
Originally Posted by
sonatine
remember when micon got to give play by play analysis at a wsop?
he was good at it to.
I don't know or care about Micon's analysis, but I did enjoy the one time I got to do it.
It was in 2009, at the $10k Limit Holdem WSOP final table. Poor Chad Brown (RIP) lost with the ace high flush to Greg Mueller's straight flush, in a pivotal hand. Mueller ended up winning it.
I was doing the color commentary, and really enjoyed it. It took 10 hours, but flew by. I took no breaks other than when the action at the table stopped.
When I was in the bathroom, a Rio employee accidentally opened the door too aggressively as I was reaching for the handle to go out, and it slammed my hand hard and made a huge, deep cut. It was bleeding worse than any cut I ever had, but I didn't want to quit the broadcast because of it. I tried to go to security to get band-aids, but they didn't want to give me them unless I filled out a report. I declined to fill out a report because I didn't want the guy getting in trouble for a freak accident. Finally they gave me like 3 band-aids, but the bleeding was so bad that they were soaked within a short time.
I went back to continue broadcasting, and my broadcast partner (Bernard Lee, whom I had never met before) couldn't believe what he was seeing. I asked if someone in the ESPN room could just get me more band-aids and something to wrap my hand, and they agreed and did so. In the meantime, I kept on broadcasting. Bernard quietly asked me at one point, "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital? This looks like it might be serious", but I told him I'd just wrap it and deal with it later. He wasn't grossed out or anything, just concerned and surprised I wasn't quitting to go tend to this.
I really, really didn't want to quit. I knew NWP's reputation and didn't know when I'd get this chance again, if ever.
It took about an hour, but the bleeding stopped. I kept broadcasting the entire time as if nothing had happened.
My dad, who knows a little about poker but has never played, watched the entire thing and complimented me. He said he was very impressed how clear my strategy explanations were, and how correctly I was predicting the action. But that was my dad, so it's not like he was unbiased, and he also wasn't a poker expert by any means.
When I next played limit holdem at Bellagio, Chris Vitch (DeathDonkey) happened to be next to me. He said, "I really liked your commentary during the event. It was nice to finally listen to someone during a limit holdem broadcast who knows what they're talking about."
That was high praise coming from an accomplished player like him, and it felt good.
It's been 16 years and I've never done any further final table broadcasts. To be fair, I haven't tried, but I also haven't been invited without trying. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with this site, and also some of it has to do with my general outspoken nature which has made some people not care for me. Normally I don't care whether I'm part of any "cool crowd" in poker or anywhere else, but I do admit that I wish I could have broadcasted more final tables.