Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Televised Gambling

So I semi-accidentally got sucked into watching the pseudo-live final table for the World Series of Poker last night. Basically, I knew it was on, and probably wouldn't have watched it, but there was a lack of anything else on, and once I started in I was transfixed and couldn't shut it off.

I had a few problems with it:

1) I fucking HATE Phil Ivey. It dates back to 2005, Las Vegas, Spearmint Rhino. When he was too good to "let us" talk to him in the VIP area. He big timed us. He is a C or D list celebrity at best. He is essentially less famous than a reality show star, but has some skills at playing poker. 99.9% of America would not recognize him on the street. I'm not at all disputing that he is a really good poker player. But my impression of him 4 years ago is that he is a dick.

He was at the final table and took 7th. He only won $1.4 million for his troubles.

2) There were approximately 2,000 spectators, that very likely paid money to watch people play poker from 300 feet away. Poker is pretty fucking boring if you are AT the table. These people couldn't see any of the hold cards like we can at home, so they were watching people make bets only knowing half the hand. And people were going nuts. It was weird to watch.

Some cockhead 21 year old from Michigan with a large cheering contingent won. He got $.84 million dollars. For playing poker.

2 comments:

Seymour said...

I heard he had a backer so he split his winnings, so now he can't quit his day job... i should have pissed on Ivey's McClaren that night, I mean who drives a 250k car to a titty bar

Juicelaw said...

Phil Ivey. Thats who.