WSOP Crowns Youngest Champion
The play at the final table began on Sunday and then was stopped again when it got down to the final two players. They resumed play on Tuesday to accommodate ESPN who had the rights to broadcast the World Series of Poker. The two day final table was the longest in the history of the WSOP. It took 274 hands played over 15 hours and 28 minutes to determine the winner. The previous record was 14 hours 10 minutes in 2005.
The main event this year broke several previous records. Peter Eastgate became the youngest champion breaking the record set by Phil Hellmuth who was 24 when he won in 1989. It broke the record for the longest playing time of a final table. After watching the broadcast I think there was a record set for the most bad beats and lucky suck outs of any tournament that I have watched. These players were winning hands with "one outers" and "runner runner" cards on the turn and river to make some of the luckiest plays in WSOP history. This year was also the first year that a tournament had a four month break between the start of the event and the time that the final table was played out. I hope for the sake of poker that this was a one time experiment and that next year it will get back to a tournament that is played from start to finish with no prolonged breaks.
Comments
I understand that it must have been difacult for the players to have to wait 4 months for the final table and may have messed up the momentom of the players but in the past everyone knew who won before ESPN started showing the main event. TV is what made poker what it is today. This was the first time I didn’t know who won when I sat down to watch.