Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Tractor]

Well, that's Vegas almost done & dusted, I've taken nearly 600 pics, of which over 7 were interesting.

The trip has gone well, for Sky (who paid for it), & I enjoyed it to the full, it's a good feeling to look back on hard work done well. I did my job as well as I'm able, except for schmoozing the Clients around Town, which is not my speciality act, & anyway, I had no time to, really.

I awoke today 2 hours late - 2 hours! - for a breakfast meeting, apologies had to be sent to all. Oops. I blamed the bang on the bonce. If you've got it, use it.

The swelling on my conk has slowly subsided, but the cut on the bridge looks a bit ugly. Never mind, nature will restore my beauty soon enough.

The story which broke about PokerNews, Tiffany, & UB only surprised in that UB seem to have a special self-destruct button, & once again they've pressed it. 

There'll be a lot more of that from the November Nine between now & the Bracelet.

I so wish my fave-named player of the Event had Finalled, but he fell short. Poor old Dong Deng. (Actual moniker Xiao Dong DEng). The Headline writers woulda had a field day.

Spent 12 straight hours today sorting out e-Mails & suchlike, & made good progress. A good feeling.

I jump on a Jetplane tomorrow, am back Thursday, can't wait to see Angell for a few hours, then I head back South, as I'm working Friday & have an early morning meet in London, & the Show in the evening, & up to Blackpool Saturday morning for the weekend, if I can muster strength for that horrendous drive.

I've played 5 little ($120) & one medium ($540) comps out here, had 5 semis & not cashed once. Look out Luton, I need the money.

Surely too much info?

Im sure this wont be a problem anymore, surely Tikay as seen the ads on the site

[Karabiner]

How about spilling the beans on Pokernews, Tiffany and UB ? 

[tikay]

How about spilling the beans on Pokernews, Tiffany and UB ? 

No beans to spill Ralph, it's in the domain already.

This is on PokerNews already, & I have C & P it from that site. It is, of course, only one side of the story.

PokerNews Official Statement
July 14, 2008
PokerNews Management
 The last 48 hours have been a crucial and trying time for PokerNews.

On the outset of the World Series of Poker, we have been associated with an outstanding female poker player, who until a few hours ago, was the last woman standing in the original field of 6844 entrants in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Official PokerNews representative, Tiffany Michelle, was one of the chip leaders for the better end of her run in the Main Event and was poised for a brilliant Final Table appearance that would make her the second woman in history to achieve such a feat.

As a company that truly believes in this industry and in the importance of supporting aspiring poker players, PokerNews sponsored her  into several buy-in events at this year's World Series including the Main Event, enabling Tiffany to showcase her irrefutable talent and flair on the felt. However, a few days into the Main Event, several media outlets published reports and images showing Tiffany donning an UltimateBet.net logo during her play at the ESPN feature table.

It was later confirmed that without any consultation with PokerNews, Tiffany went ahead and signed a sponsorship deal with Ultimate Bet. While we welcome such sponsorship deals between online gaming operators and players, as a company we could see no reason as to why we were left out of such negotiations, especially considering the relationships that PokerNews has with all such entities. Tiffany was bought into the event by PokerNews and had a signed player contract with PokerNews Ltd. We believe, that based on advice from her agent that the contract may have loopholes; she went and made a deal with an online gaming operator that completely contradicted the trust that we had put in her, both as an employee and as a sponsored player. As an organization we felt completely sabotaged by Tiffany, her agent and Ultimate Bet.

In fact, PokerNews was looking forward to and expected a large number of sponsorship offers from the world's biggest poker rooms – Tiffany's career was about to explode and we could not have been more proud for her. Therefore, we are incredibly disappointed with Tiffany and her agent's lack of respect and professionalism. We are currently seeking legal council on this entire situation and potential damages to PokerNews.

In regard to the Ultimate Bet and PokerNews relationship, Ultimate Bet has come under considerable scrutiny from the Poker Community for several scandals involving high-ranking employees and the use of defective software that allowed these users to see their opponent's hole cards. As a result of such breaches in the online communities trust, PokerNews has decided that it will no longer promote this site within its network.

Despite the disappointing circumstances, we extend our deepest congratulations to Tiffany on her outstanding achievement. Tiffany finished in 17th place and left the room to a standing ovation.

On behalf of PokerNews, I would like to thank the millions of faithful viewers who have supported us throughout this time, and who have continued to come to us for reliable, timely and in-depth reporting of the world's biggest poker tournaments. I truly believe that this year we were able to showcase to the world the incredible team of people that we have working for this organization. The live updates this year set a precedent and I am proud of our efforts

[Karabiner]

Thanks Tony, that's quite a little pot-boiler there.

[tikay]

Thanks Tony, that's quite a little pot-boiler there.

There will be plenty more of that!

Poker players, in the main, don't seem to accept the sort of T & C's that commerce imposes - well, they do until ths sort of situation arises!

'Stars were throwing money around like confetti out here - wrong as it is, it's no surprise that youngsters heads are turned.

You & I are old school, we accept a Deal, & that's that, but society, & education, are different now, & imposing Terms & Conditions legally, from Online Sites, is quite difficult. How often have you seen Online Sites, especially offshore-based ones, successfully sued? So the players move around as they wish, & ignore the deal they've agreed to.

It's one big issue, & it can only get worse.

Jamie Gold? You ain't seen nothing yet! Money turns minds, as well as heads.

[TightEnd]

and thus the 4 month delay will prove to be counter-productive to sponsors, rooms ans poker as a whole?

