WSOP Main Event - Will Kassouf

Has any else been watching the main event of the wored series of poker? If not, i will not include any spoilers. If you have, you probably know Will Kassouf, the British player who talks up a storm and puts pressure on his opponents using tactics like offering to show his cards, saying he has a big hand, and taking a ton of time to make his own decisions. It really seems to get under his opponent’s skin. At first, I thought Will was a terrible person and wanted to see him lose, but over time the other players gang up on him, and I became sympathetic because he wasn’t actually breaking any rules. Does anybody have any thoughts on Will, speech play in poker or the WSOP in general?

This type of play can work, not just live, but also in online poker. Just yesterday I was heads up at the end of an MTT and I noticed that when I raised preflop my opponent would often 3bet and get me to fold marginal hands. In order to affect their play and protect my raises, I said in the chat “you’ve been 3 betting too many hands, like 66%”. Because a realistic 3 bet range heads up is more like 25% or less. Two hands later I raised with A6, and instead of 3 betting small like they always did, my opponent shoved and I called. They had 95 and I won the tournament. While it may seem contradictory that telling him he was raising light caused him to raise even more, that is generally how people react in poker, by trying to prove their opponent wrong. So when he shoved, I inferred he didn’t have a real hand. A6 is not usually a good hand to call shoves with.

I’ve been watching the WSOP and personally I don’t like the guy. Yes talking is apart of the game but there are limits. Also he took to long with almost every decision he made. Will is a good player but has little to no poker etiquette in my opinion. I was happy to see him go.

JoeDirk,

Not watching WSOP ( no cable ), but I’m glad you brought this issue up. “Table banter” before/during/after the hand ( live poker ), is just another part of poker. Some like it, some don’t… but it can be very effective in knock’n your opponent off thier game. It works online aswell, but players cannot go as far, due to chat rules. My opinion is that online it is more effective.

I totally agree with Marc. He takes wayyyy too much time to make a decision and his manners are downright rude at times.

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ok so… I have now seen up to Nov 9, in the main event… I prolly watched 7-8 hrs of that main event, including the last couple hours till they got down to 9.

There will always be the debate on what the rules are, and on whether or not using the rules to one’s advantage is fair gameplay. There will always be someone or a group that is responsible for making the rules, where everyone’s concerns must be balanced out. ( playerbase/mgmt )

While I agree that Will K, was extremely aggressive in his “talking”, when that hand KK vs AA happened… what I saw was G Benger, basically “tilted” in frustration which led to him “personally” attacking Will K. Now when they showed the part with the T-director & Will, after he was out, the T-director actually seemed to be on Will’s side.

Just like WWE ( world wrestling entertainment ) , it is in WSOP’s interests to allow drama for the simple fact, well… duhh… Drama sells…

“com’on, you gonna call… u got the cards… then call…com’on have some guts call me… what are you, chicken” … vs … “you are an &^%$^%#, you’re mean, a bully, and a sad excuse for a human being”…on the surface you might say both are insults , but only the second one prolly violated the rules…

Lets say the rules are a 60 second clock, once called for by another player…well, I’d assume if you got a “problem player” wasting time, that everytime as soon as its his turn… someone calls for a clock instantly… then you wait 58 seconds for him/her to act, then play on.

You also heard 1 of the other players @ that table say “we’re only see’n 2/3rds of the hands the other tables are see’n”… and he was right, this fact has less effect when you’re down to 18 of 6600… when it hurts the most is the early stages of the tourn.

This all leads me to 2 things :
(the ''ole rap saying) Don’t hate the player, hate the game… (this deff applies in this case)
Don’t waste time complaining about Will, spend that energy complaining/debating/discussing the rules, while using Will as an example.

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9 high like a boss😂

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IMHO a great analysis. Just like Negreanu he’s basically saying that something must be done against excessive tanking.

I completely agree with you Sassy_Sarah. He is annoying, and I think some of the early tournament hands were borderline harassment (like when he gets the woman to fold QQ with his 9 high or whatever), but in the end it is the other players who get more abusive than Will. His time wasting is more problematic than his table talk, but they were already calling a fast clock on him, so it didn’t matter that much.

Spoilers below:
I think Griffin Benger should have been given a penalty for saying insulting things to Will. What Will was doing was annoying, but his approach is valid to try to get a read on his opponent, and it actually worked. It would have been awesome if Will had been good enough to fold KK because Benger’s rant and betting basically show he has AA. I doubt Benger would have responded that way if he weren’t holding AA. Will never insulted anyone directly, and I went from hating him to supporting him.

Plus, as a liberal person, Benger’s BS about "privilege"was pretty obnoxious and out of line for a poker tournament. Nothing Will did approached verbal abuse.