Mean Gene

Some WSOP Comments

I haven't seen the first episodes of the 2006 Main Event yet (probably will tonight), but I'm watching tonight's episodes and have a few observations:

I can't explain why I was so saddened to hear that Cecilia and Carlos Mortensen split up. I mean, I actually said, "Ohhh..." aloud. I was happy to see her knock out Lennox Lewis, who seems a smashing bloke. Literally as well as figuratively.

Robert Williamson III's line about Phil Ivey, "He's got this...owl thing going on" moves to the top of the list of the Funniest Poker Lines of the year.

Kudos to Joe Sebok for not committing suicide before putting on the Wonder Woman costume. I mean, Robin and Spiderman, OK. And the bear, no biggie. But if I saw the Wonder Woman threads lying on the bed, waiting for me to put them on, and there was a sharp knife in the drawer...

Joe Hachem caught some cards, did he not? The quads deuces at the end was pretty sick. And people say televised poker isn't fixed.

Would you rather spend the day sitting next to Mike Matusow or Allyn Jaffrey Shulman? I don't know if she's always that chatty, or if the cameras spurred her on, but I found myself gazing at the MUTE button often during the episode. I find it outrageous that saying "fuck" gets you a ten-minute penalty, but she was allowed to make that ghastly "bzzzzzzz" noise without repercussions.

There is a right way and a wrong way to play the Hammer. The way the cowboy dude played it is about as wrong as it gets, without actually calling all-in preflop.

Nice little piece on Negreanu and the boy who was burned in the accident. Interesting the way Negreanu runs the table, gets people taking to him, giving away info, yet everyone is laughing and having a good time. As opposed to someone like Hellmuth, who whines and pops off about play he doesn't agree with.

"Maybe they're selling chips in the Harrah's gift shop!" says Norman Chad. In lieu of the 2.2 million extra chips that ended up sitting at the Final Table, maybe that's a line that should've ended on the cutting room floor.

If someone sucks out on you on the river, as Shirley Williams did, and that person starts crying, as Shirley Williams did, that person should get...what? A thirty-minute penalty? An hour?

Richard Brodie. All the money. All the women. All the cars.

"I run with the bulls...online." Norman Chad gives us a good line!

I don't know how I feel about ESPN broadcasting the Main Event first. Actually, I think I feel it's not a good idea. I fear that the other events will all seem like anticlimax. Why that should worry me at all is a very good question, one I don't have an answer to. I mean, I'm going to watch the other events. What do I care if other people find the other events anticlimatic? Screw 'em.

My friends have no doubt been waiting for me to finish my post about our lake trip a few weeks ago, the one where I got MY KINGS CRACKED BY A PRETEEN. I'll finish it tomorrow. As you might imagine, it's been difficult to relive that hand. I've got beer chilling in the fridge, I'll just get drunk first thing tomorrow morning and crank it out.

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