His commentary is by far the greatest i have ever heard. It helps that tuchman is there setting him up questions you actually wanna hear the answers too. Great team. I must say listenin to his analysis is the main reason i have tuned in every day.

great commentary

also dropping in to +1 to what a great guy he is

during the 2500 6m this summer a new player had moved to my table about an hour before dinner. he had mentioned in passing to the dealer that that he was headed back to aria during dinner break. being the value hunter I am, I proposed we split a cab as I was staying across the street from planet hollywood and it would be a very short walk (i split cabs with randoms multiple times this summer). he said he was leaving about a minute early to beat the rush out. I told him I needed to grab my roommate. I grabbed my roommate and ran to the cabs, and he was still there waiting

at the time I didn't have a clue who it was. I introduced myself, and asked what his name was, and he introduced himself as olivier. LIVB? sick! during the cab ride back towards aria we discussed a few hands at the table, i asked him a strategy spot, and he gave me some of the best hand analysis I had heard. despite knowing we'd be at the same table after dinner, he was as genuine and giving with his poker knowledge as a poker player could be. you'd have thought i was paying him for coaching during the cab ride.

he was really humble, very attentive, and for as sick as he is at poker, he had higher priorities in life. he told me he was leaving mid-series, which is something i would never consider (and his EV is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay higher than mine)

best part of the trip is when he says to the cab driver: excuse me sir, I do believe you've driven me before. which the cab driver confirmed with a smile. we hopped off at aria and parted ways until after dinner. he insisted on paying the full cab fare and refused to take any money.

our table broke shortly after dinner, but during day 2 he approached me and asked how I was doing.

olivier is pure class, consider me a fanboy

hope he becomes a much bigger force within the poker community, and we get to see more of him/hear more of his commentary. you made a very wise choice espn

keep up the good work!

When your salary isn't directly tied to what you say and the depth in which you say it as it relates to your own game? No one gives a **** if some retired pitcher gives a ridiculous explanation for why he knows a certain pitch is coming; he's being asked for his past achievements which have no bearing on the current commentary. Most guys in that spot have a fixed salary to comment or a prepaid amount for an interview. That person is also retired from the MLB where he doesn't have to concern himself with going back and people knowing 'too much' about him, his team or his game. Your analogy really isn't even in the same realm here.

As someone else mentioned in a different thread though, now more than ever we need people to understand that we have legitimate concerns for the illegitimate actions taken against the online poker community. Part of that is recognizing that poker has an element of skill to it, and livb's commentary helps strengthen that argument, even when the average joe probably won't take much away from what he says.

Can't believe no one has posted this yet... Impossible is nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3R7byTRao

Love his commentary as well, makes me happy to hear he's a nice guy irl too

I remember how disgusted he looked on PAD, when he ran terribad.

Felt very sorry for him, great guy!

iirc he took it extremely well.

He's awesome obviously but I don't see ESPN making him their color guy since every other color guy they hire a clown. There's a reason the NFL color commentator doesn't really go into much thought process and explaining various defenses + offensive plays and why they're run in situations etc.

No it's almost always results oriented reactionary stuff. Their GM's for analysis on SC are usually the answer to the question of "who's the worst one in the last 10 years that's available?"

Yeah, I'm rooting for Olivier over Hellmuth for all of these telecasts in the future but it feels like just a dream.

He has my vote to be the color commentator in November.

I hope ESPN is listening.

+1 million

Please make it happen ESPN.

No chance, although they could certainly use him as a consultant.

so you call the shots for espn too? wow dude your a boss

His commentary was the best I've heard hope he comes back for Nov 9.

No moron, I mean ESPN would never do something that intelligent, and Norman Chad is pretty well entrenched in the role anyway.

I'm not a boss, but I DO know the difference between "your" and "you're", which is more than I can say for you.

IMo he really knows how to explain in dept poker straigy well

he should get a job with espn

I think I will have the opportunity to interview him on a podcast sometime soon.
So, If you had an opportunity to ask him one question what would it be?

Thanks,
222

Even if he doesnt get long term work with espn (he'll get work in commentating somewhere IMO) he probably has Made himself a ****load in coaching revenue opportunities at least.

Damn i missed the espn thing (?), he is sick.

He was live commentating for 5-6 days (?) and ye it was pure gold.

I'm in love w O B. If people out there were smart enough, his 6-8 hours of work during the broadcast would put every single poker coach out of business. There's very little to add regarding tournament strategy to what he explained.

He has the very rare ability of analyzing complex situations in a way that a newcomer with 2 brain cells could understand, and at the same be specific enough to impress advanced players.

Complete and helpless man crush me has...

Olivier is a gentleman and a scholar.

Pretty sure his commentary the past few days, combined with how good a lot of the play has been, just took my tournament game up a notch. Like a mini coaching session, really awesome. And to be fair, Tuchman started off as kind of annoying, but ended up as a really good side man.

I expected Hellmuth to be awful and he was, but I have to say I was shocked at how bad Lon was, they should've had Norm instead, at least the guy plays poker and would've been able to read the board...

I think Norm for entertainment/calling the action and LivB for analysis would be a pretty good compromise for future WSOP tv.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for all the really nice things you guys have said. I have wanted to get an opportunity to do commentating for a little while and was extremely lucky to get this chance during the WSOP for ESPN. It means a lot that people have responded so positively and I genuinely appreciate all the support I've received. I plan on doing more commentating if I get more opportunities.

I've gotten a lot of emails to my website about coaching but I've never felt comfortable charging people to teach them and I don't have any plans at the moment to do any coaching. I do have plans though, when online poker comes back to the US, to pair up with a site and have a competition, the winner of which I will mentor - for free....I'm also glad people liked my blog about going to school, I think it's really important for young people to consider that option seriously.

Thanks again.

Olivier