Was Adding a Poker Shot Clock to WSOP Main Event Unfair to Players?

Seems to be a direct result of a hand that happened the day before on night six, when Lauren Klein, I think a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, tanked for over 15 minutes in an unsuccessful bid to ladder up, uh, in a money jump for $20,000.

Um, let's start with you, Mike.

What was your take when you heard that-

[laughs]

... uh, the shot clocks are coming?

Let's always start with Mike.

[laughs]

Yeah, you know what? Let's start with Mike.

Let's start with Mike.

Mike, what do you say to that? Oh, I'm sure only good things.

Uh, listen, okay, um, it's your job as the floor to be watching over the tables, right? You cannot...

Because the floor did a poor job and the f- I don't know what floor it was, and I'm sorry, I'm sure I like them, I'm sure it's whoever it is, we talk on a regular basis, and I'm sorry, but whoever the floor was did a poor job.

Someone should not be able to tank for 15 minutes with one chip behind.

Uh, with that little tables left, there should be enough floors in the area to be able to figure out what's going on here, or someone at the table should've called clock.

I, I think it's incredibly egregious to allow someone to tank 15 minutes.

If I was at the table, I would've said something within one minute because you're not even allowed to do that anymore.

Like, this was something that happened last year, where you were allowed to, uh, and every year before that, you're allowed to leave a chip behind.

Now, if the, if they see that you're stalling for time, they'll come and clock you, and they'll give you five or 10 or 15 seconds, uh, because you're not allowed to stall for pay jumps anymore.

Um, so to ch- f- for me, yes, the floor screwed that up.

To change the entire tournament structure, uh, uh, uh, i- in the biggest spot that you could ever imagine for these recreational players is egregious, and it's, it's unfair.

You cannot make these guys who've employed, these guys and girls who have been playing for this many hours, this many days in a row, you cannot have them come in and all of a sudden, sudden they only have 20 seconds to act when they've seen this for 30 years, seen our knees pinching the whole time.

Nobody's ever had this happen to them.

So I, I think it's just a really bad, bad look and, and just an egregious mistake that they made putting shot clocks in.

I wanna go to Remco 'cause you've worked many World Series of Pokers, uh, often behind the scenes with the production crews and, and such.

You know, what was your take when you first heard about this, and then they actually followed through with it?

Seems to be a direct result of a hand that happened the day before on night six, when Lauren Klein, I think a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, tanked for over 15 minutes in an unsuccessful bid to ladder up, uh, in a money jump for $20,000.

Um, let's start with you, Mike.

What was your take when you heard that-

[laughs]

... uh, the shot clocks are coming?

Let's always start with Mike.

[laughs]

Yeah, you know what? Let's start with Mike.

Let's start with Mike.

Mike, what do you say to that? Oh, I'm sure only good things.

Uh, listen, okay, um, it's your job as the floor to be watching over the tables, right? You cannot...

Because the floor did a poor job and the f- I don't know what floor it was, and I'm sorry, I'm sure I like them, I'm sure it's whoever it is, we talk on a regular basis, and I'm sorry, but whoever the floor was did a poor job.

Someone should not be able to tank for 15 minutes with one chip behind.

Uh, with that little tables left, there should be enough floors in the area to be able to figure out what's going on here, or someone at the table should've called clock.

I, I think it's incredibly egregious to allow someone to tank 15 minutes.

If I was at the table, I would've said something within one minute because you're not even allowed to do that anymore.

Like, this was something that happened last year, where you were allowed to, uh, and every year before that, you're allowed to leave a chip behind.

Now, if the, if they see that you're stalling for time, they'll come and clock you, and they'll give you five or 10 or 15 seconds, uh, because you're not allowed to stall for pay jumps anymore.

Um, so to ch- f- for me, yes, the floor screwed that up.

To change the entire tournament structure, uh, uh, uh, i- in the biggest spot that you could ever imagine for these recreational players is egregious, and it's, it's unfair.

You cannot make these guys who've employed, these guys and girls who have been playing for this many hours, this many days in a row, you cannot have them come in and all of a sudden, sudden they only have 20 seconds to act when they've seen this for 30 years, seen our knees pinching the whole time.

Nobody's ever had this happen to them.

So I, I think it's just a really bad, bad look and, and just an egregious mistake that they made putting shot clocks in.

I wanna go to Remco 'cause you've worked many World Series of Pokers, uh, often behind the scenes with the production crews and, and such.

You know, what was your take when you first heard about this, and then they actually followed through with it?