I'm compiling quotes from my guys about the change. Hoyt Corkins just called me with his:

"I believe this is too long of a delay. A 3-4 day delay would be more realistic. Anyone that has ever played on TV will be at a huge disadvantage and this opens the door for collusion, especially the use of signals. If people get caught colluding, it will be really bad for poker in the mainstream media"-Hoyt Corkins


"This is the most interesting and unique idea poker has seen in quite a while, and the best change Harrah's has made since they took over the WSOP. I think the Survivor-esque anticipation and excitement are going to be phenomenal for poker. I hope I can experience it firsthand!"---Rick Fuller


"What separates poker from other professional endeveours is that the players put up there own money. The players make no money from Harrahs, in fact, it is the reverse. For Harrahs this is all about the money and unless some of the money generated is shared with the players, this is just plain wrong. I agree with the majority of my colleagues concerning the collusion factor. The possibility of undue influence, collusion, and coruption with certainly have an affect on the outcome"----Roy Winston

Sidenote-I will be posting more reactions as they come in.

Lara Miller

Rick Fuller has my vote for idiot of the year

Its not suprising that most of the TV pros, DN and others, are all for it as they only ones other than Harrah's that will truly benefit from the delay. Just imagine the Super Bowl or World Series doing this and the reaction the fans would have.

It seems to work for college football !

That's entirely different. Need I say...

[ ] relevant

They play the first three quarters of the final game, then pack up and go home and play out the final quarter three months later?

did you even read the op? 2 out of 3 pros didnt like the change

Worst idea ever. Players at the final table are going to have a chance to see how their final opponent players have been playing so far since it'll air before the final table plays out. Imagine if everyone saw that you really were raising 52o in early position when you've been playing pretty tight. Now they know you have some bluff in you that they didn't expect before, and they can remember that when the final table plays out.

What about the dealers? If the whole table tips $100,000 for example what happens to the people who were dealing the event and got paid 3 months ago? Are they going get sent a check for their portion of that, or just give it to the dealers that are dealing the final table?

The former.

i'll be so disappointed if this goes through. SUCH a bad idea. imagine if you're an amateur, you've managed to make it to the final table, winning a few key races late on and you have all this momentum. and then it's like.....wait.......ok three months from now come back.

Who the **** is Roy Winston and Rick Fuller?

"Everyone who runs poker has clearly never played and shows their lack of even traces of intelligence in every subsequent decision that they make."

-Aaron Jones

Roy Winston "The Oracle", won a WPT event, plays high stakes cash games, FTP pro, founded a laser tattoo/hair removal place.

Rick Fuller - Clonie Gowen's editor/alleged plagiarizer, also a professional (I suppose).

What would happen if one of the guys who made final table was hit by a bus in the three months delay?

Why does anybody actually care about this? Do they think we are all going to get all excited over seeing 9 guys that no has ever heard of who are probably the worst players in the tournament and got stupid lucky throughout.

After all the build-up, I can't wait to see random white guy who is a farmer from Kentucky take on random Asian donk take on random guy from Europe who probably knows what he is doing but will still probably be the first one knocked out. Oh what fun.

The only good thing about it is that if had Jamie Gold had to wait 3 months, he probably would have lost because he would have stopped running hot long before the final table due to the delay.

They blind of his stack. Same happens if someone goes to prison, gets hospitalized etcetc.
And that who ruin all the play at the finaltable since no one would take any chances before the "sit outs" are blinded away. What if the guy with a major chiplead dies? Fold, fold, fold for 15 hours and then all in 8 hands in a row to crown the champion. Awsome.

Yes and none of the ones quoted do I consider "tv pro's" either.

more like they play the entire regular season, and then wait 2 months before playing in the national championship game.

Which isn't what is being done here. They are playing the chamipnship game (the main event), then when it gets to the end they are delaying it 4 months (the final table can be considered the 4th quarter in this sense), THEN they are waiting AGAIN when it gets heads up and doing that a day later (think of it as stopping at the two minute warning and playing the last two minutes the next day).

Again how would this be viewed by regular sports fans?

we should blame the players for dying, they're supposed to stay alive

sorry, its not like this at all. everything leading up to the final table can be considered the regular season, where teams battle it out for the top 2 seeds in the BCS rankings. then the top 2 seeds get a break for 2 months, where *gasp* the star QB COULD DIE!!, or even worse ! the #2 seed could PRACTICE and get better!!!!!! on noeeeeeeezz

**head explodes**

Everyone will have the same opportunity to study their opponents. Everyone will be be in the same "dissipation of momentum from having to wait" situation. Everyone will have the same opportunity to get coaching. Net "unfairness": zero.

It's a big nothing. Calm the f down. It'll just put some drama into the outcome, and make the final tablists bigger stars. They'll be floating on air for three months. The talk of the poker town. Good for them.

The better you are, the less improvement you can get. Negreanu can't get much better, but the guy from Toledo in seat 9 with 4 months of training could go from okay to above average. Before this year studying your opponents and being coached for the FT wasn't an issue, now it is. What if the chipleader isn't very good at studying?

They'll be big stars for 4 months, and we'll probably never hear from 8 of them after November. Wow, seat 6 is a construction worker from Alabama, WTF cares?