This week on the Final Table radio show, I was in the Harrah’s St. Louis Poker Room while Dennis Phillips checked in from Las Vegas for a very full show.
With the World Championship Of Online Poker underway, we discussed whether online tournaments are getting harder to beat, as live tournaments are. We also talked about whether a recent trend in the structure of live tournaments — offering a lot of chips and a lot of play early on and extending smaller buy-in events to play out over two days — is really good for the players.
Then we dug into a controversial hand from last week’s ESPN broadcast of the World Series Of Poker Main Event involving poker pro Prahlad Friedman and amateur Ted Bort. In the hand, Bort called the clock on Friedman, who waited until the floorman counted down to 1 before saying “call.” But the floorman said it didn’t matter because Friedman’s hand was dead as soon as he said “one.” Other players protested and WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel has made some comments about the ruling that we found interesting. As you listen to the show, you’ll hear the audio of the hand, and can make up your own mind.
Next, we were joined by Joe Stapleton, co-host of the “Two Jacks In The Hole” podcast and analyst on “The Big Game,” the newest televised high-stakes cash game. Dennis and I have talked a lot about how much we like this show, so it was good to have Joe offer some insight into where his analysis comes from, why the format of “The Big Game” works so well, and when we can expect to see a fresh series of shows. Joe also joined in on our discussion of the 10 nominees for the Poker Hall of Fame and a clip of Barney Frank vs. Jay Leno over licensing and regulating online gambling.
Listen, then click here to subscribe to these podcasts via iTunes!
Follow us on Twitter: Dennis is here, Paul is here, Joe is here.