Tonight, ESPN finally got around to airing the final table of the Main Event at this year's World Series of Poker. For years now, I've been a bit perplexed as to why they drag it out so long (well, okay, ratings in theory) and why they wait to air it until so long after the fact. The final table actually took place almost two-and-a-half months ago.
So again, as usual, I've known for a while now who the ultimate winner was destined to be, and was watching on a week to week basis to see the how rather than the who. The who in this case being another amateur, Jerry Yang -- reinforcing the theory that the Main Event field of competition (over 6,000 this year) has grown too large for a pro player to ever be likely to overcome the combined luck of so many amateurs and win again.
This time, though, I have to say that the last few pros in the event gave it away. Almost to a man, every pro in the top 36 (the field on the penultimate day) copped an attitude at some point. They saw "some amateur" pushing at them, responded with a high and mighty "you can't push me around," and then ended up losing a big hand. And then they went on tilt and threw the rest of their chips away trying to undo the damage. It happened most notably to Scotty Nguyen, but also to a half dozen other lesser known professional players that had the winner's bracelet within their grasp.
Sure, this year's winner got stupidly lucky at the right times, like Jamie Gold and Chris Moneymaker in other recent years. But where I'd say luck was almost the only factor in their wins, bad pro play contributed to the new champion Jerry Yang. Those two factors together gave Yang a big chip stack, and then he played reasonable (if not completely skilled) "big stack poker" and muscled his opponents into defeat.
It was a disappointing few hours of poker to watch.
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