Our WSOP Cast of Characters got another nice chunk of airtime in this
penultimate week of new WSOP Main Event episodes on ESPN. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Party qualifier and Altoid aficionado Richard Wyrick (right) made the broadcast!
How did our motley crew of poker personalities damage (or repair) their images this week? Let's take a look.
Leif Force: A-
Leif Force was raised as a nudist in the woods! He lived in a treehouse! And he's "never had more than a couple thousand dollars" to his name! Well that explains a lot. Especially why he was borrowing cab fare from a couple of the ESPN sound guys at the end of Day 5. Whatever. I adore him. A star is born. Vive la Leif!
Prahlad Friedman: D
I spoke way too soon about the end of Friedman's ESPN rap career. In one of the most bizzare, cringe-inducing moments in televised poker history, Friedman, who clearly didn't learn from his humiliating debut last year, broke out in yet another freestyle rhyme for the cameras. For your reading pleasure (and mine), here is the text in its entriety:
Poker is fun. For everyone. Except my opponents. They shoulda practiced avoidance. They aint big proponents in thinking not just in the moment, but the possible future problems sometimes comes tough to solve them. Then I go wake into a dream I fell asleep it's Spirit Rock 15 seconds with Aces before they drop... before THEY drop. Poker is fun. For everyone. Except my opponents. They shoulda pracitced avoidance.
Prahlad's invite to Hip-Hop Hold’em must have been mysteriously misplaced.
Also worth a mention is MC Prahlad's perfect read on Jamie Gold's hand in that hand where Friedman held 7-7 and Gold K-10 on an ace-high board. If only he could have mustered the intestinal fortitude to act on it...
Jamie Gold: C-
Last week I pointed out that there were three contributing factors to Jamie Gold's Main Event victory: (1) he caught a lot of cards, (2) he knows how to execute a well-timed bluff, and (3) he knows how to sell his opponent on a hand. This week, it was all about #1.
There were the two straights he flopped and the straight flush he turned. There were the trip sixes he flopped in a multi-way pot with K-6. There was the K-K he picked up against shortstack William Thorsson's J-J, and the J he spiked against to make a better two pair against Luke Chung's all-in with aces up. Jamie Gold got uber-lucky on the final three tables.
But then there was the table talk. And holy shit was there a lot of it. It should probably stand on its own as a contributing factor to his victory:
(4) Jamie Gold almost always told the truth about his hands to his opponents and it completely scrambled their brains.
Sometimes Gold’s chatter seemed well-meaning, like his comment to David Einhorn,(“I’ve got a hand. Your money is going to charity. Don’t waste it... let me take this down.”) but there were a number of incidents where Gold's prattling went way over the line. Like the "oh I thought you said 'top-top!'" hand with the dude Gold knew from his home casino, the Commerce (hello, collusion?). And the time when he announced that he was calling Prahlad Friedman's push with several players still to act behind him. I'm not the rules master Poker Shrink is, but shouldn't there be a penalty for that?
While Gold got off to a TV-friendly start last week, I don't think he did his image too many favors in this installment.
Onto the final table...
(All photos by the lovely Jennifer Browning.)
