Is this a ****ing joke?

Is this whole thing a ****ing joke?

God this tilts me so much. There are so many issues, most of them very serious and real, that make this such a bad idea, I don't even know what to say. This is sickening. Do poker players have no power to change this decision? I really have to reconsider playing now.

i love that all the final tablists can now actually have time to scout every player by watching episodes of the 08 ME

Great! Now the mob can get involved again and fix the game like it's supposed to be...

Just vote the big stack out of the house first.

What happens if the chipleader dies before the FT?

His stack will be blinded off.

from the usa today link posted...

"What if something happens that precludes a player from playing at the final table? The WSOP has accounted for that. A player who does not appear will have his chips "blinded off," which means they will be paid into mandatory bets for each hand. When a competitor's last chip is played, he will be paid for where he finishes."

nh wp

I actually think it's a fantastic idea.

The increased media exposure and the reality show or whatever it is would make the FTers household names. The real money is not in the goddamn tourney, is in the sponsorships and endorsements you can get out of that, and that will be leveraged massively.

I don't know how much Hachem and that PStars crowd get paid but I'm confident that if their final tables had been covered like this, it would be a multiple.

The "Tournament circuit" is already a glorified circus, so many "pros" are nothing but colorful characters that play just to put an act in front of the cameras. The real business here is not poker, it's show business.

I really can't understand all this negativity, this is the best thing that happened to tournament poker since the hole card cameras.

Poker on TV will be live blogging the press conference at 2 PM Eastern today.

The biggest issue I have with this is that it essentially takes tons of equity away from the best players. Let's say there's somebody who's a massive donkey on the run of his life and gets to the final table. Now, what is that guy gonna do for the next 4 months? He's gonna go to <insert top level tournament player here> and say "Hey, I'll give you 10% of my winnings to coach me for 4 months and turn me into the best player you can." Obviously everybody at the FT can do that, but making the transition from bad to good player is much much easier than the transition from good to great player.

I feel like if nothing else, poker needs to maintain the integrity of the game, and I think this damages that by evening the playing field in the middle of a tournament.

Headline reads "WSOP Jumps the Shark".

So not true. The millions the winner gets would take years and years to make thru endorsements alone and most couldn't even due that as players like Moneymaker and Yang won't keep up their momentum enough to keep them sponsored for more then a couple years. I mean the only reason we still talk about Moneymaker is cause he started the boom, not cause he is any good. So many pros have come out and said that the money they make in endorsements is way overated. Sure a select few like DN make decent money but the vast majority don't and won't make anywhere near as much as they will for winning the ME.

This is screwing anyone left at the final table with skill for the sake of the all mighty dollar with ESPN and the Harrah's getting the vast majority of it.

There is potential for SOME good too come out of this, but there is even greater potential for any of several huge disaster scenarios.

lol @ post # 2 IMO

ESPN will hype this up so big with the new format and the final table will get a ton of viewers and with that comes a ton of new players.

Good for most of 2+2, imo. Just hope they aren't going to try and PPV the final table.

what he said...exactly! and their all excited because players can secure added logo wear for "x number of dollars" wtf? so ******ed...

questions to newsgroup?
if you made it to the final would you hire a coach? how much would you pay?
and who would you try to hire?

oh great.

This is so freaking stupid for reasons already being mentioned. If I FT this I would be sitting around every day talking to to top mtt players on aim and probably running through some simulation FT and such with them and video them then go back and talk through it to get feedback.

Apologies if it has already been posted, I've skipped a few posts: pokernews article

It's from the same source anyway, so it's not confirmation.

I believe they did that lat year...
http://broadband.espn.go.com/ppv/poker

fyp

I have to agree. Horrible, horrible, horrible idea in my opinion. Seems like "bastardization of poker for the sake of marketing".

I love the WSOP ME (well, at least until now), but if FT players' participation in a reality show is required to play in the event, I will probably not play the event.

[x] shady way for a lot of people to make interest on ~ $60,000,000 for 4 months.

This is absurd, what would happen if someone who made the FT died in between those months? I am seriously considering not even playing this event just because it's the biggest joke ever.

How many times is this question going to get asked in this thread?!?!

Guys,
Wow. I was joking about the reality show.
~Justin