1) Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey does what Phil Ivey wants:
- See ESPN Fights Phil Ivey Over Logo, Loses.
- Update, 2009: Phil refused to be on ESPN's featured tables (the ones with hole-card cams) this year... so ESPN changed the featured tables.
- When there's an all-in, they stop the action and a WSOP supervisor asks an ESPN producer if they should wait for a camera. If ESPN isn't interested, they get on with play. See also Vicky Coren's eloquent opinion on this practice.
- ESPN is also believed to decide when play should stop for the night.
- Penalties may even get reversed for TV: short-stacked Phil Hellmuth was deep into the Main Event when he got a one-orbit penalty, which could have shortened his survival on a TV table. Somehow, it got overturned. Many people think it was because Phil Hellmuth does what Phil Hellmuth wants, but I wonder if it wasn't to maximize Phil Hellmuth's airtime late in the Main Event
They do whatever ESPN tells them to do. Unless Phil Ivey's around.
More evidence that ESPN's show trumps the rules: see Matt Savage's analysis of the rules Scotty Nguyen got away with breaking at the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE final table.
ReplyDeleteGene Bromberg has some more interesting comments on ESPN's rule of the World Series of Poker, at the $50K HORSE event:
ReplyDeleteThere was a moment of controversy right off the bat–Scotty drinks Michelob Ultra and the WSOP powers-that-be wouldn’t let him have a beverage other than Milwaukee’s Best Light on stage (and on camera). Forcing someone to drink Milwaukee’s Best Light would’ve deservedly landed WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack in the dock at The Hague, but cooler heads prevailed and Scotty was allowed to drink his Ultra with the labels peeled off.
....
Scotty Nguyen... started dropping the F-bombs, and then the MF-bombs. He lost a hand and let loose with a barrage of profanity at one of the dealers that everyone in the room could hear in exquisite detail. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t get a penalty for that, but playing at a WSOP final table (especially one with ESPN’s cameras present) is like an overtime playoff hockey game. The refs swallow their whistles. Unless you commit felony murder on the ice, or the felt, play on.
For the 2009 WSOP Phil Ivey steadfastly refused to be on ESPN's featured tables... and they changed the featured tables in response.
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