Paul Phillips

It is a shame what happened with the TOC and it is good that you and Daniel take the time to speak out against it. Maybe it will help prevent such actions in the future. I am interested in knowing what else goes on that prevents most players from getting a fair shake. Your last paragraph suggests there are other such things. Further elaboration may make for interesting discussion.

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From cardplayer's TOC coverage:

Date / Time: 2005-11-08 15:21:00

Log: Tournament Director Jimmy Sommerfeld asks the audience to give a round of applause to ESPN and SoBe's new energy drink (Adrenaline Rush) for sponsoring this event. Mike Matusow then asks the crowd to give a round of applause to Harrah's for inviting Phil Hellmuth to show up and take all of their money. The crowd applauds, but it's likely that only a dozen or so really get the joke. See Daniel Negreanu's blog or Paul Phillips' blog for more details.

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Does the $2 million for this event come from the juice (i.e., Harrah's) or from TV/sponsors? If it is the latter, then it becomes a little more understandable that a few spots would be reserved for "big names" that would boost the TV ratings. That said, the possibility of sponsor exemptions (to use a golf term) should have been stated clearly ahead of time.

Daniel's argument that the players were lied to about their $18,350 in equity is not even correct. This assumes that every player has an even shot at the $2 million in prizes. You have to believe that Hellmuth, Chan, and Brunson have a much better than average chance of winning this tournament a priori.

With hindsight vision, it certainly looks like Hellmuth is going to take out a large piece of this pie.

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You have to believe that Hellmuth, Chan, and Brunson have a much better than average chance of winning this tournament a priori.

Well they should have zero equity since they did not qualify for the TOC like everyone else. And when something is promised to the other players, and then you bend the rules for your own benefit, that to me is pretty unfair. I'd like to know if Chan, Hellmuth, or Brunson were told about the arrangement, and if they were, would they have not played based on principle?

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Was the juice for the WSOP circuit tour tournaments higher than 'normal'? If not, it doesn't seem to be that egregious.

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Pro Poker reminds me of a cheap cat house. You walk in and there's a picture of two girls on the wall--Ugly and Uglier. You pick out Ugly and are told she isn't working this week and end up with Uglier. You pay your money and walk through the door and find yourself in a line and are way down the list. After you get to the room you find Uglier is on break and Ugliest--her lame sister--is filling in. But, hell, you paid your money and you have needs...

Guess what I really want to say is that Pro Players are the draw and as enticing to the public as A-Rod was a while back but, unlike him, you have no power to dictate terms because you are a herd. And all that gets you is a sledge hammer between the horns. Don't cry about it because you are causing it.

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Bottom line is that absolutely nothing is free and there are few true freerolls to be found anywhere in life never mind poker.

Players pay for everything and get little or no say.

Unfortunately the sad part is that things will remain this way for years to come and very likely forever as players are unable to act collectively and in an effective way.

My thought on this and other related sagas involving bending of the rules and such are well documented elsewhere but I am genuinely pleased to see that some people still exist who are prepared to express their views openly and honestly. For that they will always have my respect, regardless of whether or not I actually agree with their viewpoints.

Long live freedom of speech and democracy and I only hope that your last tournament was your penultimate one and not your final one;-)

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Just to be fair... would there be a similar reaction if only Doyle was in the money instead of bubbling out?

Or did he qualify thru the circuit?

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So who among the lot of big name players is going to step up to the plate and create an organization that rivals Harrah's? They have a monopoly on the biggest prize in poker.

Sadly, the game of poker is an individual endeavor. Were it a team sport (separate topic) then perhaps a larger group of players acting together could make big changes with respect to the juice, sponsorships, etc. But it seems that few are willing to work together to achieve this, and I'm not surprised.

I know there have been attempts at this, which I believe led to the PPT, but thus far, they have been largely unsuccessful.

Could it even be done?

