Poker News

WSOP Critique

In a recent meeting with one of our regular writers, some Harrah’s executives remarked that, “I hated them or the WSOP.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

I love the WSOP. It is the premier event of our industry. I had a great deal to do with promoting and publicizing this event.

The first ever national write up of a poker tournament appeared in the very first issue of Gambling Times magazine, circa February 1977, which I founded. Every year thereafter we covered the WSOP in as many as 110,000 copies of our nationally circulated magazine.

I don’t have the energy that it takes to hate anyone. At 72 years of age, I need all my energy to build our publishing and tournament businesses.

If I hated the execs at Harrah’s, I’d just ignore them, rather than write about what they were doing wrong.

The reason for these editorials is that numerous issues have been reported to me by hundreds of players, many of whom view us as the “player’s voice,” as well as issues I’ve carefully noted through my own observations. What is pointed out as being wrong needs to be reviewed and considered, instead of marginalizing the critic by saying he hates you.

After all, one can always ignore the remarks of someone who hates them. But if Jeffrey Pollack or any other Harrah’s executive would like to respond in print to any point I have made, I welcome their comments.

Although Harrah’s has a small, select committee of top pros who act as a sounding board, these few people do not represent the majority of players. Indeed, these people havetheir own special agendas tailored to their own needs as poker professionals.

One of this newspaper’s goals is to represent the poker playing public- who are the patrons of the WSOP-and we do a good job of it. Poker Player Newspaper covers not just what the pros are doing, but the entire world of poker. Since beginning this series, I have had positive comments in person at public events, on the phone, through e-mail, and from secondary sources. To date I have received only three negative commentaries, which are but a small fraction of the positive comments and encouragement to keep up the good work.

Frankly, I’m getting a bit tired of focusing on this subject. So, in the next issue I will finalize my comments and cover the remaining topics in this series. My purpose in writing these editorials cannot be given the usual admonition that I want to sell more newspapers, since readers get this paper free.

My purpose was to instigate appropriate changes to maintain and sustain the health of the WSOP.

One thing I do know, when you ignore the American public, they will turn upon you and bite you in the butt. It may take some time, but, remember that “fame is fleeting.”

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