As an avid fan of Sports Guy and Chuck Klosterman (both do similar live blogs for ESPN), I decided to outright copy them and "live" blog the ESPN coverage of the WSOP each week.  Since this obviously isn't TECHNICALLY live, this article can be enjoyed two ways – by having it open and following along as you re-watch the previous Tuesday's episodes on rerun or DVR, or on its own (for instance printed out and taken into the bathroom at work … you're welcome for the idea by the way). 

So here we go, ESPN's coverage of the Event #2, $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'em:

5:00pm PST – (actually 5:20, forgot coverage was on and am watching rewound on DVR.  Times may be slightly off) – ESPN once again proves it's still the best in the business for mainstream poker coverage as they continue to give me goosebumps in the intro montage of every episode.

5:03 – Officially rooting against the kid who started singing "Jesus Chris Superstar." (Mike Ngo)

5:04 – And the “Coolest Job for a WSOP Final Table Chipleader Ever” Award goes to… James Akenhead for being a former LONDON TRAIN DRIVER (as a side note, that's gotta be a pretty easy job; trains don't exactly need a whole lot of steering)!

5:08 – I actually feel bad for the nervous guy that goes out on the first hand.  Not because he misread his hand, leading to one of the strangest calls in WSOP history (which ended up being irrelevant), but because he wore a ten year-old sweatshirt the only time he'd ever be on television.

5:12 – Full Tilt is the best in the biz at making commercials.  No one else is close.

5:15 – Cut to Theo Tran’s "crew" – "Nenad Medic on the left, Jeff Madsen on the right" – no acknowledgement of Tiffany Michelle in the middle.  Clearly indicating this was voiced-over before the Main Event took place.

5:20 – "Theo lives in Las Vegas" – directly above me as a matter of fact (ok, that's not true anymore, but only because I moved about a month ago).

5:23 – It's gotta be over an hour into actual play now…stop showing the embarrassed guy from the first hand.  Speaking of which, why did ESPN leave him mic'd up after he was eliminated?

5:24 – “Nuts” segment about being embarrassed on TV: Hellmuth shirtless on the balcony never gets old; Matusow telling Raymer he has "little cohones" does  (how the hell do you spell cahones?) (*thanks to kevmath for finding out that it's actually "cojones").  Also in the segment…first appearances of Sebok and Gavin (and if you look close, Stapleton and Firthbucket).

5:27 – Theo is sick.  I'm not referencing any hand in particular, I just forget after I don't see or talk to him for a while.

5:28 – “Planters Good Instinct Moment” is really dumb.

5:34 – I don't mean to sound inconsiderate, but…another Katrina sob story? Really?

5:42 – Kid from New Orleans (Ngo?) confirms my initial read.  I'm glad I don't remember anything about this event other than Grant Hinkle winning; it makes it a lot easier to actively root against this guy.

5:44 – I really liked Blair Hinkle when he came on the radio show (and I assume his brother is a nice guy too) but Mrs. Hinkle (that name is straight out of Leave it to Beaver, btw) needs to stop having an anxiety attack every time Grant bets.

5:45 – Just a note to everyone watching the coverage – it's probably a little too early (this was the second event of the WSOP) to start hating on people for wearing Ultimate Bet stuff.  If I remember correctly, the details of the cheating were still sketchy at this point.

5:49 – "Gramma's a cheater, you can quote me on that." – Grant Hinkle

5:50 – Officially jealous of the Hinkles.  Not because of the bracelets or money, but because they have a regular “family” Uno game.

6:00 – Caught up on DVR.  Times will be correct but now I have to watch commercials.  Meh.

6:02 – Who is Aaron Coulthard? Was this guy late or something? 

6:08 – Mike Ngo gets lucky again.  If I didn't already know who won this thing, I might be a little tilty right now.

6:13 – Lon McEachern can stop saying "gut-shot straight draw" at this point; no one is going to think you mean "gut-shot flush draw" or "gut-shot flush top pair."
6:18 – Coulthard kid takes 6th place and gets about 20x less TV time than the guy who read his hand wrong and busted on the first hand.

6:18 – Coulthard kid takes 6th place and gets about 20x less TV time than the guy who read his hand wrong and busted on the first hand.

6:19 – Ngo yells for a Jack to eliminate himself because he is "funny."  Jack on river.  Bye, smart ass.

6:24 – ESPN cuts to no-hitter coverage with zero outs in the bottom of the 9th.  Is there any reason not to wait 'til there are 2 outs to cut to the game?  If anything happens in the first two outs, doesn't that render the game utterly un-historic and completely mundane?

6:26 – Base hit.  Thanks for making me miss the WSOP coverage to see a baseball play that happens 100 times a night.

6:27 – "Next Tuesday! – Lindgren, Lederer, Williams and more!"  … David Williams?  Is he really the third biggest draw in the $50k HORSE tourney?  The fact that I didn't know who they were talking about at first should say something.

6:28 – Feature on Mrs. Hinkle and how she embarrassed Grant at the table throughout the event.   I miss my mom.

6:35 – GG Theo.  Everything you need to know about Theo happened in the ten seconds after his elimination – he walks over to his friends and immediately asks for advice on the hand.

6:40 – Ron Artest to the Rockets for Bobby Jackson and 1st rounder.  I tell Haralbob.  His reaction – "sheesh."

6:48 – Chubby, ginger, English kid screaming in the crowd is not good for TV.

6:52 – GG Jesus.  46 WSOP cashes since 1998, most of any player.  I'm eager to see what he does in the WPTs this year.

6:53 – The Harrah's commercial telling people “not to drink when they gamble” is unendingly laughable.  The Full Tilt commercial where you hear all the stuff in Phil Ivey's head will never get old.  The new LIVE SportsCenter commercials with that random kid…already old.

6:59 – Grant gets caught making a movie with 10-4 off.

6:59 – 10-10-4. WOWWW.  That's a flop.

6:59 – 10.  WOWWW.  That's a turn.

6:59 – 5.  Disapointing river card, IMO.

7:02 – It feels weird congratulating someone on something that happened over a month ago but – congratulations Grant.  Hope you enjoyed being the most successful Hinkle for a week.

* There's been a lot of talk of "coin-flipping" once again in some of the high stakes cash games - so much that it's actually skewing the results on highstakesdb.com to the point where the stats are unreliable.  Some of the coin-flips have been for as much as $20,000.  If you want to know a little more, I wrote a small blurb on "flipping" back in the April 4th (http://www.pokerroad.com/pokerazzi/4-4-08/) edition of Pokerazzi.