Will Kassouf discussion

I would bet there's about a 85/15 political bent to both those who hate him and defend him. People should be able to figure it out.

Mass amounts of people are not going to start mimicking his behavior because they saw it on TV, that's a boomer mother argument from the 80s like if their children see violence they will commit violent acts.
The live players who have it in their hearts/personalities to act this way are already doing so and even they don't have the same level of gas in the tank to sustain it like he does.
That's why it's an interesting spectacle, every live reg and most recs have seen a guy who will do this type of thing for a short period of time but it's a rare breed to be able to sustain it for 10 hour periods.

Also poker players are notoriously autistic and low empathy when it comes to things they personally do not do or like but as a human being you should in theory understand the concept that different people enjoy different things than you for different reasons.

One of the biggest TV shows in the world rn is a reality show called Love Island where droolers on an island get drunk and try to bang each other. I don't like that sort of thing at all but accept the fact that my brain doesn't work identically to the population.

I dont even understand what's political "hating" on him, he's ****ing annoying as hell.

If we're looking at young people, this is actually a common theme we see in streamers nowadays who copy certain types of personalties to gain clout.

This more becomes an issue if let's say he did win the main event, or became way more popular in mainstream.

I can understand how it's clickable and entertaining to watch, I don't find any of it worthy of being defended about in terms of "unfairness" like I see on twitter.

I do get the Kassouf entertainment factor more than Love Island however

Agreed, but I was interpreting what I thought the OP's thought process was there.

He did same thing in 2016 and it did not result in wave of Kassouf copycats, so don’t be scared

way different time now in terms of internet and social media

Im not scared, I was just surprised how many defenders he has

Defenders is probably the wrong word.

People are entertained by drama. They also are type to join Netflix so they can watch Squid Game and Ozark and not Rom Coms like Sleepless in Seattle or whatever

But we had internet and social media in 2016. Also all over ESPN which is no longer the case.

I am not going to lie.. I am entertained by the Will Kassouf show. Would I want him at my table? Hell no. Do I want to watch more and more tournaments with these types of antics? No. But for this one main event I am enjoying it. Albeit on delay and fast forwarding through a lot of his speech play.

You had social media, but it is incredibly different and more influential nowadays.

And I do mean defenders. Look at the PokerNews twitter on Kassouf discussions and majority of comments are saying how "unfair" it is he gets penalties and they're rigging the tourney against him. It's bizarre.

https://x.com/PokerNews/status/194413554...

This 100%. I’m definitely a casual and have watched every day of the main on PG this year and loved all of it but I would not mind if he was at the feature all day everyday. He’s annoying for sure but there is absolutely an entertainment value to him and his schtick.

I’m more curious from those of you that have forgotten more about Poker than I know if he is genuinely a really good poker player… If he never said a word, I’m assuming he’s well above average talent wise??

Love good shows too - Ozark was awesome

More great hidden gem shows

Banshee
Patriot
Mr Inbetween
Warrior
Barry

Lol cmon social media was the same and given ESPN he had way more exposure then than he does now with a few hardcore watching on stream. It will all be fine.

On this forum I’m just seeing people entertained like LD above

Thanks for recommends bud, will take a look

I like Sopranos so I like Lilyhammer…basically Silvio Dante goes to Norway

he's great for tv. but if everyone behaved like him you couldn't even run the tournament. I actually think the floor have dealt with him very well and used their discretion effectively. His 99 getting killed on a 10 second clock in that monster pot vs AK was hilarious

There are a lot of people who think there basically should be zero rules and relish in people getting away with things that society overall has said we're not allowing that or just triggering others or whatever. Nobody has an issue with his table talk, it's just you can't do it all the time and tank with 9 high on river decisions you're never calling. Rest is sticking it to authority big bad tournament director keeping kassouf down or they just never grew up and this is what they like or wish they could do.

reality is, far more people are watching this to watch Kassouf than are hate watching him, so he's gonna get some airtime.

If you need to act like him to get "reads" on people, no you're not that good of a player without it.

There's nothing worse than taking forever in live poker. Nothing.

Agreed Hallaert and Milhomem are taking forever

But they haven’t been doing it for the past 7 days on every hand.
That’s the difference

I'll preface this by saying that I've watched zero hands with Kassouf so far this year – I've had a baseball game every night since the ME started, and the various poker-related sites (including this one) is blocked at my work. Thus, I don't know what he has been up to other than what I've read in the other thread.

But if I had to guess, the Kassouf "defenders" don't like him so much as they like the idea of a heel in poker, especially when it comes to poker TV. We see it in professional wrestling, reality TV, and so on. Hell, as a sports fan, I'd rather watch a team I can't stand rather than two teams I don't care about because it gives me a rooting interest.

And of course, there is probably at least one person among these threads who claims to really enjoy Kassouf and his antics for no other reason than to play contrarian. They get to stand out and get noticed as the one guy who goes against the grain, regardless of the take. On a place like 2+2, that's the guy who will insist Phil Galfond is badly overrated, or that Crazy Pineapple is his favorite variant, or that Mike Postle really is a poker genius.

Anyway, I'll state again that I've seen none of the Main Event play with Kassouf involved, but my uneducated guess is that to some he's a player they hate to watch, while to others, he's the player they watch to hate. As a result, more people will tune in to root against a Will Kassouf then, say, will root for a Grinder or a Kenny Hallaert.

He he he, 2+2ers sure have a extremely weak sarcasm radar

Mods, please swap Containment in for Discussion in thread title for tyvm