Did something change? Because I thought there used to be a rule that at the ME Final Table, any one poker site cannot have more than 3 "sponsored/badged" players.

Maybe this rule was eliminated because it looks like Full Tilt will have 7 badged players compared to 2 for PokerStars. I wonder if Full Tilt offered the 7 players the $10M deal, that if they win the ME they get an extra $10M from Full Tilt (paid over 10 years or something like that)?

They will have to choose 3 guys, and 3 guys only, to wear Full Tilt patches.

I do not know if Full Tilt will pay the other 4 NOT to wear anyone else's patches (and to do things like, if a guy who was NOT chosen to wear the patch wins the tournament, put the Full Tilt Patch back on AFTER the tournament is over for the camera pictures), or if they'll just straight release the guys from their contracts, allowing Stars to pick up one player and also allowing another site to pick up the remaining 3.

Also apparently you can't put on patches once the table starts, so if the three guys picked by FTP bust out 1-2-3, SOL for FTP.

why the hell do those rules exist? lol

I've been wondering the same thing. I can see why some people might like to see advertiser diversity at the table, but why does the WSOP care? I don't see how it effects the event one way or the other, so why is such a rule necessary?

I'm going to guess "they" (they being ESPN, not WSOP) don't want all 9 players wearing one patch, because it would seem as if it's essentially that companies game at that point. ESPN doesn't want people thinking that the WSOP is a Full-Tilt exclusive event, unless of course Full Tilt is willing to pay ESPN a ton of money for said exclusion.

Why no more than 3? No clue. A no-more than 4, or even 5 would have the same effect.

I think ESPN told WSOP that, and WSOP, because $ trumps all, came up with the rule. Pure speculation on my part, but that would be what I think is the logic.

I was just wondering because in the November Nine promo photos, like the one above, clearly 7 players are wearing Full Tilt and 2 wearing PokerStars. And on the PokerStars Client News pop-up it only talks about their two players, Duhamel and Senti. So I was just wondering if in fact the rule of "3 players max" still exists?

If in the ESPN contract a patch means wearing the company name on the patch they already found a solution for that : why do you think FTP started to brand their red triangles on the Doubles Poker Championship ?

who will they pick? my guess: Mizrachi as the only top pro left, perhaps Candio for the appeal the european public, and....

I'd guess Dolan because of his stack.

Who would want to endorse Pokerstars anyways? They've got the worst RNG in the biz.

1) If you're not an online player, what does it matter?
2) If you are an online player, and you win, I don't think you have to play exclusively at the site of the patch you wore, unless they sign you as someone they want to feature and advertise about, but I don't see, say, Matt Jarvis (if he doesn't win) being important enough to make a featured pro.
3) If you do win, the company you wore will undoubtedly want to feature you on their site, so the sites' flaws aren't as important as how much they're paying you. I don't think Cada cares nearly as much about Poker Stars' RNG flaws as so much the $ he gets from them so they can say that they have the 2009 Champion.

Ahh makes sense when you put it that way. I didn't even consider that it might have been ESPN making the rule. Do you know that this is the case, or are you just speculating?

I'm pretty sure the rule only applies while they're seated at the actual final table. I'm curious to know what will happen to the 4 FTP sponsored players who aren't allowed to wear their patches, though. I guess they have already negotiated their sponsorship package, so maybe nothing changes in that regard, regardless of whether they get to wear the patch or not.

Gary Wise had an interesting take on it if you're interested: http://espn.go.com/sports/fantasy/bl...ine-back-vegas

Per some preliminary reporting John Racener is wearing CardPlayer logos and Soi Nguyen is wearing Poker After Dark logos. Seems that FTP is getting creative by using their sister brands to keep their players patched up in some form.

Speculation that seems fairly reasonable. Could be entirely WSOP being wierd for all I know. Think of it like ranges - the range of reasons is fairly narrow, and is most likely what I said. ESPN didn't want it that way, told WSOP their concern, and WSOP was happy to make that a rule since it doesn't affect play (it's not like ESPN wanted a rule where >3 patches, you must move a player to another table, which would affect play).

As am I. Let's say Soi takes it down. Will he put an FTP patch back on for pictures, or stick with whatever patch he is given (which apparently is for PAD, a FTP affiliated show).

Good read.

i saw a photo on wsop.com today, and the 2 pokerstars players were in the back of the photo and it was hard to see their logos,

maybe wsop dislikes pokerstars

So starting it looks like the lineup shows:
Mizrachi Cheong Dolan in FTP patches
Condio Racener Jarvis in Cardrunners patches
Nguyen in Poker After Dark patches
and of course Senti and Duhamel in Stars

If the rule didn't exist, FullTilt would effectively buy the event, start its own world series and steal the show. Max of 3 players at the ft protects the WSOP brand.

They look like walking ****ing billboards :/

What a disgrace, even the TDs are wearing those badges? Come on Frank get this US bill passed so FT and PS go down the toilet and we can begin to see Party Poker badges. It's such a joke.

Gawd, I'll prolly just drop watching this because of Hellmuth alone, who let him talk?

My God it's tilting me so bad watching all these stupid badges, can they wear a few more? How bad.

Why are you guys hating on them for making money? If looking at a badge on a guy playing poker on TV (or a livestream in this case) tilts you, you should find the nearest bridge, and jump.

I would Full Tilt patching Bruce Buffer a genious marketing decision.

fulltilt fixed this problem quite good, they're basically all still repping fulltilt, but in an indirect way

still weird to see a PAD patch though

Must be painful for Full Tilt to see Duhamel going HU with a huge chip lead