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Hellmuth is in the chip lead. Doyle was out in 10th. Johnny Chan finished 14th. The three non-qualifiers in the field of 112 did some serious damage. (well, as you would expect, they are largely pretty good) So, now we can quantify the damage to the people who paid to enter all those circuit events to get in this.

When I started directing tournaments, I learned one lesson the hard way, several times, and it is one I repeatedly impress upon those I teach: Don't do any favors. Now you see why. Favors that helps person A have a way of injuring all other persons around. If ESPN or some other corporate group were putting up all the money, then it would be a different story, golden rule, and all that. But this is just more of the consistent message ESPN delivers to poker: Your stupid little game will not entertain anyone unless we do our ESPN thing and rev it up. No one cares about Josh Arieh folding off a third of his chips in one pot to Raymer at the 2004 final table. They care about Chris Ferguson chopping carrots with playing cards. No one wants to see a feature table with Bonyadi, Ivey, Lederer, and Juanda together, they would rather see Matusow torment a bunch of unknowns. People don't care about why Dustin Woolf got away with a bluff with a mediocre pair, they just want to hear jokes about Norm Chad's ex-wives.

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They really screwed the people who qualified. It's terrible.

As far as the content choices go, maybe the average viewer would rather have it this way. Does it have to be dumbed down? IDK. Our pro point of view is not mainstream. Maybe it's all for the best, keep'em entertained and as clueless as possible. Rev up the herd and propel them to slaughter. Those who want to learn will find a way.

It's fascinating to me to watch this in action with something I have knowledge about. Noticing the difference between what's being reported/perceived and what is really going on, and why it should matter. Makes me think what other information I am missing from my daily news? What motivations are clouding the reporting? What should I be caring about but don't know enough about to fit the pieces together?

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Not that this makes the situation appreciably less scummy, but apparently Pepsi came in as a sponsor at the last minute. In return for $2 million, they demanded that Hellmuth, Chan, and Brunson be included.

Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=rosenbloom_steve&id=2216805

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Interesting to note that Pepsi put up the money and that there will be a USA nationwide campaign built up around the three invitees. You pay the money and get the tv coverage and do as you please. (But where are Coca Cola hiding?)

Does this mean that the three of them were wearing Pepsi logos?

Money = Power and absolute power (as we all know) corrupts.

Good to see that morals don't exist any more (did they ever?) and that anyone and everyone is prepared to sell their soul for the almighty greenback.

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That makes it much worse.

"We feel terrible about this, really terrible. Mistakes were made, let's move on. By the way, we're keeping the $2M we guaranteed. Here's a different $2M, which we realize looks rather similar but isn't. It's infused with the great taste of ADRENALINE RUSH."

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In which case instead of pocketing that $2 million - since if Pepsi hadn't turned up they were still holding the tournament, and hence the prize pool was already budgeted for - they should have added to the prize pool.

There would be less complaints if they let those 3 extra players in and added $500,000 to the prize pool, that makes up for the equity loss, and they still keep most of the cash...

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So, is the part of the juice that Harrah's collected from the players to form the prize pool being returned?

While I have not researched this, I strongly doubt it.

Even if Harrah's wants to play a shell game and say "It's this money, not that money," the players still paid for it. The fact that their money is now NOT contributing to it only makes it more scummy.

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It seems to me that the only people that are bitching are the ones that didn't qualify, and/or the pros that weren't asked. I have a friend that played, and he actually liked that they were invited. We discussed this at length, and it may sound strange, but we would rather play Phil then some of the other donks that qualified. A tourney was setup to benefit people playing in the circuit events, then those same promoters included 3 of the biggest names in poker to boost the coverage, and all the other pros complain. Would you rather they not even have a tourney like this? Would you rather they include a disclaimer that they reserve the right to include sponsor exemptions?
Do the pros really care about the little guy, just upset because they didn't get an invite, or does this stem from their jealousy of Phil?

Flame away!

