Quote:
Originally Posted by JCHAK
Not to Ryan Yu it didn't, in fact to Ryan it had no value unless he could get some equity out of Mike for it. Read his explanation on it, the TOC was completely worthless to him as he wouldn't even be able to play in it due to schedule constraints, this is straight from the player's mouth, you can't tell someone else what value is to them. Some people despise the spotlight, perhaps it's antithetic their place of employment's value system and they don't want a bunch of photos on the internet so winning the tournament has a -EV for them. Situational value has an infinite number of possibilities. People are recreationally outraged over this for no legitimate reason.
Thank you for that link.
Ryan Yu pretty much answered my main question, which was “why would Yu not want more money AND the title?”
As for Mr. Leah, he did not request the chop, and would not do any chop unless he is awarded the title. At a 2:1 chip disadvantage, how can we fault Leah for accepting the title, along with a fair ICM distribution of the money?
Yu did not want to go to the TOC and did not care about any POY points. Why should the two of them be forced to play for a title only one of them wants?
I do not fault either player, and Leah won the right to negotiate the title by making it to the final two. This is poker, I have no problem with this.
So, why the farce chip dumping?
That is the only problem here. WPT should allow them to stop playing. If this “looks bad” then WPT needs to hire someone who gives a damn about the dismal future of poker and knows what bad optics is.
For televised events, the drama of closed door chop negotiations would be easy for commentators to exaggerate and up-sell the pros and cons to either player.
Forcing a continuance of play is the fault of WPT, not the players.