2025 World Series of Poker May 27th - July 16th

LOL he is bringing in viewers and everyone is talking about him, even us.

People like watching disasters. It doesn't mean we want more of them.

People are not signing up for Pokergo because of Kassouf. They might pay for the stream in spite of him. There will normally be plenty of interesting hands and players for people to watch (or at least, failing that, high-level poker). It's not like producers need to assume Kassouf is the best there, and nothing will happen all day, and immediately choose bottom-tier content.

even if it is good content (which I disagree with), it's still unfair and disrespectful to the other players - who have lots of $$$ on the line, and that is more important.

But the unnecessary delays / tanking / shot clock issues might be a bigger problem. Can someone explain what was going on with the one guy who wouldn't call his last 25K vs Mizrachi?

A monkey flinging poo at the players would also bring in viewers.

He was tanking to try to make a pay bump. Then he got all pissy when he only got a 5 second clock (after 8 minutes).

here we go again

lol he's really picking on that one guy now is it szwarcberg? might have the name wrong. i think if your in this spot you should realise if you show kassouf hes getting under your skin its just going to make him 10x worse towards you.

Yes and therefore you would expect PokerGo to show it. It would not be "shame on them" for doing so

1 round penalty

Yeah, there has to be some kind of fix to improve this (even without a shot clock). I'm a little surprised everyone at the table went along with it, tbh. *I know it happened with Ike previously.* For example - if payouts were based on timestamps of when the pre-flop action of bust-out hand, when the dealer started pitching cards. Greatly reducing the player incentive to waste time when they are committed to a decision.

FYI - re: grounds to DQ Kassouf

WSOP could literally just say - we are paying you out last place and removing your chips from play , based on our discretion

and it's over

its better than a DQ, which can come off excessively punitive due to $$$ involved, but still comes off principled

EDIT:
the most interesting thing here for me, is the WSOP could remove a portion of his chips from play instead of a time penalty, which might be a more effective deterrence
so you could have a system like:
1st offense. loss of 2BB or 10% of current stack
2nd offense. loss of 4BB or 20% of current stack
3rd offense. loss of 8BB or 50% of current stack
4th offense - all chips are forfeited, resulting in immediate payout or DQ

for calling all the players at his table bitches lmao

Kassouf is legit going to have a complete mental breakdown.

I agree with most of this obviously - my issue was with saying 'Shame on Pokergo' for showing him when the stream of the table he was on had its viewership go up by 60% when he moved there.

Also what are they supposed to do exactly?

But massive LOL at the player who went off and bought earplugs for everyone at the dinner break

Kassouf has become more and more unhinged as the night has gone on. I know his whole strategy is supposedly to annoy his opponents to gain an edge, but when he's taking all these penalties along the way it really seems like a mental health issue

Anyone know the Chad Power hero call hand?

I wish dealer would scan his cards so we know what he folded

Found it lol -

https://www.pokernews.com/tours/wsop/2025-wsop/event-81-10000-wsop-main-event/chips.767608.htm

pokernews

Power Hero-Calls At the Wrong Time

same - they seem to be doing it on some hands and not on others.

Kassouf banned from remainder of 2025 WSOP after ME

Interesting point on stream stats. I agree that kind of data could meaningfully influence PokerGo's decisions, though I don't know if its straightforward.

Nonetheless, I still think some degree of censorship is warranted.

So as an example of similar principle, the news media has extensive guidelines on how death via suicide should be reported, because it can increase the chances of other people committing suicide.

Even though the WSOP and Pokergo don't have the exact same interest, they are still in theory mostly aligned on curating an appropriate environment to grow to the game and make it accessible to a broader audience. Which means censoring toxic players is acceptable, and +EV for the industry.

Power raises button with AdKd, BB calls As9s
flop 2 8 6 rainbow check check
turn 9 no flush draws at all BB overbets power calls
river 9 bet about the pot, call

we see all these big bluffs and power hero called twice today and both were right into it

Looks like they are, Q3 and 85

I agree.

And if it does prove to be a mental health issue or has the appearance of one, I think there are some humanitarian arguments that PokerGo (and to a less extent WSOP) should do its best to steer clear from the spectacle he is creating, and will live on forever on the Internet. It's certainly possible that he is in an altered state or having some kind of breakdown, even given his history.

This isn't a situation that's easy to handle, but at some point, this is just bad for everybody (even if some players think it is +EV for them), and you need to find a way to remove the problem as gracefully as possible.

I look forward to watching the final days of the ME every year, and Kassouf is absolutely ruining it for me.

We missed Chad Power's giant punt because Kassouf's trolling was too important to ever break away from his table.

**** actual poker, right? Only poo flinging now. It's what the people want.

wow he is really going at him now