[Colchester Kev]

Thanks Tony, that's quite a little pot-boiler there.

There will be plenty more of that!

Poker players, in the main, don't seem to accept the sort of T & C's that commerce imposes - well, they do until ths sort of situation arises!

'Stars were throwing money around like confetti out here - wrong as it is, it's no surprise that youngsters heads are turned.

You & I are old school, we accept a Deal, & that's that, but society, & education, are different now, & imposing Terms & Conditions legally, from Online Sites, is quite difficult. How often have you seen Online Sites, especially offshore-based ones, successfully sued? So the players move around as they wish, & ignore the deal they've agreed to.

It's one big issue, & it can only get worse.

Jamie Gold? You ain't seen nothing yet! Money turns minds, as well as heads.

i wasnt keen on the news

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=33936.msg758215#msg758215

[tikay]

and thus the 4 month delay will prove to be counter-productive to sponsors, rooms ans poker as a whole?

It will be both - productive, & counter-productive.

IMO, that is.

[kinboshi]

Thanks Tony, that's quite a little pot-boiler there.

There will be plenty more of that!

Poker players, in the main, don't seem to accept the sort of T & C's that commerce imposes - well, they do until ths sort of situation arises!

'Stars were throwing money around like confetti out here - wrong as it is, it's no surprise that youngsters heads are turned.

You & I are old school, we accept a Deal, & that's that, but society, & education, are different now, & imposing Terms & Conditions legally, from Online Sites, is quite difficult. How often have you seen Online Sites, especially offshore-based ones, successfully sued? So the players move around as they wish, & ignore the deal they've agreed to.

It's one big issue, & it can only get worse.

Jamie Gold? You ain't seen nothing yet! Money turns minds, as well as heads.

Again, you're coming across a little bit ageist there tikay.  

There are plenty of younger people (even poker players) who are true to their word, stick to their agreements, and don't do the dirty on those who've helped them get where they are.  On the other side, there are plenty of older people who would shaft their own gran to 'make a quick buck'.

[tikay]

Thanks Tony, that's quite a little pot-boiler there.

There will be plenty more of that!

Poker players, in the main, don't seem to accept the sort of T & C's that commerce imposes - well, they do until ths sort of situation arises!

'Stars were throwing money around like confetti out here - wrong as it is, it's no surprise that youngsters heads are turned.

You & I are old school, we accept a Deal, & that's that, but society, & education, are different now, & imposing Terms & Conditions legally, from Online Sites, is quite difficult. How often have you seen Online Sites, especially offshore-based ones, successfully sued? So the players move around as they wish, & ignore the deal they've agreed to.

It's one big issue, & it can only get worse.

Jamie Gold? You ain't seen nothing yet! Money turns minds, as well as heads.

Again, you're coming across a little bit ageist there tikay.  

There are plenty of younger people (even poker players) who are true to their word, stick to their agreements, and don't do the dirty on those who've helped them get where they are.  On the other side, there are plenty of older people who would shaft their own gran to 'make a quick buck'.

Yes, you may be right, but my point was, old school accepted "authority" & the status quo more than younger folks do. Society is changing. But yes, a bit of a generalisation. Bear in mind, of course, that the majority of poker players are young - well, younger than me.

And what do you mean, "again"? When have I ever been ageist? Except when talking about bloody kids,that is?

[Claw75]

Again, you're coming across a little bit ageist there tikay.  

There are plenty of younger people (even poker players) who are true to their word, stick to their agreements, and don't do the dirty on those who've helped them get where they are.  On the other side, there are plenty of older people who would shaft their own gran to 'make a quick buck'.

good post.  It's nothing to do with age as far as I can see, but more about levels of integrity and moral fibre, which are unique to each individual.

[AndrewT]

I assume what's simply happening is that poker sponsorship is becoming more like that seen in sports such as motor racing - it's non-exclusive.

Poker sites would previously put players in restrictive agreements - 'if you take our shilling you can't take anyone else's'. All that's happening now is players are (quite rightly, I think) saying to poker sites 'if you want to give me money to wear a hat with your logo, fine, but you can't tell me what I can wear on my shirt'.

Look at this photo of Lewis Hamilton - see how many sponsors he has.

[TightEnd]

and of course exacly what we're doing with the blonde forum..lots of small sponsorships of areas...

[tikay]

I assume what's simply happening is that poker sponsorship is becoming more like that seen in sports such as motor racing - it's non-exclusive.

Poker sites would previously put players in restrictive agreements - 'if you take our shilling you can't take anyone else's'. All that's happening now is players are (quite rightly, I think) saying to poker sites 'if you want to give me money to wear a hat with your logo, fine, but you can't tell me what I can wear on my shirt'.

Look at this photo of Lewis Hamilton - see how many sponsors he has.

They still do, so far as I can see - but how do you actually stop a player, physically, from reneging? He accepts a Deal from someone else, & says to them "right, as part of the deal, now you go sort out the site I won my seat on".

And I assume (I don't know) that "agents" are in the mix here, & they'd have as much integrity as Football Agents.

[AndrewT]

They still do, so far as I can see - but how do you actually stop a player, physically, from reneging? He accepts a Deal from someone else, & says to them "right, as part of the deal, now you go sort out the site I won my seat on".

And I assume (I don't know) that "agents" are in the mix here, & they'd have as much integrity as Football Agents.

They can't, really. Even if the player signs a contract, the poker sites don't really want to get involved in court cases for anything - many of their business models rely on operating in legally grey areas.