Situational Humor: Poker Superstars 2
Personally I think the worst poker show on TV nowadays is Poker Superstars .. hands down. The structure is awful, leading to an all-in fest after about 20 minutes of the 1 hr show, and the shows themselves feature almost 30% commercials, horrendous amounts of needless graphics and chip counts, and barely any hands worth showing all stretched into an hour slot. Tonight however was the most satisfying session of Poker Superstars I have yet seen. Why? Because of the way it is all set up …
We’re down to the ‘Sweet 16,’ the top 16 point leaders in this Superstars tournament. There are now four groups of 4 players, each playing two sessions, with another horrible point system, it breaks down like this:
1st - 10 points
2nd - 7 points
3rd - 4 points
4th - 0 points
The two highest point totals in each group of four move on to some heads-up fiasco, who knows. This session was the 2nd session of the Mortenson / Gray / Brunson (Todd) / Tomko section. Here’s the points the players had already earned:
Mortenson - 10 points
Gray - 7 points
Tomko - 4 points
Brunson - 0 points
Now here is where the idiot who made up this structure messed up. We are no longer playing poker. In fact, its like politics, haha, with some many unbreakable rules for the players with less points to make it to the finals. Brunson was the underdog, obviously, but he could still make it if and only if Gray lost first, then Tomko, then he beat Carlos in heads up. So every pot that Gray came in for a raise Brunson was all in… He had to beat Gray, even if he had to suck out. Conversely, any pot Brunson was in Carlos and Tomko could go all-in and Brunson could not call for fear of beating them and thus losing himself a shot at the elite 8. Can you see how this is funny yet?
So Brunson raises from SB with 10♦10♥ and Tomko goes all in with 10♣8&spades and for some reason Brunson calls… Brunson wins, doubles up and leaves Tomko with 150,00 with 30,000/60,000 blinds, quite crippled. Very next hand Tomko goes all in with A&spades9♣ and Brunson calls with Q♥7&spades to double him up on purpose so he can last longer and Brunson’s master plan can still work.
Next hand: Gray raises from the button with 9&spades9♥ Brunson immediately goes all-in with Q♥3&spades and then Tomko picks up K♥K&spades and calls all-in, Gray folds. Brunson doubles Tomko up again and Tomko is chip leader, now Gray is short stacked.
For some reason Gray decides to make a ‘move’ against Brunson with Q♥10&spades. He had to know Brunson would call his all in for a chance to knock him out … whatever. Brunson calls with A&spades3♥, hits the Ace, first player down. Coincidentally with Gray going out last, his point total is 7 and he can not go to the elite 8. Good, I don’t like him anyway.
Now Brunson must not play against Carlos Mortenson in a big pot. Also, Tomko can only hope to lose to Mortenson, leaving himself a chance to win if Mortenson beats Brunson in heads up, ahahahahaha, this was halarious! It was like some type of sick game in D.C., there was never really any poker.
Needless to say, and to my astounding amusement, Tomko goes allin against Mortenson with 4♦4♥ and Carlos calls with A♥K♣ with the board 8&spades3♥10♦ … 10♥ … K&spades!! And Mortenson and Brunson go heads up.
Now if Mortenson wins Tomko makes it, if Brunson wins he comes from 0 points to 2nd place with 10 points, I was on the edge of my seat switching back between WPT and Superstars. Brunson doubled through Mortenson with Ace-something vs Mortenson’s two paint cards and then closed the deal with K♣3♥ vs A&spades9&spades, spiking the K&spades on the flop and dodging Carlos’ nut flush draw.
A-mazing. Thank you Poker Superstars for making your show a circus on the felt, where you can’t just play the cards and the people, but rather the cards and some of the people.
Bedtime.
p.s. - The best part was the announcers. They kept criticizing Brunson’s plays, calling all-ins with nothing to double up Tomko and laying down big hands to him… They themselves were just about clueless to how their own tournament had to be played out. The poker players themselves are all smart enough to realize this.
Related Posts
- Quads are cheap
- Cheers! Best MTT Preformance yet!
- Success in a Live Tournament
- Poker Terms: The Basics of Straights
- The "Free" Card
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Sponsors
