as you put it. That’s at least some violent fist shaking, borderline tirade

Then this latest one “he said he had to cross the street!” when in fact he did just that.

Just in here keeping it real actually. He is not a HOF announcer but he was part of a commenting team important enough to history of the game to be nominated to HOF. So calling out minutia especially when it is wrong will be called out by Scotch

Going through the remaining names as someone who has been basically not following tourney poker closely for the last 2-3 years, here were the names I recognized:

John Duthie
Sam Stein
Maurice Hawkins
Hilton Laborda
Daniel Weinman
Alec Torelli
Hunter Frey
Christian Harder
Andrey Pateychuk
Toby Lewis
Mark Teltscher
John Racener
Amit Makhija
Nate Silver
Tony Dunst

How unfortunate if Maurice Hawkins or Alec Torelli wins the main.

Funny, I have a morbid desire for Hawkins to finish exactly 10th. He bubbles the FT and loses out on the attention that receives, but also wins enough money for his creditors to improve their chances of getting paid.

LOL at his creditors getting paid! Ain't never happening.

+1

His backers for the main will be lucky if they get paid

Anyone know what Luther’s bust out hand was? Sometimes the PokerNews coverage seems really terrible…they just list her as out without any mention of how or when it happened.

Agree 100%! The last two days I've been watching some serious poker being played by some very good players. I think the fields for these events and especially this one are better than ever. This calls for good commentary by competent people, i.e. Nick and Ali, who are able to give us excellent insights into what players may be thinking and what options they have. They are by far the best commentary team in the poker universe and they belong in there at the Main Event. As for the Lon and Norm comedy show, good riddance is all I can say. They do not do justice to the action taking place before them. I dread the thought of them working/demeaning the final table, when all the chips and money are on the line. Please, please, please NO!

Lon and Norm were good for what they were at the time, they were solid announcers during the boom and did good connecting with the casual viewer

Being as how the casual viewer doesn’t exist anymore, Espn isn’t syndicating wsop events and it’s all livestreams that the casual Espn viewer isn’t watching, they are indisputably not the right people for the job

AK<AQ when a queen hit on the turn

Maurice Hawkins gonna have a nice wsop me payday.
He'll probably use the money to pay off some of his old debts.
The rest of them will have to wait.

Not many fun sweats left, but that just means new players have a chance to make a name for themselves.

One name I recognize is Ivan Ruban, who is a regular in events at Wynn and Venetian throughout the year.

He has won a number of single-day Venetian events this year and probably has more live MTT experience than most of the remaining field.

set over set for silver was pretty sick. He could have generated some mainstream attention if he made the FT

Arieh in 1st of 4 in $25K HORSE. He seems to do really well in mixed games and PLO high rollers. Seems like a really strong player. He was a top finisher in the ME way back.

Who else remain?

Josh Arieh hof bound with a win.

Well, with Luther and Silver out, there’s really not much left to root for in the Main. Very disappointing.