WSOP Main Event Shot Clock Sets Off Stalling Debate
Day 7’s first Action Clock followed Loren Klein’s long pay-jump tank, and players disagreed over whether the fix should be a blanket timer or tougher enforcement.
The WSOP Main Event put a shot clock, also called an Action Clock, into play on Day 7 for the first time in the tournament’s 57-year history. Pokerati reported that the change went in at the start of Day 7 without prior announcement, Joe Stapleton announced the new system on the WSOP livestream, and PokerNews said live coverage started about an hour later. At that point, 62 players were left, and the new structure gave them 20 seconds preflop, 30 seconds on each postflop street and six 30-second time-bank cards at the start of the day.
The move followed a Day 6 tank involving Loren Klein and Tyler Gaston. Klein had one chip behind, was chasing a $20,000 pay jump and was allowed to stall for more than 15 minutes before the floor stepped in. He later called with K♣4♥, lost to Gaston’s A♣6♦ and finished 72nd for $105,000.
Poker.org’s David Fenigsohn argued that the new clock was already allowed by the rulebook. He pointed to language saying Host Properties reserves the right to implement an event-wide player shot-clock into any tournament at any point, and said the better fix is to change the rules and incentives rather than accuse players of cheating.
Fenigsohn also wrote that stalling can raise a player’s EV because the rules permit it, and that tournament floor discretion already exists when a table is not playing fast enough. He called the shot clock an extreme but permissible action, and said that if everyone stalled to Klein’s degree, tournament poker would be unplayable. He also noted that at the time of the incident there were only eight tables left and the players at Klein’s table alone had paid a combined $6,300 in rake.
Players offered different takes on the fix. WSOP commentator David Williams called it a bad idea and said the floor should use discretion in egregious spots instead of applying a blanket clock. Chris Brewer called the move completely awful and insanely unfair to recreational players, while Galen Hall backed it and Andrew Lichtenberger was not on board. Maria Ho said shot clocks give pros an advantage over amateurs who have never used them.
Shaun Deeb was firmly in favor. He said pros take way more time than recreationals, that very few recreationals tank, and that the clock is a necessary evil that keeps one table from costing other tables time. Card Player quoted him saying it should have been implemented a lot sooner, and Deeb also said stalling is effectively stealing from the other tables.
The debate also touched on how often players actually call the clock. Todd Brunson said he had rarely, if ever, done it before, but might have on Klein’s hand, and PokerNews noted that pay-jump pressure and the stigma of being the caller can keep players quiet even when they want a hand sped up. A player elsewhere in the room also called the clock on Ike Haxton, showing the option was available to anyone in the field.
Other ideas came up too. One option was giving dealers more discretion instead of a blanket field-wide clock, while another was a chess-style clock that gives each player a full-day time bank; Daniel Negreanu called that an innovative game changer for poker, and Phil Hellmuth said players sometimes need extra time to think. PokerNews also pointed to the European Poker Tour Main Event model, where the shot clock starts at Level 11, players get limited time-bank cards that are replenished through the event, the first decision gets 15 seconds, later decisions 30, and deliberate abuse can bring a five-second shot clock on future hands.
The Main Event’s final table of nine is set for Aug. 3-5 at Paris Las Vegas, with ESPN2 carrying Aug. 3-4 and ESPN airing Aug. 5 instead of the subscription app.
