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Greed Gone Wild - WSOP Final Table Rescheduled[ return to main articles page ]

By: grapsfan
Published on May 2nd, 2008
“Hello, is this baseball commissioner Bud Selig? This is Dick Emptysuit, vice-president of sports programming at Fox. I’m calling to make a request about scheduling the World Series this year. You know how it’s always around the 3rd week in October? Of course, you do. You run baseball. Anyway, we’d like for you to push it back to the 2nd week of November, so it aligns with our Sweeps Week. Now, I know it’ll be snowing in about half the cities where you play, and it’s the rainy season in about eight others. I know you’re punishing the teams who smartly prepped their playoff rosters and rotations to best compete in the Fall Classic. I know you’re punishing teams who managed to stay healthy and survive the marathon of the baseball season. I know you’re punishing teams who got hot at the right time and have been playing their best baseball at the time it counts the most.”

“Well, Mr. Emptysuit, if you know how damaging it would be to our game, why would you ask me? Give me one good reason why I should agree to destroy much of the integrity of the most important week of our season!”

“Mr. Selig, I’ll give you two good reasons. One is this giant bag of cash I have in my left hand. The other is the giant bag of cash I have in my right hand.”
(long pause)

“Yeah, OK. We’ll do it.”

The above scenario is fictional, and completely preposterous. Isn’t it? None of the major sports leagues, no organization with a top-15 brand recognition, would dream of completely messing with the integrity of their most important competition, would they? No one would believe it, right?

Army of non-believers, meet WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and the rest of the team at Harrah’s. The final table of this year’s Main Event will be played approximately 4 months after they reach the final nine players, per request of ESPN. See, their ratings have been slipping a little bit in the last couple of years. And rather than accepting the nature of rapid-rising fads (like poker was to many people) and the damage of having a douchebag and a Jesus-calling recluse as the last two champions, ESPN made a devil’s bargain with Harrah’s. The game itself, what happened the two weeks leading up to the final table, be damned.

Players who are worn to the nub by the brutal schedule of 14-hour days will have a chance to rest and regain their senses. Thousands of betting patterns, tells and reads accumulated over 10 days will fade in the distance, replaced by potentially misleading editing and mediocre commentary in the TV coverage. Table images carefully crafted will be totally blown when the world sees what someone’s hole cards actually were in key hands. Mediocre players who made it to the last day on prayers and dumb luck will have the funds to hire the best coaches they can find.

I wouldn’t expect Pollack (a NASCAR guy at heart, where everything is for sale), Harrah’s (a giant conglomerate with no ties to what made them a historical gambling mecca) or ESPN to care about the game. But where were the Player’s Committee? The professionals who are involved to be the defenders and bastions of poker, defending it from corporate greed…what happened to them? Negreanu, Lederer and crew complained loudly about the “World Series of Hold’em,” the lack of mixed games, and the never-ending grind of 16-hour days which come from squeezing huge fields into 2-day prelim events. Now, when the powers-that-be are doing something far more damaging to the game’s most important tournament…they go along! Why?

The answer is, they’ve let us, and the game down, because they’re as greedy as the next guy. They could give a shit about integrity and the spirit of the tournament. They know making the amateurs disrupt their lives for a second time, to come back out to Vegas, gives them an advantage; they already live in Vegas or are used to travel. They can spot tells on TV which others will miss, and more importantly, know what to do when they surface again. They will have far greater leverage to attract sponsors and business deals from their seat at the Final Table. The pros need more recovery from six weeks of constant tournament play than does the amateur who flew out just to take his satellite-earned seat at the table.

So who can blame ESPN for trying anything to keep the poker gravy train rolling a little while longer? Who can blame Harrah’s and Jeffrey Pollack for lining their pockets a little more? Who can blame the pros for sacrificing the purity of one of the truly open competitions left, for what they consider to be a +EV move? Why should they care?

As poker players, we’ve already proven a willingness to take the whip, over and over again, to play. Absolute Poker had cheating within the executive ranks of the company? OK, I’ll still play there. UltimateBet explicitly allows bots and multi-accounters in their cash games and does nothing to respond to a high-stakes scandal of their own? OK, I’ll still play there. Bodog’s interface gives me epilepsy, the client crashes regularly, and their checks bounce from time to time? OK, I’ll still play there.

So now, the World Series of Poker has done something completely corrupt and potentially disastrous to our Main Event, the most prestigious thing in the game we love. How do you make your displeasure known? What are you going to do about it? Yeah, I know. I’ll still play there.

* For a contrasting opinion on the WSOP final table rescheduling, P5's members and visitors are encouraged to read Justin Shronk's article titled The Art of Progress.

