Excruciating Slow Pace At 2015 WSOP Main Event Final Table

The 2015 WSOP Main Event final table got underway yesterday, and by the end of 5.5 hours of play Patrick Chan (9th), Federico Butteroni (8th), and Pierre Neuville (7th) were all eliminated, leaving just six players to battle it out for WSOP glory, and a first-place prize worth $7.683 million. Nevertheless, the final table was not so much dominated by intense action, as by intense frustration from those viewers who tuned in to see just 72 hands of poker played throughout the session.
In fact, the pace of play was so excruciating that several hands took upwards of ten minutes to complete, with one hand involving Neil Blumenfield, Ofer Svi Stern (photo) and Pierre Neuville lasting nine minutes, without even reaching the flop.While much of the criticism is actually centered around these three players, they are not the only ones to blame and as Adam Schwartz noted halfway through the “action”:
“Ok, its been 3 hours of WSOP final table play. We’ve played 34 hands. Less than 15 hands an hour. This is a disaster for poker.”
Liv Boeree, too, was less than complimentary concerning the state of play, and tweeted:
“This is quickly turning into the Worldseries of pre-flop inane tanking #WSOP #November9”
In fact, the play slowed down to such an extent that many of the game’s top pros started calling out for officials to intervene, with Daniel Negreanu suggesting a ‘chess clock’, and Phil Hellmuth tweeting:
“We need to change rules of poker, slow play should be warned, then penalized. One of players at @WSOP table on @ESPN was issued warning.”
Needless to say, this is hardly a glowing endorsement of the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, and one can only hope that the action picks-up exponentially when the players return to the Rio later on today.
Final Six Players:
1 Joe McKeehen (USA) 91,450,000
2 Ofer Zvi Stern (Israel) 32,400,000
3 Neil Blumenfield (USA) 31,500,000
4 Max Steinberg (USA) 16,000,000
5 Joshua Beckley (USA) 10,875,000
6 Thomas Cannuli (USA) 10,425,000
In the meantime, here are some other choice comments made about this year’s WSOP Main Event final table so far:
Troll Cat
“72 hands in 5.5 hours. Half that time waiting for Zvi Stern to fold. #WSOP”
Beeeej
“The @ESPN Final Table broadcast is on a 30-minute delay, with Ofer Zvi Stern on a 38-minute delay. #WSOP #NovemberNine”
Beth Milligan
“I don’t always have bad hands, but when I do I take 10 minutes to fold them.” -Zvi Stern #NovemberNine #WSOP”
Short-Stacked Shamus
“Trying not to worry, but Stern’s tanking has hypnotized my cat. #NovemberNine #WSOP”
Reading Poker Tells
“Wow, a slow-motion pre-flop shove! What an exciting sport! #WSOP”
Card Shark
“I love the #WSOP, but as an amateur it’s hard to watch players spend forever on every decision. Need shot clock; thoughts @RealKidPoker?”
Jc Tran
“I watched the first few hands of #Wsop ft, had dinner, read to my kids, put them to bed and I didn’t miss a thing. #November9 #tankshow”