"The whole purpose of speech play is trying to get information from your opponents...I think what better way to actually get information that to actually converse with the person across the table...having them interact with you and actually give you a response is one thing, and even if they don't you can tell from their body language, the way they react, their demeanor as to whether they are weak/strong, if they want/don't want a call, just getting information basically from your opponent whether it's words from their mouth or their physical appearance/body language.
I think what you saw on ESPN WSOP coverage, especially on Day 7, is a lot of people letting me get under their skin, taking it personally...there's no malice to what I say or do, I play within the rules, but it's standard speech play and a lot of Americans weren't used to it, and it got the best of them and they got quite frustrated and basically the whole table tried to gang up on me, because they found it frustrating and they weren't used to it."
However, compared to his answer to the question about his tanking, the speech play answer was a mere hors d'ouevre - although we'll let you find that one for yourselves!
Kassouf also broke out one of his funnier ripostes to the inevitable "check your privilege" question:
"Do you think it's more optimal to check or bet your privilege?"
"Um...I like to do my betting, so I'll bet my privilege rather than check it, I don't think I need to check my privilege, I know where I stand on the privilege front, so I think I'll bet my privilege all day long to get maximum value from my opponents"
As you can imagine, William had plenty to say on pretty much every subject he encountered including his opinions on ME Champ Qui Nguyen, on runner-up Gordon Vayo, on Tournament Director Jack Effel, on the state of poker in general, and even whether or not he ever found out how many miles it was from the Rio to Hollywood (Kassouf famously kept asking how far it was to Hollywood when he felt one of his opponents was "hollywooding" his decision as to whether to raise the pot during his week long WSOP Main Event run.
You can check out the entire AMA here