Diablo, the way I read bvmjethead's original post was:

"Mixed the Lawn Boy ashless oil 40:1 with 87 octane gas as instructed, choked and got the carb wet with fuel, took off the choke after she popped (this took maybe 20 flips) "

The way I see it, he must have had the ignition on inorder to get it to pop. He did it the way you said to. The quoted BME instructions differed.