First Wsop Main Event
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2020 Written by Renee The 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event is currently taking place at GGPoker. The online poker site is playing host to the international leg of the event, which features three starting flights. Day 1A is already in the books, and two more will take place over the weekend. The First World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker continues to gain in popularity with each passing year thanks to the main event wins of Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer in 2003 and 2004. The history of the event, however, stretches back to 1970, the year when the first World Series of Poker.
Psychological Comfort at the WSOP
Professional poker player Amir Vahedi, who final tabled the main event in 2003, famously stated, “In order to live, you must be willing to die.” If you believe you will be unwilling to bet or even call all-in in marginal situations for fear of being eliminated, then it would probably be best if you did not play the tournament at all. That being said, however, no one wants to be eliminated after two hours or on the money bubble, especially if you are playing the tournament in part for the experience.
What I recommend, then, is that you do what you can to avoid close situations where you may have to put your tournament life at stake without sacrificing any meaningful edge. I’ll give you an example from my own tournament last year: blinds were still 25/50, and everyone at the table had roughly the 10,000 chips with which he started. Several players limped in, and an aggressive player raised to 350 from his button. I was in the big blind with a pair of Tens.
I felt that my opponent’s range could be relatively wide in this situation, as attacking limpers from the button is a favorite move of many aggressive players when stacks are deep, but also that it would certainly include all pocket pairs that dominated mine. Re-raising in this situation would be justifiable, but stacks were so deep that my opponent could probably even call my reraise with a somewhat wide range since he would be in position post-flop. This could result in my having to make a large continuation bet on a scary board and/or call a large bet that would often, but not often enough to warrant a fold, come from a hand that had me beat. In short, I did not trust myself to handle a decision like this well during the first hour of my very first WSOP main event.
I elected simply to call instead, inviting the limpers to call as well. Pocket Tens are a strong hand, and I was surely losing some value by not reraising them pre-flop. However, I felt I could gain this value back the times that I flopped a set. Given that I was likely to see a flop against several opponents, including one aggressive player who was at least representing a big hand, I felt I could win a fairly large pot the times that I flopped a set and get away cheaply otherwise. This was a lower variance line that made my hand much easier to play and avoided a potentially dangerous situation without sacrificing much if any expected value.
As we approached the money bubble, I found myself in a similar situation. The prize money for even the lowest pay-outs was $15,000, which would have been a tremendous boon to my bankroll. At the same time, however, I promised myself before I even began playing satellites to the main event that if I played, I was going to play to win, even if that meant an increased risk of winning nothing at all.
The chip leader at the table was very aggressive and throughout the day had shown a willingness to put people to decisions for all of their chips. He definitely had a good understanding of bubble dynamics and had been picking on some of the more scared players at our table. Prior to the bubble, I had played back at him a few times, so he knew that I knew what he was up to. I had about 42,000 chips at the 400/800 level, whereas he had well over 200,000. From middle position, he made his standard raise to 2500. The big blind was rather weak, and I felt the chip leader could raise him with a very wide range.
I, in the small blind, had a pair of 5’s. I contemplated a reraise, but felt my opponent was very capable of four-betting a wide enough range that I would actually have a difficult decision with my measly pocket pair. I then considered calling and playing for set value, as I had done earlier with the T’s, but this time it was likely to be a heads up pot against an opponent who had not shown very much strength so far. Thus, I was going to be bluffed off of the best hand often but not necessarily win a big pot if I did hit a set. Ultimately, I elected to fold, as I could not devise a profitable way to play what was likely to be the best hand.
The important thing here is that I folded pre-flop, giving up in equity what was at most a fraction of the antes and my opponent’s raise. I did not 3-bet and then reluctantly fold what may have been the best hand in a much larger pot, and I did not call planning to check-fold the 85% of flops that did not contain a 5, which would have cost me a large fraction of my bet. I did my best to avoid the rough spot altogether. It is also important to note that with a larger pair, say pocket 9’s, I would have played more aggressively and been willing to take the increased risk of elimination on the money bubble. With a better pair, folding pre-flop is simply sacrificing too much.
You may remember that for the first time in years, the 2020 WSOP Main Event did not play live on ESPN. Instead, ESPN chose to tape the final tables and heads-up finale for a later presentation. Earlier this week, it was announced that the WSOP on ESPN will be broadcast this Sunday, February 28th.
The broadcast will cover all of the highlights from the event but will have a unique feeling from prior years. Also, long-time broadcaster Norman Chad will not be part of the broadcast due to lingering complications from COVID-19.
2020 WSOP Main Event Broadcast Sunday on ESPN2
If you have been waiting to see coverage from the final tables and heads-up finale of the 2020 WSOP Main Event, your wait is about over. ESPN and the WSOP announced earlier this week that the 2020 World Series of Poker Main Event will broadcast Sunday, February 28th over on ESPN2. The broadcast will last for four hours and cover the International final table, the Domestic final table, and the heads-up finale.
According to WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart, “We could not be more excited to deliver poker fans new primetime content on ESPN. With compelling storylines and unpredictable action, these episodes remind us all why there was a poker boom in the first place.”
As you already know, Joseph Hebert won the domestic version of the Main Event while Damian Salas won the international leg. The pair met in Las Vegas earlier this year with Salas coming out on top for the bracelet and the $1 million added prize.
New Format – Minus Norman Chad
Like many things associated with 2020, the 2020 WSOP Main Event coverage from ESPN will be very different than years past. First, the show is going back to an edited broadcast only. That’s how the event was shown for many years until poker live streaming became popular.
The four-hour broadcast will feature highlights from both final tables and likely will feature a good chunk of the heads-up battle between Salas and Hebert. Lon McEachern will return to broadcast the Main Event, but he will have a new partner.
For the first time since 2003, Norman Chad will not be joining McEachern. Instead, female pro player and broadcaster Jamie Kerstetter will be joining McEachern.
McEachern quickly took to Twitter to dispel any potential rumors about Chad’s departure from the team. There’s no conspiracy at work. Instead, Chad is still recovering from health issues that stemmed from his bout with COVID-19.
I would like to let our poker friends know that our colleague and pal @NormanChad is still recovering from some long-haul COVID-19 health issues thus preventing him from working on the upcoming @WSOP Main Event shows. We all wish him a full and healthy recovery.
Wsop Main Event Satellite Schedule
— Lon McEachern (@lonmceachern) February 25, 2021
Despite Chad’s departure, fans can still look forward to some fantastic action. According to ESPN Senior VP of Programming & Acquisitions Tim Bunnell, “We are ecstatic that even in an unprecedented year, we can give our audience another fantastic World Series of Poker event to look forward to. The format may be different, but the action remains captivating.”
Expect Low Ratings for the Broadcast
First, I am very happy to hear that we will get to see an edited version of the Main Event. I’ve never been the biggest fan of live final tables and preferred the shorter broadcasts from before the streaming era. While this will be four hours, it will be four hours split up over three separate events.
I do look forward to seeing how the team of McEachern and Kerstetter work together. This is a big moment for Kerstetter in her broadcasting career and it could help propel her to greater things. With that said, I still believe that this event will be the lowest-rated Main Event final ever.
Wsop 2020 Main Event Schedule
The outcome is already known, and the broadcast is being done over on ESPN2 instead of the primary network. This will guarantee lower than average viewership. This is one time I hope that I’m wrong. If you’re a poker fan, head over to ESPN2 this Sunday and check out the Main Event broadcast.