Harrahs Hellmuthian Stupidity

Well, its taken 55 tournaments for me to get on a rant about Harrahs/Caesars. It even comes after what seemed one of their better moments.

At the end of play last evening, Phil Hellmuth displayed his lack of maturity and self-control. He isn’t alone in that. A major player here displayed his Russian disdain in similar fashion. I’ll admit it is partially a generational thing. Life was a lot more structured in my shallow youth.

Today, society is more advanced. We can say what we wish and often without any penalty accruing. TV honors that in the variety of shows provided. Reality has subsequently taken a new meaning. It is choreographed. Nowhere is that more apparent these days than in tournament poker.

If you go back to the early Pokerworks blogs, you will see the balance between business goals and accommodation play out just like a morality play of old. Another generational thing, I guess. We’ll not really; just expedience that’s fixated on the bottom line

Mr. Philip Hellmuth pitched a tissy. He abused – verbally – another player. The person supervising the area observed it and awarded a one round penalty. Mr. Helmuth then berated the employee and pointed out that his childlike actions were in ESPN’s wheelhouse and they loved the way he acts and they would get it overturned.

Today, Pokernews reported that the one round suspension had been reversed. Mr. Jeffery Pollack met with Mr. Hellmuth and stated, “The penalty has been overturned, and we will be issuing a formal statement shortly.” This occurred after a private meeting that included Mr. Helmuth. Mr. Hellmuth had 721K at the start of the day. Quoting PokerNews: When a floor supervisor was asked about the alleged one-round penalty Hellmuth was to serve, a reply of “it’s been overruled” was given.

Pokernews report the official statement:

Official Statement from the WSOP on Phil Hellmuth’s Penalty

The following statement was just released by the World Series of Poker regarding Phil Hellmuth’s penalty, which was overturned at the start of play today:

“This morning Phil Hellmuth met with Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director, Howard Greenbaum, Harrah’s Regional Vice President for Specialty Gaming, and Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP. Based on that meeting and an official review of the situation, it was decided that the penalty imposed on Mr. Hellmuth at the conclusion of play last night was excessive.”

“Warnings and penalties are intended to correct inappropriate behavior and our rulings should be as fair as possible, given the circumstances,” said Pollack. “In this instance, the punishment did not fit the crime.”

“Phil has now been warned and put on notice in a way that he never has been,” Pollack added.

The problem is that any notice directed toward this type of activity in regards to a ‘name player’ has ‘never been’ and there is nothing in this resolve that changes that. This result is congressional level double-speak. When Mr. Helmuth berated the floor supervisor, he knew whereof he spoke. He is above the rules but that couldn’t keep him in the tournament.  He busted on day 6. While he avoided losing a round of antes and blinds in a manner you or I don’t have available, he just couldn’t get hand ordering reversed by Mr. Pollack.

I don’t need to cite history or current times to point out those who considered themselves above the rules. They are a known class of megalomaniacs. They’ve appeared to win and win. They have success but so far none have sustained that success.

I’ve wondered why I have less and less interest in following the WSOP. I almost attended this year but had second thought. I won’t have second thoughts next year. I was a bit excited with a WSOP regional tournament coming just a few miles away. I’ll likely pass on that, too. I won’t reward this type of operation with even the profit on a sandwich and drink. Yeah, I’m hard headed. And, I’ll give my rake to those who at least aren’t obvious in screwing players.

Our own Aaron watched all the shenanigans and reports it here.  Good read with more details.  And, goes over the table change that looks so questionable.  Among the other info he provides is that Hellmuth managed to double up during the period he should have been sitting out.

ADDENDUM:

I have Vista installed on two machines. Last week Microsoft came up with their most idiotic, ‘important’ update. I don’t use their text entry products so their dictionary never runs. And, if I did, the likelihood that I’d use or misspell Racicot is slim – even though politics occasionally rears it head in this blog. ‘The Fix’ consumes huge amounts of disk space. If I were running XP and had such a situation, I could opt to not install it now or ever. But, Vista removed that opt out option and every day I get a message that I have updates available. Do I break down and let them install that piece of crap or let them annoy me further each morning?

Under XP I could also opt to view the KB###### offered and see what it does. They took that away too; so now I have to type in the info and let Google do it. In some respects that is better. I found how bad it was that way. But, I wouldn’t have installed this dictionary fix looking at the MS sites description.