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If you've read this blog for any period of time you should know that Paul comments on the unseemly side of tournament poker all the time. Negreanu has also been known to complain about bad tournament management and related issues.

This basically amounts to Pepsi bribing Harrah's to break the agreement they had with all the real qualifiers. The fact that the bribe is the same size as the prize pool serves pretty well to disguise the deed.

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I share the outrage. But let's be clear what the players should be pissed off about. It's the lying.

If Harrah's has promised: "After the WSOP, we'll hold a $2M freeroll and we're going to invite whomever we want through a non-transparent process" then FINE.

But, instead, they laid out a very specific procedure...and then junked it. THAT's what's egregious here.

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The level of condemnation should be in proportion of how much higher the juice was in the qualifier tournaments in comparison with tournaments of similar structure. However that function should have a slight positive intercept IMO.

What it does to detract the value of the brand name of the company, is a separate issue.

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Well it looks like Pepsi and the casino got what they wanted.
A Hellmuth/Matusow final table is a dream come true for them. Just imagine the commercials they'll put together promoting the show. I'm sure watching the final table you'll think it's a heads up match.



Also, has anyone read the new Bluff magazine (Matusow on cover) article about Phil Gordon's road trip where they call Paul a "huge fish". sarcasm??

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Phil Gordon should shut pie hole and stick to emceeing the "prestigious" Celebrity Poker. When he wins a million dollars in a tourney, then everyone can pull his chain to speak.

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This looks like breach of contract to me. When you pay your entry fee in a ciruit event, you were promised two things; a shot at the prize pool in the event, and a shot in the TOC prize pool if you qualified. By adding people to the TOC, they are diminishing your equity in TOC.

This isn't just slimy; IMNSFHO, it's flat-out stealing. A class action suit by the entrants to the circuit events seems appropriate. I will talk to some lawyer friends to see if they agree, and whether they're interested in pursuing this.

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From CardPlayer:

Hand 153 - Phil Hellmuth has the button in seat 4, unknown action (no flop).

Hellmuth says, "You know I finished second in this event last year. There's only one way to improve." To that, Matusow responds, "If you keep getting INVITED to tournaments, it's easy to finish second."

Matusow, with that quote, you move up a little bit in my world.

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Fox Asks White Sox To Play Yankees For 'Real World Championship'

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42131

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It's better for poker overall to have big names on television. They might be losing a little equity in this one tournament, but in the long run the continued popularity of poker is more important for everyone involved.

And so what if they lied and mislead people? The public couldn't care less and the poker players involved can't do anything about it anyway. I don't think the pros are going to be lining up around the block to boycott a freeroll tournament. They might bitch and moan, but at the end of the day they're still playing in it.

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I completely agree with you Paul that this whole situation is both ridiculous and not surprising. There is no doubt in my mind that the solution is for the poker players to take over the running over the tournaments from the corporate leeches. There is not enough time to go into detail about how I envision this but a couple of quick points:
1) The format should be roughly similar to that of the Professional Golfers Association
2) The key to getting this going is a majority of the "big name" players insisting on it.
Hope this post isn't too far off topic ...

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This is just classic:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker

Here's the promo blurb, before you get into the article:

"Last week, Steve Rosenbloom reported the exemptions for the Tournament of Champions came directly from the sponsor. However, Jeffrey Pollack, the Vice President of sports and entertainment marketing for Harrah's spoke to Rosenbloom to discuss what really happened at the Tournament of Champions. [color:blue]Although the whole issue was due to a lack of communication, !Pollack and Harrahs are ready to make things right with the players and fans." !!!

Maybe I can't read, but I didn't find ONE thing that Harrah's is planning on doing to "make things right" with anyone except themselves.

Now, while I agree with Pollack that the "missing $2M" is a joke (what does getting a sponsor's money have to do with "substituting" cash? I've never understood the source of this argument since this started), the responses from Harrah's are just classic corporate CYA.... and came across as arrogant to boot.

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