Several pro players went deep in this event and were eligible based on their content creation side gigs. Barry Carter thinks this is a big mistake.
The first event of the World Series of Poker, as always, is the Casino Employees event. At the time of writing four players remain, fighting for $79,134 and the bracelet.
The field was a whopping 1,189 so this is an impressive victory irrespective of the field. However, this was no ordinary Casino Employees field.
The 9th place finisher was Lukas Robinson of Twitch and Game of Gold fame. The 11th place finisher was Mike Holtz who has amongst his accolades a WSOP bracelet, six WSOP-C rings, the most cashes last year at the WSOP and is a two-time online player of the year.
Pretty impressive resumes for two casino employees.
Against the spirit of the event
Both men got into the event based on their relationship with PokerNews, Robinson is a sponsored streamer for them, Holtz is a co-host of the PokerNews Podcast. It is not new for poker media to be eligible for this event, in fact, fellow their PokerNews Podcast host Chad Holloway won this very event in 2013.
I have no issue with poker media being eligible for this event, in fact, the PokerNews live reporters are very much part of the backbone of any live poker operation.
But clearly, Holtz and Robinson are both professional poker players by any measure. The majority of the rest of the WSOP they will be playing, not doing other work. They may have got in on a technicality, but it is completely against the spirit of the game.
Ambiguous criteria
I get that there are players who traverse multiple fields in this game, where it is not clear where they sit on the pro/staff spectrum. My good friend David Lappin for example, is a professional player, but is also a podcaster, broadcaster and writer. I suspect most of his income comes from the combination of the latter three pursuits these days.
This is like when a clearly accomplished player gets into the ‘amateur’ bracket of Triton Pro/Am events. There has to be some sort of common sense acknowledgement that some players are clearly professionals, even if their side gigs generate similar incomes.
I don’t take issue at all with Holtz or Robinson either. Holtz seems like a great guy from his podcast and I think Robinson is a brilliant young ambassador for the future of the game. It’s good game selection for them and I am sure their only motive was to have a fun time. My issue was that this was allowed to happen in the first place.
Much like the Ladies Event at the WSOP, which we all rightly get up in arms about when a man infiltrates the tournament, this is a social event for a group of people who don’t get the opportunity to play very often. These are often low paid working class people who are very much unsung heroes of the game. To have high-profile wealthy players infiltrate their once-a-year game is simply not fair.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments:
