Same ole story with 2009 November Nine
Posted by Curtom | September 1, 2009 | Posted in: Articles, News, Poker Tournament | Comments (6)Where the hell are the November Nine? Where is Phil Ivey? Where is Jeff Shulman? Where are any of the November Nine? How come we are not seeing these poker players making appearances on every late night TV talk show known to mankind? Yes, I am at it again and this time I am royally P.O’d!!!!!!! What is the point of delaying the WSOP Final Table when the very players that are allegedly supposed to be promoting the game and garnering interest are nowhere to be found?
I am so done with this kind of nonsense. As I stated last year, I honestly believe that delaying the Final Table could be a boon for poker but the game will not benefit one bit if they are unable to get the players to co-operate. What better person to promote the game of poker than Phil Ivey who is acknowledged to be the best all-around poker player in the world? Sure, I get the fact that he tends to shy away from the media and can be down right reclusive but this is ridiculous. If Harrah’s is not going to do this right then abandon this delayed Final Table crap and let them play it out like they used to. This is beyond stupid for me. It has become quite clear that the players that claim they love the game so much have no intentions of being any kind of ambassadors for the game. That in-and-of-itself is a damn shame.
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I agree with you 100%. I didn’t like the delay period! But if they are going to do it, make it shorter – and for gosh sakes – promote poker with the time.
Maybe a little ‘forced’ (agreed to at tourney sign in) appearances. Something has to come out of the bastardization of a real tourney format.
The players are just not the same players in Nov. as they were in July.
Nik,
Thanks for chiming in. Yeah, I think poker is missing out on a great opportunity here. How this mistake can be made twice in a row is beyond my understanding. Some would suggest that the players don’t owe the game anything. If that’s the case then why take the prize money? The game is bigger than any one player. Without popularity and promotion there is no media coverage, no sponsorship, no advertising and ultimately the prize pool shrinks and visibility of the game goes down.
We can do better than that.
I couldn’t agree more. Last year, it was a little understandable because it was their first year. This year, they should have had plans. You can’t tell me Ivey hasn’t had requests to appear on Letterman or Conan (or at least one of the 12:30am shows!) or anywhere in the MSM.
The delay changes the whole end game, which can be overlooked if the promotion period ends up netting a lot of benefits for poker. However, I don’t see it changing much of anything, aside from giving the podcasters another four or five people to interview.
Will anyone show up to the final table sporting anything other than poker site patches? Wasn’t the additional availability of sponsorship supposed to be another Nov 9 benefit?
Ironically, I will watch the Nov Nine just the same as I watched the first twelve or whatever days of the main event… online at WSOP.com.
Thanks for chiming in Sean. I am definitely disappointed in how this has been handled thus far. I really am trying to be reasonable but it’s really frustrating to not see anything being done when this thing could have been over by now and we could have seen the conclusion instead of waiting for nothing.
Totally agree and hope they change this soon.
I couldn’t imagine Ivey on Letterman though, that would be boring and awkward. Maybe if somebody liquored him up and put him on Ferguson we’d get a decent interview.
lol
Thanks for chiming in Rufus.