Be careful what you wish for

Isn’t that’s one of those Chinese curses that the Chinese know nothing about or translates to something that makes no sense in English like “Your duck has fleas.”?  But, it has to be on the minds of Harrahs’ Jeff Pollack and ESPN.

The November Nine may be turning into the Unedited Eight. The best known of the lot is a South Florida pro is named David “Chino” Rheem. Eight years ago – shallow youth time and not to hold against him all that much – he got a felony conviction and jail time. Rheem was convicted of dealing in stolen property and burglary, both felonies, as well as larceny and possession of marijuana, court records show. He was sentenced to four months of jail time and 30 months probation.

Fast forward to 2003 and he got arrested for trespass. That can be a catchall for a lot of varied activities. But, Mr. Rheem failed to appear and a bench warrant was issued.

Fast forward to the mind of the local prosecutor. Here we think focus groups, polling. To improve things, you need ‘exposure’ and there isn’t anything that gets a prosecutor nicer exposure than a “Perp walk” where the stalwart prosecutor and cops walk the schmuck before the lights and camera with fitting remarks about the heathen acts  in a way to get a nice spot on the 5 and 6 o’clock and knowing full well that the other story that will run if they don’t is about their failure to bother with enforcing bench warrants.

I imagine lawyers for the corporates that don’t want to explain to their audience why a spot is being blinded out. Neither will the publicity help poker or the delayed final table concept. Remember that 60 Minutes is on the Absolute-Ultimate Bet story and their scheduling folks probably have their eye in the ESPN final table window to get max viewing.

After a previous (2006) final table, one of the participants (Richard Lee) ended up arrested for bookmaking. And he was a serious player in that business. Because the final table and associated hype had taken place, little damage was done to “Harrahs’ brand” or to poker. This new setup isn’t as forgiving of what happens in the 117 days for 9 people that days before nobody knew from Adam.

Hey, Jeff! Next year … before scheduling the big one … get your horoscope read. Because this year’s looks like the stars are conspiring against you nice folks.

ADDENDUM:

A good prop bet for those of you that have to flip coins would be whether or not there is a delay next year. I willing to bet a buck on NO.

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I am getting a huge amount of spam.  Just started a couple of days ago.  My new admirer is leaving 30 or so little goodies about a variety of sites having to do with devices for enlarging size or viewing pictures that might do the same.  It never gets to the blog because I have to approve new posters.  After that their post appear automagically.  If you see a captcha show up, it wasn’t my first or 43rd choice.  It was a pain-in the-… deal caused by one bad actor. If you left a legit comment and got dumped, I missed it in the mass of spam.  Please try again.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Poker Other, Tournaments. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.