By Eric Rosenberg My mother, two ex-girlfriends, an ex-wife, and even my wife all agreed that I know how to push peoples' buttons. I won’t argue with that. Sometimes I do it for fun, sometimes I do it by accident, and sometimes I do it because some people just need their buttons pushed.
The blog post that I made about
Bill Chen’s deal in the $1500 WSOP shootout event was not meant to push anybody’s buttons. It was meant to get people thinking about whether or not making a deal in a preliminary round of a shootout event is a) ethical, b) within the boundaries of the rules, or c) something that should be addressed by the TDA.
Wowwy wow wow! I guess my plan worked. Take a look at
this discussion thread on RGP! This one is a doozy and although I didn’t mean to do any button pushing, some buttons were obviously pushed… and pushed hard!
I spent the better part of the last two days fielding emails and somewhat defending myself in the thread itself. I hate doing that though. A friendly argument or (debate) in an online setting is a rare thing. Often times, people fight there battles by cherry picking points of your argument and quotes so that it reads to their favor in new posts. In a thread as long as this one, you can’t expect readers to go through each and every posting, so points made are often lost or even changed by your debate opponents.
With that in mind, I made one last post on the topic…
Just for the record...
Despite selective and out of context quoting, I never accused Bill Chen of being a cheater. I posed the question to my readers and solicited their thoughts. This thread was a result of it and obviously people have differing opinions of what took place by players and management. I specifically noted in my blog that Chen said that he had received permission to make the deal. If you have permission from a director of the tournament, then you should not be labeled a cheater. Should permission have been given? I don't think that it should have. I don't think that the practice of dealing your way through to the next level should be an accepted one. Until everybody still in the tournament can reach an agreement on any deals, I think that poker should dictate the course. My guess is that the casino has already received all the money they are going to get from the players in that particular event and their attitude is that finishing it off as quickly as possible will a) shorten the employees time spent on the event and b) force the players to the next event (and giving more money to the casino) as quickly as possible. Therefor, it is my opinion that the problem lies with management.
With all due respect, I would like for you to consider this my final say on the matter.
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The Poker Blog that Seems to Piss People Off:
http://www.LiveActionPoker.com
read and reply to rec.gambling.poker:
http://www.LiveActionPoker.com
