World Series of Poker Main Event 2006 (and its implications)

One thing I noticed more than anything, even beyond the fact that once again a total unknown emerged victorious in the largest field ever, was all the action, the practically constant action around the table.

It has been claimed that you can’t really learn much by watching the pros on television, since you only see a few hands, one hour or so of many hours of play. You see the action, not the many close to no-action hands. I agree with that. But I also think that you can pick up quite a lot by watching even that hour.

Anyway, it’s starting to become a fairly moot point these days.

I watched the last six hours of the final table on a pirate download of the ESPN direct broadcast. We watched every single hand, every single move on the table. As stated there was a distinct difference between this and previous years’ final tables. The game has obviously changed again. There was not much left of the «rest periods» from yesteryear. The Stu Unger tenet of the need for dominating the table, at least in part, has now become gospel for almost anyone. Anyone not doing it falls behind very fast. The condensed broadcast from the final tables becomes increasingly more accurate these days.

So, yes, provided that the action is at least close to faithfully rendered, we can now learn even more by watching and observing games on television.