Get It Quietly

Football, bollocks and a bit of poker if you're lucky.

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Location: Enfield, London, United Kingdom

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

When you sup with the Devil ...

... use a long spoon. I'm not talking about the Devilfish here (although the proverb still holds true !) but the omni-present one-eyed demon Television. I was quite keen on the Pot-Limit championship held in Dublin last month, I tried to qualify for a few $ (nothing mad). It sounded like the organisers wanted to put the players first, logos were allowed, and so on.

However, reports are coming out that there were a lot of problems with this event. I withold full judgement and the organisers have a chance to respond. Reports to date say that, among other things, players were promised that heats would be televised throughout but in some cases only the final six were shown ; that the structure was changed half way through, apparently because no one had realised that a slower structure meant it would take longer (duh) ; that a player's hand was announced over the tannoy by a commentator during the action (although the player was Hellmuth so that's quite funny) ; and that the draw was not completely open as had been originally stated.

It still sounds like the players are the lowest priority once the cameras start to roll. We shall see. In the meantime I would advise very strongly against playing (or trying to qualify for) televised events which do not allow logos to be worn, and to be careful with the ones that do. Apart from anything else, you might well do better not to commit to any sponsor beforehand - negotiate a better deal as and when you make the final instead.

At the end of the day there are cheaper ways to get your face on TV if that's what you really want. Especially late at night (and not just your face) :-). Just be careful with these.

[Note 9/7/04 after some deliberation, a reference to Andy Glazer in the above post was removed in respect of his untimely death]

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