Old School WSOP on now - ESPN Classic

[Kevmath]

Starting with the 1993 WSOP going thru 1998 (with the 1996 US Poker Championships replacing the 1996 WSOP). The 1996 USPC features classic Hellmuth moments, so fire up the Tivo.

[Bartman387]

why aren't they showing the '96 WSOP??

[Kevmath]

From Conjelco's coverage of the event back in 1996: [ QUOTE ]
I did not see any celebrity announcer, nor did I see any ESPN cameras, or any other network that I recognized. Lots of cameras though.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Photoc]

Watching the 94 WSOP and damn this is wierd without hole cards. Water bottles on the table and a guy eating a hamburger! lol

[handsome]

I love this kind of stuff.

Wow, poker commentary sure has come a long way.

[handsome]

Wow.. anyone else see that guy Cusack stall so Phil could go take a pee break?

[ QUOTE ]
Wow, poker commentary sure has come a long way.

[/ QUOTE ]

"they must both have picture cards" is about the most in-depth, expert poker commentary I have ever heard.

[ClaytonN]

/images/graemlins/heart.gif

Actually, I been watching these things all night while 2 tabling most of the night, and every time I turned my head to watch it, I think that the commentators normally did quite a decent job with the lack of knowledge of seeing hold cards. I think Gabe Kapelan and PhilHellmuth in the one did decent jobs commentating. I'm guessing the one that's on right now is the one in which Scotty Winn wins his title.

[Photoc]

I've enjoyed hearing Gabe and Phil do commentary and speculating on what the players might have and explaining what they believe the players are thinking and so on.

[Bartman387]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually, I been watching these things all night while 2 tabling most of the night, and every time I turned my head to watch it, I think that the commentators normally did quite a decent job with the lack of knowledge of seeing hold cards.

[/ QUOTE ]
OK, you obviously didn't hear Dick Van Pattens commentary in 1993, 1994, 1995.

"Oh my goodness, he must have two picture cards!"

[TheHip41]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Actually, I been watching these things all night while 2 tabling most of the night, and every time I turned my head to watch it, I think that the commentators normally did quite a decent job with the lack of knowledge of seeing hold cards.

[/ QUOTE ]
OK, you obviously didn't hear Dick Van Pattens commentary in 1993, 1994, 1995.

"Oh my goodness, he must have two picture cards!"

[/ QUOTE ]

This guy thinks someone flops the nuts everytime heads up just because someone bet. That "kryptonite" shirt guy bets a board of KT76, and DVP is like, ooo, might be 89, then Harrington raises and DVP is like, oooo, HE has the straight.

[KramerTM]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow.. anyone else see that guy Cusack stall so Phil could go take a pee break?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really thought as soon as Phil left, there were going to resume play again at twice the speed. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MicroBob]

yeah.
DVP's comments are just plain weird.

But there was a super-duper weak-tight style of play that was en vogue I believe in the pre-holecam era.
just a hunch...I only started playing a few months before the Moneymaker boom. But it's obvious from some of the comments.


there was one episode (not sure if it was shown last night) where DVP is sure one of the guys has a full-house but he has to be concerned because the other guy might have quads (or something ridiculous like that).


I would LOOOOOOVE to play DVP at a short-handed table.
Can you imagine the number of hands you could push him off of?
although I am guessing he has learned to be more aggressive in the hole-cam era. Does DVP even play anymore?
Even Mike Sexton has said that watching all these pros play so aggressively has really helped his game.

[MicroBob]

I remember seeing part of the Stu Ungar one a few years ago (when it first aired evidently).

I didn't know how to play poker...didn't know what a flop was....didn't know why one guy had beat the other guy.
It really didn't make much sense to me.
I also wasn't sure whether a bet of 'half-a-million dollars' was a bet of REAL money or not.

I was pretty sure that it was (everyone buys-in for $10k and is sitting there playing with real money).

FWIW - I have known a few people who have had this same point of confusion in the past couple years when asking me about some poker thing they saw on TV (either WPT or WSOP).
In fact, a couple people have even insisted that when they bet 'half-a-million' dollars that it really is REAL money because the announcer said something about being able to buy a nice house with that much money and here is just betting it all into one pot!! (like Mike Sexton used to do A LOT).

Next weekend(11am on Sunday I believe), they are supposed to show the 2001 WSOP. I hope so. That table has Carlos Mortensen, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Mike Matusow and Dewey Tomko.

They were supposed to show it a few months back, but showed the 2002 event instead. I hope the listing is correct this time because that is the one final table I really want to see.

[Kevmath]

ESPN didn't film the 2001 WSOP, Discovery Channel did. ESPN Classic is showing the 2001 and 2002 World Poker Open tournaments.

