Anyone who thinks Dyer is running like God clearly doesn’t remember what was going on with Cada, Blumstein, or Gold. Dyer is catching cards but he’s also getting plenty of junk hands and missed plenty of boards last night. He’s catching at slightly above the normal rate but it’s nothing astronomically insane as we’ve seen a few times before

Regarding Tony Miles......

I have been playing with Tony for years in C. Florida. He is amongst the most genuine regular players on the poker scene here, top three for sure. Pleasant, fun, honest. I guarantee that if you ask any regular player in the area they will say the same thing. So with that disclaimer/endorsement in mind, let me say this.

You know, people sign up for these tournaments and everybody jokes "See you at the final table!" chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. What they'll wear. How they'll act. Who they'll fly out to rail them. No one's serious. For the main, its a 9/7800 chance it will ever happen.

And then for 9 of the 7800, it does. And they finds themselves in that position after having focused intently for 6 days, 13 hours a day. Suddenly, the joking is real. They don't have press agents or crews to map out how they are going to act. What kind of personality they are going to cultivate to appeal to the broadest audience.

I am sure that there is a ton of nervous energy. And how exhausting it must be to balance playing poker on the biggest stage of the biggest tournament, on ESPN, with everyone watching. They have to play their A game in a setting where every decision could be worth millions. They know every thing they do is going to be second guessed. And on top of all of that, they are supposed to portray themselves so as to please everyone?

So Tony is chatting it up. Big deal. We all complain about the slowing influx of new players. This is on ESPN. Don't we as players want personality? Controversy? Imagine if we had a bunch of guys sitting there wordlessly placing bets out there. Then every 15 minutes or so, a comment and a shrug.

I don't think that would help our cause of generating more players into the game much, do you?

Will the final table read this thread this summer?

I'm using PIA and changed my location to a country where it's available.

EXACTLY! I dont want robotic, tanking, hoodie wearing d bags. Miles might not have a personality you like, but he has something 95% of poker players dont.....A PERSONALITY.

Its bad enough all the micro stakes trolls want to criticize peoples play on this site and run their mouth, now they want to talk trash on someones personality whose in a position youll probably in a million years never be. Give me Miles over a Joe McKeehan type any day.

Not many tax deductions? Less overhead? Immune to leeches?

To each his own but I'll take someone with no personality over someone with an affected one.

Has friends and family with jobs and responsibilities?

You would't feel the pressure to "perform" in some way? No desire to make it fun for everyone else, too? Come on. Sure you would. You might not do it the same way, but of course you would constantly be aware of the fact that millions of people are or will one day watch you.

yeah, I think that's modern strategy in tournies now. What I notice is that it's less than what is on the table preflop - i.e. 1.2 million in blinds and antes, and an open raise to 1 million. I guess your buying less chance you need for the raise to "get through" to be profitable, but you do let the BB in real cheap. (I don't play many tournies these days, so haven't really thought about it.)

I did hear Dyer's father and mother came in like day 7 and 8 - maybe he doesn't want the distraction of chatting with them during play.

If I was ever lucky enough to be playing for $8.8M then performing for others would be the least important thing on my mind.

People calling because it's cheap out of the big blind have forgotten about the concept of negative implied odds. Often calling the bb leads to a situation where you flop top pair/no kicker that is out kicked or a higher pair exists.

It’s okay if you play it smart. I will call with a suited weak Ace out of the BB but the bottom line is I’m only looking for the flush, two pair, or straight. If I have A-3 clubs and it comes down A-10-7 rainbow I’m probably folding to any bet from position or the initial raiser

They probably choked on airfare from IAH on short notice...for reasons unknown, it was sky-high this week. I had looked at flying out last night or early this morning (seniors event at Venetian) and even 'economy' was going to be $1150 non-stop ($1500ish in first class). So much for the notion of last minute travel...

For comparison, I could have flown out on Sunday or Monday (a few days from now) for something like $300 round-trip on the same airline and route).

definitely not

I'd just be myself, and I'd be annoyed playing with someone putting it on for the camera. His fun isn't my type of fun.

Then again I find Dyer, Cynn, Cada, Zobian all more likeable and we're all entitled to our opinions

Am rooting for

Cada
Miles
Cynn

All have good backstories and one of them winning would be good for poker imo.

Most likely though they're playing for 2nd vs. Dyer.

On short notice my rail would probably only be 3 people, my 2 good friends who also play poker and my brother. I imagine the larger rails for pros have a lot to do with their other pro "friends" who are already there, hence why the people like lynsky, cada etc.. have some bigger rails.

On the flip side, cost within the US should be manageable. I mean if i'm guaranteed $1 mirrion plus, i think i can cover 3k in airfare for my rail to come out to Vegas. But to each their own.

Id tell my rail to STFU if they were anything like last night.

these players arent playin for ur entertainment, they are playin for 8,8 million.

the likeability of of the winner does jackpoop for the future of poker.

if u want "good for poker" dont whine about the lack of hair products in dyers hair, go protest in front of sheldon adelsons mansions gates.

plus this slimy poker community of urs deserves nothin more than a dyer win and he taking the colman/mckeehen road of givin nothin back.

Has anyone caught any Youtube channels where the full stream got uploaded?

There always used to be videos which got uploaded shortly after they had aired, but can't seem to find anything this year (would like to watch tonights action when I get up tomorrow).

I relate to Dyer a lot. I love what he's doing and how he's handling things. Go Michael

What did he say?

I don’t see anything wrong with dance moves. I think the people from the rail are more annoying and do more to play it up for the cameras. Imagine losing a hand and having to listen to people screaming and chanting for another player. But even they aren’t doing anything wrong IMO.

I’m curious what the comments would look like if Chino Rheem was at this table.

I can't stand the gallery. Those drunk idiots wearing hats earlier in the night were just there to be disruptive. It's real simple. Make a rule that there is no chanting or cheering while a hand is in progress. It's ridiculous that while a player is trying to make a decision that he has to listen to people in the stands who are only there to get TV time by seeing how obnoxious they can be.