Five Thoughts: Tapping The Glass, Getting The Monkey Off Your Back and Becoming MasterChef

After footage of the incident appeared on ESPN’s coverage of the2016 World Series of Poker Main Event last week, the poker community spent a lot of time and energy debating if William Kassouf deserved a penalty or not.

The wheels of the poker world kept turning; however, and several other people, places and things made headlines this week.

A WSOP Main Event winner talked to PokerNews about the state of the game today, one WSOP Main Event runner-up finally won a major title and another WSOP Main Event runner-up ended a deep run on TV’s MasterChef. In the meantime, live poker’s all-time leading money winner became a World Champion online and the fledgling Global Poker League returned to online competition.

A healthy debate and discussion on on all these issues and more continues here in this week’s Five Thoughts:

The Monkey Off Sylvia’s Back Repping The Old School Don’t Tap Moneymaker’s Glass The GPL’s 15 Minutes Game, Set, MasterChef

1. The Monkey Off Sylvia’s Back Jesse Sylvia

Those who remember the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event will undoubtedly recall Greg Merson’s emotional response to victory. But while the player who finishes second in any given year is often just a footnote, because of the graciousness and strength of character he displayed in finishing runner-up, Jesse Sylvia is hard to forget, coming in second in 2012.

Sylvia had $5,295,149, reasons to shrug off not winning the title. His nice-guy appeal also led to a successful start as a poker analyst and commentator with Poker PROductions, working on shows like this summer’s 2016 Super High Roller Bowl. So it may have been hard to see the monkey growing on his back, but with two third-place finishes at the WSOP since his turn as Main Event runner-up, it was definitely there.

This weekend, however, Sylvia had it surgically removed, winning $821,811 and his first major title at the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open. To make it even more special, Sylvia was sixth of six coming into the final and he came back to win it, despite Colombian Pro and three-time WPT final table participant Farid Jattin holding a massive chip lead at the start.

After Sylvia claimed the crown, Poker Twitter even appeared to lay down its weapons for a minute and congratulations poured in for the well-deserved champion. Sometimes poker provides the opportunity for redemption. Sometimes nice guys don’t finish last. This weekend at Borgata was one of those times and it apparently couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

2012 WSOP ME Runner-Up Jesse Sylvia Wins the WPT Borgata Poker Open 2. Repping The Old School Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker provided a little old school versus new school fun this weekend as the WCOOP-71 $2,100 H.O.R.S.E. Championship played out.

With 147 entries, including 34 reentries, a $294,000 prize pool was created that paid 18 spots. When they finally reached the heads-up match for the title, after two days of poker, live …

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