As you can see, I have very few posts for having joined 2p2 about 10 years ago.

Lon and Norm seem like a good team when you see the final broadcast - everything read perfectly, re-recorded with 50 takes until they get it right and are told what they hands are - to Lon - by someone who knows poker.

With the recent ousting of Schulman, we are stuck with Lon, Norm and whichever token female they bring in to commentate, and inevitably correct Lon.

Lon Mcghfjdtj is the worst poker commentator I have ever seen, bar none. Not only does he REFUSE to discuss the action, when he does, he simply cannot read the board.

I cannot stand this guy, he is horrible for watching. His old man act is so tired. I don't know who he appeals to.

Norm, on the other hand, seems cogent, but is weighed down by Lon. Norm actually seems to want to talk poker, but Lon, like a bad influence, just chats with Norm about anything BUT poker.

I hate Lon, he is worse than DNegs and anyone in this community. Imagine a baseball sportscaster getting the plays wrong... ALL the time.

Awful. I can't say enough negative about Lon.

shoulda brought in the sklar bros 10 year ago

What happened to having Busquet in the booth?

The other guy is worse, talks like everything he says is a question? very weird

Lon appeals to the average American who works a full-time job and plays poker for fun.

Lon does not appeal to snobby poker pros. But those guys will complain on forums and watch anyway.

**** the haters, Lon and Norm both do excellent jobs.

Maybe pull a Ron Burgundy and slip him a notecard on-air reading “Don’t watch the Main Event for poker guidance”?

I think even a non-snobby fan would like a higher percentage of accurate information. It would be like a baseball announcer repeatedly getting the score or count wrong, or suggesting that a batter might be thinking of a sacrifice bunt with nobody on or two outs.

This.

I’m a poker snob and yet still enjoy both Lon and Norm. I’m biased, though: Norm stopped by my table last year to introduce himself to me.

How can anyone complain about Lon broadcasting the Main Event on ESPN? He is a legendary broadcaster who has been the Voice of the WSOP for twenty years. We are lucky to have him and everything he brings to the telecast.

They are both great. You nits that want every hand explained are idiots. Norm has a very good sense of the game but plays the clown . How boring your life must be if you need hand ranges and blockers explained to you on every deal.

that’s a serious brag. in my fantasy of winning the M.E. i deny all media access except to one norman chad for a tell-all brunch the following day with my posse sitting a table over.

Back in the old days the Espn coverage of the WSOP was a finely edited highlight fest. It made the game of poker seem very exciting and sucked in a lot of wannabes who saw a bunch of nobody's become famous and rich overnight.

Now with live action continuous coverage we see real poker. Long stretches of unknown players tanking for an eternity on hands that they know they are going to fold. We also get to listen to these unknown players continually asking for a waitress and often making small talk we care nothing about.

Lon and Norm seem out of their element in live action poker with its long stretches of dead tanking time. But this type of action would seem tough for most announcers.

The things I mentioned above are some of the reasons I prefer to watch the big buy-in tournaments (25,000 and over) that use a time clock.

I will make an exception though for the final table. I am able to put up with the tanking because there is so much at stake. But for me, day 6 and 7 of the WSOP is not that interesting to watch because of the slow, mostly predictable play.

All the people supporting Lon have most likely not watched the long hours when he does live coverage. He is perfectly fine during taped coverage when he can cover the highlights, play off of Norm's jokes and react to the big hands.

The OP is right though, he really seems to have a disdain for analyzing poker hands. He talks over Jamie or whoever else is in the booth when they make a critique, asks the most irrelevant questions imaginable the few times he cares enough about the poker, and really the biggest problem is that he seems to want to talk about absolutely anything else but poker.

Seems like a simple solution is to have Tuck or Ali in the booth during live coverage, where it really is a grind to call all of the action, and bring him in for the final table coverage and if they do highlight episodes of earlier action as a voiceover guy.

That wink sure made me laugh.

Agreed that Lon has a great voice which works for pre-recorded stuff but live commentary is not his forte.

How would Gabe Kaplan do live?

I think it's more of a production issue - if Lon would just handle the high level general stuff and let the analyst takeover when a hand starts, it would be much better. He insists on trying to show off his minimal poker knowledge.

Lon must stay. Lon, Norm, and hell, Mike and VvP, are all Hall of Fame poker broadcasters who paint a picture of the story of the tournament that draws in average viewers. Moreover , Lon reinforces the strategic thinking of FISH. And it gets FISH interested in trying the game. Or trying it again. Replace Lon with a hardcore poker analyst, and fish get scared away. There are places for top level poker analysis, but don’t tap the glass too much in the WSOP Main Event. Please.

Lon and Norm seem much more professional when they don't work together. I say keep them both but with different partners.

I have to also agree with the OP here.

I haven't posted in a long time, but the constant below par live announcing of Lon has compelled me to respond.

I don't expect him to be able to be some great analyzer of hands. But I at least expect him to pay attention, call the cards correctly, and not have to be constantly corrected by his co hosts. And that's when he can be bothered to talk about the action at all.

This has gone on for years now.

+1

Lon brought us M.A.S.H.

He is a national treasure who can do no wrong.

Ban OP

Everyone commentating for the WSOP has made many mistakes, along with all commentators who are poker players being illiterate on TV.

Give the poor guy a chance. He's only been doing this for twenty years and he does get almost half the calls right. He may occasionally call a spade a heart and say top pair when it's actually two pair, but very often he's right when he tells us who won the hand! After the pot has been pushed off course. What I like best is when he talks over the players when they are engaging in useless banter about the hand in play. Who wants to hear what a bunch of dumb poker players are saying when you can get an expert opinion on what everyone is wearing.

He and Norm make a great team as well, trading barbs back and forth while unimportant hands are being played. I mean all this poker does get boring and we need more humor to get us through the dull parts, and they certainly provide that. After all we can see what's happening so why do they need to describe it as well. Two thumbs up for some great commentary about everything but poker.

I hate it when Jamie tries to butt in and talk about strategy and how players are trying to fool each other. Thank God they drown her out and interrupt her immediately. Who does she think she is, injecting her opinion into their show! In fact, we don't even need anyone playing poker at all. We can just listen to Norm and Lon carry on for our entertainment. We could call it the World Series of Nothing!