On Sunday, Sept. 18 the third and fourth hours of the 2016 World Series of Poker main event television coverage aired on ESPN. The unifying theme of the night gave the look to be table talk, because the chatty Alex Keating and William Kassouf were prominently featured throughout all of the episodes. Both players used weaponized wordplay to take a look at to enhance their chances within the world’s biggest poker tournament and drew a large number of attention from the cameras as a result.
“Its nice to look some life on the table. That is the principle event, have an even time,” said commentator Norman Chad early within the broadcast. “It’s poker folks, it’s presupposed to be fun!”
While a number of players and poker fans might prefer the animated table talk of the 2 players, there have been also most of the people who didn't benefit from the extracurriculars including Stacy Matuson, who played a controversial pot against Kassouf initially of the fourth episode.
The hand arose on day 5 of the primary event. With a board of 5
Matuson, who held an overpair with the Q
“You don’t wish to bust out with an entire camera crew watching, yeah? This will be embarrassing," said Kassouf. “You don’t put me in this hand.”
You can watch the episode below. The hand begins at 1:04 into the video.
Matuson was facing a difficult decision in it’s own right but one made even harder by the actions of Kassouf. Her frustration showed as she asked floor staff why Kassouf’s hand was still live after he had broken the foundations regarding influencing the action of a hand through talking. The pertinent items within the 2016 WSOP Tournament Rules as listed are rules no. 113 and 116, which can be listed in full below.
113. Table Talk / Disclosure: participants are obligated to give protection to the opposite participants within the Tournament all the time. Therefore, whether
in a hand or not, participants may not:
a. Disclose contents of live or folded hands.
b. Advise or criticize play at any time.
c. Read a hand that hasn’t been tabled.
d. Discuss strategy with an out of doors source while fascinated by a hand.
e. The one-participant-to-a-hand rule mentioned in Rule 111 may be enforced.
Special Exceptions:
1. A participant is permitted to say the strength or content of his/her hand if no other participant within the hand can have a call to make.
2. In heads-up events or when right down to the last two participants in a Tournament, participants may speak freely in regards to the contents in their hands.
3. The ground Person reserves the correct use his/her judgment to figure out if one participant intentionally helped another participant. Participants who violate this rule are subject to penalty based on Rules 40, 111, and 112.
116. Etiquette Violations: Repeated etiquette violations will lead to the imposition of penalties assessed by the Tournament Staff. Examples include, but aren't limited to, unnecessarily touching other participants’ cards or chips, body, or clothing, delay of the game, repeatedly acting out of turn, betting out of reach of the dealer, or excessive chatter. Excessive chatter includes, but isn't limited to, talking or conversation that causes a disruption of participants who're in a hand.
In the case of this hand, it sort of feels clear that Kassouf was not acting within the spirit of the rules, as his words and movements were “advising” Matuson’s play and will even be construed as excessive and disruptive by the tournament staff. But was his one-round penalty fair at the sort of key juncture of the tournament?
There is ongoing debate within the poker community regarding this issue, with various players like Daniel Negreanu saying that looking to legislate out table talk is a nasty idea. In a blog at the subject Negreanu said that tournament directors are, “… trying standardize rules and protect players, yet on this particular case they're completely ignoring the worries of the overpowering majority of poker players. The most suitable option is to totally eliminate this rule, but I’d accept a compromise that might still make it a penalty to reveal the contents of your hand in some cases, but not in others.”
Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]
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