Bigger Deal

Where are the WSOP TDs?

By Lee Jones

Okay, I give up. What are the WSOP tournament directors thinking? A guy named Ciaran O’Leary has just won event #3 at the World Series of Poker – $1,500 no-limit hold’em. When his opponents had a difficult decision to make against him, he’d stand up and pace around the stage.

So, let’s start from the Tourmament Director’s Association Rules. Specifically rule #38:

"Action Pending – Players must remain at the table if they still have action pending on a hand."

That’s fairly unambiguous, isn’t it?

But more than that, even if that rule didn’t exist, it should be obvious why you can’t let players wander around when they’re in the middle of hand. As an almost side point, it’s too easy for them to potentially start discussing the hand with friends on the rail⁽¹⁾. But the much larger issue is what it does to the game.

Hell, if you can’t stare across the table at your opponent and see how his emotions are doing when you’re making a big decision, we might as well all go home and play online.

So the TDs were MIA. Do they not have a copy of the TDA rules, or have they expunged that inconvenient little rule from the WSOP rule book so they can have better TV?

And where was the fourth estate? The Card Player writer, Ryan Lucchesi, reported this behavior as if it were the color of shirt O’Leary was wearing: "This time [O’Leary] made ample use of every square inch available. He ended up over by the media table at one point." I can assure you that Andy Glazer (God rest his soul) or any other poker-passionate writer would have said how inappropriate this was. Jim McManus would be bouncing off the walls.

And Mike Sexton. Oh, Mike Sexton would be giving ‘em what for. Mike, bless his heart, is one of the old-schoolers who understands that modern poker has brought us huge benefits. And televised poker has made Mike a very rich man (occasionally, good things happen to good people). But ol’ Mike, more than just about anybody else, knows that for the game to survive, you can’t eviscerate it for the cameras. Because one of these days, there won’t be nearly as many cameras; it’s a virtual certainty.

Furthermore, I can promise you that the TV people won’t care if they leave a gutted shell of the game they discovered. A game with no decorum, etiquette, or class. Because they’ll be onto the Next Big Thing that America’s couch potatoes want to watch. But the game won’t exist as we know it if we forget why we’re at the table: to match wits against the other men and women around the table, with Lady Luck along to stir the pot.

If a man (or woman) isn’t parked in his seat, the "read-the-player" aspect of the game is gone, and suddenly live poker loses one of its great advantages over the very different game of online poker.

I could say "sic transit gloria mundi" here, but that sounds cynical and defeatist.

Instead, I’ll raise a call to arms. Tournament directors: do your job – protect the game. Poker writers: don’t just report what happens – express an opinion. When the game is being mistreated, scream bloody murder.

We owe the game, and ourselves, that much at least.

[1] Lest you think this is unthinkable, there have already been a couple of scandals at previous WSOPs becaue of this exact behavior. Back to text

Posted by Lee Jones on June 6th, 2007 in Poker, WSOP.
Comments: 7

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Comments

Comment from Richard
Time: June 8, 2007, 9:22 pm

Each time they get a top Director like Matt Savage they sack them because they want a TV spectacle and the poker is second to everything now as far as Harrahs is concerned. Savage would not put up with this nonsense.

Comment from spencer
Time: June 9, 2007, 8:06 pm

Why didn’t the other players at the table call for a ruling?

This is clearly out of order and someone from Harrah’s/WSOP should have put a stop to it but – given their current record of cock ups in running the event – you’d have thunk the other players might have said something.

The most outrageous tournament cock up I have ever heard was where a Final Table was being simulcasted to a room where friend/family/poker saddos could watch the event. It included live feeds from the table cams so you could see the cards. On some monster hand where it was AA vs KK and the flop came AKK the room erupted as they knew the players would get it all in. Unfortunately the room was pretty close to the final table and the players at the final table could hear the reaction. The guy with AA raised and was re-raised all in back. He laid down Aces. Tell me that he would have made that lay down without the sound of the audience next door to influence his action.

The problem with TV crews is 1) they know nothing about poker 2) they are on an hourly wage so they just want to get it finished 3) if you’ve met anyone you need to have a Masters Degree in being a jerk to get into the business.

Pingback from Gambling Today » Blog Archive » 2007 World Series: $5,000 PL Hold’em Final Table (Part 3)
Time: June 11, 2007, 2:51 am

[...] is underway. Former PokerStars card room manager Lee Jones recently wrote an interesting piece on poker etiquette. Even he, a poker purist, admits he’s off on a bit of a rant. Still, when I look at some of [...]

Comment from Steve
Time: June 13, 2007, 10:24 pm

There is nothing wrong with a player walking away when he is all in, there can be no other action taken by the player and his opponent is not hurt in any way, its the same as if the player put his hands over his face, the opponent gets the same read.
Perhaps before you blast the new td’s you should go back to Scotty Nguyens WSOP Win when at one point his opponent Kevin Mcbride was allowed to go to the bathroom after moving allin by Jack McClelland leaving Scottty looking at not just an empty chair but not even a walking around opponent.
The integrity of the game is intact, quit living in the past, this is todays game.

Comment from Steve
Time: June 13, 2007, 10:27 pm

Oh yes and by the way, Matt Savage was the TD when players started this get up when all-in thing for the TV. Richard should wonder why Matt cannot do anything in the USA anymore, crooked TD’s can only work abroad!

Comment from Lee Jones
Time: June 17, 2007, 5:46 am

Steve, you wrote: “The integrity of the game is intact, quit living in the past, this is todays game.”

I like to think of myself as one of the more enlightened people on the subject of new poker vs. old poker. As I’ll tell anybody who will listen, I was around for old poker, and new poker is way better.

Whatever happened during the WSOP that Scotty Nguyen won doesn’t make what O’Leary did okay. And in fact, Harrah’s own WSOP rules include TDA rule #38. Now, I suppose a totally strict constructionist reading of #38 would suggest that if a player is all in, he could leave the tournament area and go to Starbucks, since he does, indeed, have no further action in the hand. Either his opponent calls or he doesn’t.

This, IMHO, is splitting semantic hairs at the cost of the game’s integrity. If you think it’s okay, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Regards, Lee

Comment from Short-Stacked Shamus
Time: July 11, 2007, 10:57 pm

Just saw this for the first time last night on ESPN’s coverage of Event No. 3. Outrageous. And obviously unfair to the players left at the table with decisions to make.