[MicroBob]

I believe it was the 2002 WPO (this is in Tunica, Miss) was the one where Humberto Brenes behaved like a total jack-ass and was singing really obnoxiously to whatever song he had on his head-phones when they got to heads-up.

I don't think I've seen the 2001 WPO.


Obviously 2003 onward it was a WPT event.

[Kevmath]

You're correct about the 2002 WPO. The 2001 WPO has John Juanda winning, while An Tran goes from 1st to gone very quickly as the short stack goes on a rush. The bad news is that it includes a worse announcer than DVP or VVP, the legendary JVD - Jerry Van Dyke. You can read the writeup of the final table right here. (http://www.pokerpages.com/tournament/result1675.htm)

[ QUOTE ]
ESPN didn't film the 2001 WSOP, Discovery Channel did. ESPN Classic is showing the 2001 and 2002 World Poker Open tournaments.

[/ QUOTE ]

ESPN did film the 2001 WSOP. I was there.

[Bartman387]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ESPN didn't film the 2001 WSOP, Discovery Channel did. ESPN Classic is showing the 2001 and 2002 World Poker Open tournaments.

[/ QUOTE ]

ESPN did film the 2001 WSOP. I was there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, wasn't Discovery channel just doing a documentary following Phil Gordon during the WSOP?

[Kevmath]

If ESPN did the 2001 WSOP, why was it only shown on Discovery/Travel Channel? I introduce this page (http://www.tiltboys.com/wsop2001/) into evidence.

[ QUOTE ]
If ESPN did the 2001 WSOP, why was it only shown on Discovery/Travel Channel? I introduce this page (http://www.tiltboys.com/wsop2001/) into evidence.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I was just dreaming that I saw the ESPN cameras around. Sorry.

[Kevmath]

No apology necessary, if ESPN was the ones filming it, we'd at least have a chance to see these programs a lot more often instead of being buried deep in the Discovery library.

[ QUOTE ]
No apology necessary, if ESPN was the ones filming it, we'd at least have a chance to see these programs a lot more often instead of being buried deep in the Discovery library.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was being sarcastic. ESPN did film the event. I played in it and was interviewed twice by them during the event.

[Georgia Avenue]

You forgot this: Shah...

Seriously, I've never seen this ESPN footage anywhere, and I'm a torrent junkie...I believe you, but I wonder where it went...was it ever aired?

The Discovery Channel show was interesting, but only as a kind of Intro to Poker thing. There are only like 5 hands shown...

Wait, you're not "Country" are you? Supbro!

[dealcloser]

Watching Stu and Harrington win was quite enjoyable. At what point in the WSOP did they start filimg hole cards?

[Kevmath]

2003 was the first time they actually used the hole card cam. In 2002, they let the viewers see the hole cards only in all-in situations. Of course they knew the hole cards only when the cards were actually turned up, so they were cheating in that instance.

My Tivo says that ESPN Classic is going to show the 2001 WSOP next Sunday at 11am.

[Bartman387]

[ QUOTE ]
My Tivo says that ESPN Classic is going to show the 2001 WSOP next Sunday at 11am.

[/ QUOTE ]
On ESPN.com their listing have it as the 2001 WPO

I taped it and have gone through '93 through '97. I've seen the Cheap Seats version of '98, and I already know who won, so no hurry on that one. Comments on the others:

* '93 and '94 - That theme music has to be the most annoying thing I've ever heard. So what am I humming now? Of course!

* '93 through '95 - Jim Albrecht was a decent enough color guy, but Dick Van Patten made the first two almost unwatchable.

* '93 - One nice thing is that they had a scroll of all the winners at the WSOP for that year (save the Main Event, of course) and how much they won. I liked that, and think ESPN should incorporate that in their current coverage somehow.

* '94 - Interesting that they offered a special prize of the winners' weight in silver, and the, um, largest winner won. Ah well, it was just a few thousand extra.

* '95 - I really liked Dan's analysis of the final hand. It's too bad they didn't let him do more of that on the UPC a couple of weeks back.

* '96 (USPC) and '97 - Gabe Kaplan took over here and he was much better than what's his name.

* '96 - Phil was still Phil, even then. I can't believe they took all that time on a simple bathroom break - prelude to The Nuts, perhaps? Yasmine Bleeth filled the role of "babe who can play poker a little" here. Did everyone catch the cameos by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten? You think they might go on to bigger & better things? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

* '97 - The Outdoor Edition. Vegas in May probably has some decent days for this, but now that it's in July, it's not happening again. Just as well... Liked the attitude Gabe showed both Hellmuth & Ungar.