Comments

  1. Bohnett Bohnett is offline

    Las Vegas, NV
    United States

    Posts: 85
    Joined: Aug 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:05pm)

    <p>I like the WPT more anyway.</p>
  2. JohnnyGstaks JohnnyGstaks is offline

    Saint Paul, MN
    United States

    Posts: 1,269
    Joined: Feb 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:12pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>I dont like the idea of this 1 bit!! nice read graps.</p>
     2
  3. Tchmaster Tchmaster is offline

    College Park, MD
    United States

    Posts: 12
    Joined: Dec 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:13pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>giant bag of cash FTW lol</p>
  4. KenRogers KenRogers is offline

    Minot, ND
    United States

    Posts: 101
    Joined: Jun 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:21pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>I didn't know the WSOP was run by the same people that run college football and the BCS.</p>
     
  5. HiRaX HiRaX is offline

    Trumbull, CT
    United States

    Posts: 443
    Joined: Jul 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:25pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>wp sir</p>
  6. BudmansCom BudmansCom is offline

    Clive, IA
    United States

    Posts: 1,671
    Joined: Mar 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 5:45pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Great analysis, Graps</p>
  7. Insider Insider is offline

    Canada

    Posts: 64
    Joined: Apr 08

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 6:14pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Timr for the the 6000+ internet players to boycott the main event and turn it back over to the top 500 pros to play for a $1.5 mil first prize (aka pre-Moneymaker event) and zero TV ratings.</p>
  8. CP_MagiciaN CP_MagiciaN is offline

    United States

    Posts: 1,067
    Joined: Jan 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 6:29pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>great article</p>
     
  9. mathclub mathclub is offline

    New Zealand

    Posts: 7,010
    Joined: Jan 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 6:46pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>someone else run a 10k tourney with 6k players next year. this sucks.  graps his the nail on the head once again.</p>
    2
  10. ezlee47 ezlee47 is offline

    Omaha, NE
    United States

    Posts: 1
    Joined: Jul 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 6:49pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>the way to combat greed is to hit their pocketbooks. nobody should buy ANY  WSOP gear. in past years I have bought a jacket, couple shirts. NONE this year or until they change the way the final table is to be played now.</p>
  11. B_O_K_E B_O_K_E is offline

    Columbus, OH
    United States

    Posts: 3,977
    Joined: May 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 7:23pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Very good</p>
     
  12. badonkadonk badonkadonk is offline

    Fort McMurray
    Canada

    Posts: 729
    Joined: Jul 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 7:48pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>great article. agree 100 percent.</p>
     
  13. soccerfreakjj10 soccerfreakjj10 is offline

    Los Altos Hills, CA
    United States

    Posts: 281
    Joined: Dec 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 8:01pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>excellent article. Something has to be done.</p>
  14. JKamikazeKid JKamikazeKid is offline

    Dayton, OH
    United States

    Posts: 1,178
    Joined: Sep 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 8:41pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Why doesn't Binion's create a similar tournament and have it coincide with their "Binion's Poker Classic"?  Since the Poker Classic ends in early July, hold the $10K Championship in Mid-July.  The WSOP started at Binion's...why not bring it back with the Binion name?  Graps is my hero.</p>
  15. FMRMX27 FMRMX27 is offline

    Los Mochis
    Mexico

    Posts: 2
    Joined: Apr 08

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 8:55pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>easy thing to do. Dont play the WSOP so they notice that players and viewers really matter!!</p>
  16. brent2thed brent2thed is offline

    Marlborough, MA
    United States

    Posts: 18
    Joined: Sep 07

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 9:45pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>I agree, but then again poker is after all about making money.  It does favor the pros and better players, but as a poker player that makes money in live cash games I enjoy the time around the WSOP because more torists come out to play.  I will now have almost 6 months of time to make more money because of the crazy number of people wanting to play during and just after the WSOP.  Plus if I was lucky enough to make it to the final table I would enjoy the time between to make extra money via sponsorships and such.  The only guy that won't like the idea will be the low stack guy that no one really wants to sponsor cause he might not be around long.</p>
    <p>I do have to admit though the hole idea is kind a stupid and really isn't good over all for the game.  My reasons for benefiting from it are purly selfish.  </p>
  17. ShadowBJ21 ShadowBJ21 is offline

    Unterhaching
    Germany

    Posts: 178
    Joined: May 06

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 10:08pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Great article, well said.</p>
    <p>And yes, ofcourse. Most will play there again.</p>
    <p>Boycot to show our concerns? Another great idea unfortunately this can backfire. Lower attendance, lower TV-ratings and Harrahs & ESPN might decide that it isn't worth to deal with the WSOP anymore.</p>
    <p>When the WSOP was sold to Harrahs it was saved on one hand (otherwise it most probably wouldn't exist anymore) but on the other hand (and we all knew it) was from now on bound to the devil (of commerce).</p>
  18. kevin070 kevin070 is offline

    Gaylord, MI
    United States

    Posts: 1,260
    Joined: Aug 05

    May 2nd, 2008 (5/2/2008 11:29pm) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>Obviously ESPN is paying Harrah's for this move. Where's the extra money for the players? Why doesn't ESPN double whatever the prizepool is? </p>
    <p>I may still play some prelim events this year, but not the Main Event. This was a dumb idea that can only hurt the WSOP brand for Harrahs.</p>
  19. TMLMS13 TMLMS13 is offline

    Waterloo
    Canada

    Posts: 15,997
    Joined: Dec 05

    May 3rd, 2008 (5/3/2008 12:10am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>wp sir</p>
  20. GRIMYOAF GRIMYOAF is offline

    Louisville, KY
    United States

    Posts: 1,907
    Joined: Apr 08

    May 3rd, 2008 (5/3/2008 12:25am) in reply to grapsfan

    <p>This is EASILY the best article/comments that I've read about this subject.  We can all hope that this deboucle will only be for this year, and next year things go back to normal.</p>
 
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