WSOP Main Event 2015 Final Table

What a great Main Event coverage to watch this year. I really enjoyed so I am going to give you my analysis and view on the main and event final table.

This is what I dream of, Playing the main event and winning it ! I believe that dream will come true one day. If there is any tournament I want to win it is this one. I'm a big fan of poker as well as being a player. I love watching high stakes poker and the wsop main event. Poker has taking a decline in the last few years due to 5 main reasons that stick out to me

1) Online poker is illegal in America
2) The game is too serious
3) The games are tougher
4) TV shows have went in a wrong direction
5) Too much information out there to get good quick

So in a nutshell poker has actually went backwards and it suits people like me still who love the game but it doesn't suit Grandpa Tim who wants to watch the amateur win the main event. Even me who loves poker would much rather watch the stories and the drama than how many big blinds a player have. Anyway more on that later

So Joe McKeehen has won it and I won a bet ! Go me ! so here is my view on how each player played the Final Table

Joe McKeehen - He played small ball poker and basically ran the table. Nobody got in his way, yes he was hitting hands but he still played a great game. I actually think he'll have a few more big wins over the next few years, really impressed.

Josh Beckley - For me he played well until it got short handed. The JJ fold was good I thought, I mean it's a tough laydown. The problem with Josh is he let Joe play the game he wanted to play. Josh should have been making big raises and really putting Joe to the test. Still overall a very good player though.

Neil Blumenfield - Neil has a lot of guts and hearts and made for great TV play. He was three betting very light and I think he improved a lot, His problem was post flop. I actually think he played great the first night but short handed he seemed to get tight which was a mistake. I think he struggled post flop against Joe and he would have been much better being more aggressive like we had seen from him.

Max Steinberg - What a stud this guy is haha ! I like his mindset of wearing suits. If I was played live I wouldn't wear suits but I'd wear a nice shirt and jeans as more comfy for long periods of time but I'd have them set for each day, it's a good mentality imo. Max didn't play too good, he played far too tight and I actually his AJ fold was terrible in position.

Ofer Zvi Stern - He's far too erratic for me. He puts himself in a lot of spots he doesn't have, the one thing I like about him though his he always makes his opponent have to actually make a decision. His all in was pretty poor though, he could have min raised there.

Tom Cannuli - Tom impressed me throughout the tourney and I actually think he maybe played slightly tight at the final table but he got very unlucky with pocket Aces.

Pierre Neuville - He actually played a very good game and he made a lot of correct decisions, he just got very unlucky but it's good to see a 72 year old still playing with the big boys.

Federico Butteroni - Love this guy ! He played okay but I felt he could have been a bit more loose and maybe pushed a bit earlier.

Patrick Chan - Not much to comment on his final table as only 2 hands in, with his stack size and knowing how lost Joe is playing on the button I actually think it was the correct move calling with KQ. He had to double up pretty soon so if he doubled there he would have had a shot with some chips

ESPN actually done a much better job this year in regards to coverage. They made it more about drama and the stories, I still think they can even make it more on that though. I'd love to see another amateur win it or a female. They should also make Day 1's and Day 2's TV coverage again. That was fun.

Three players I'd have liked to see make the final table

1) Daniel Negreanu - Poker ambassador and he's a great friendly guy who is the all time money leading player. This would have been great if he made it, it wasn't to be though but a great showing from Daniel. He's my favourite player.

Jason Schwartz - This guy is actually a really good player but what makes him great for TV is he's an asshole. I don't mean that to berate the guy, he's had a lot of troubles in the past from what I have heard, he's almost breaks the rules a lot of times like trash talking during hands, calling clocks early and when he busted he didn't do handshakes, was fun to watch. I'm a friendly talkative guy at the tables, I personally think I'd be good for TV tables but this guy is the opposite way but he's very good. Shame he busted to a cooler.

Kelly Minkin - Hot ! Hot ! Hot ! Okay she's a very attractive female lawyer who can play poker. I'll need to watch it back again but I'm pretty sure she made 2 key mistakes before she busted. This would have been great for poker though if she made the final table, even better if she won

So sad to see it's over and I actually had a week off from poker last week so it was refreshing watching the final table, made me want to play a tourney, so played a couple last night but busted ! Poker commentary was great too and I would love to go to Vegas and play at WSOP. I have played a sat before but no event or main event yet, soon though
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Pokerstars are making some changes very soon so here's the changes and my view on them.

1) Rake at higher limits will either be non existent or very few
2) Hud's could be banned or are being restricted
3) FPP's are getting exchanged for Value Coins

So personally it suits me as I play micro stakes and it means I will actually probably make more value coins as it helps Chromestar players, but it's not about me it's about the whole poker community. Are these changes good for poker ? Absolutely yes !

The majority of players who play this game play as a hobby and something they do in their spare time and have fun. So why would we not make this experience fun for these players ?

The FPP's are a great thing, I mean the high stakes players don't realise that it prevents them from making profit from actually just being a break even player who makes money through rake back. It actually forces them to have to become better if they want to survive. That is healthy competiton. At the top level too many players bum hunt extremely and hardly play against each other, now table selection is important but if hardly any games are running I think you just have to man up and played against top players. It's like Messi in football., If he was playing in a low pro division he would look a standout cause he is playing against weaker players as oppose to himself. Now he plays with Barca and is still a stand out, maybe not scoring 10 goals every game but my point is the higher the limit you play, the better the players will be, ideally weaker players make you profit but if weaker players aren't at that level then I don't think it's a problem to play to play against top players and learn from them.

I'm looking forward to what this brings to Pokerstars, just looking at the latest promotions I actually think it's a step in the right direction. Hopefully America will be back online soon again too.
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So apart from some poker studying and playing I've just been chilling this weekend. The next month will be poker and I might be going out next week to a club, haven't done that in awhile. Looking forward to Christmas coming. I love the whole build up to it, great times !