Any Publicity Is Good Publicity
2007-12-28 16:44:00
By:
Gene Bromberg
I mentioned the other day that
The Economist had published a substantial article about
poker. It's good that the game received some attention from one of the best magazines in the world, but there were a few boo-boos in the piece that naturally caught the attention of a humorless prig like myself.
Much of the article is focuses on Annette Obrestad, who won the World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event back in September. The author says that while Annette enjoyed considerable success online, the WSOP-E was "the first time she had encountered serious opposition in the flesh". Which isn't correct--Annette played in the 2006
Aruba Poker Classic, finishing 37th. She also cashed in a few EPT events before her big win in London, so it wasn't as though she'd never sat down in a live event before.
A player who did win the first live event he played in was 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker. Though Moneymaker didn't, as the article says, "(finish) off his final opponent with a colossal bluff". Anyone who plays poker knows that it's rather hard to win a
poker tournament on a bluff, because a bluff usually requires that your opponent fold his hand. Making it impossible for you to win the last of his chips. You see the point.
The article also mentions that there are a "dizzying array of blogs and forums" about
poker, and that "(n)o wonder it is often said that poker has done more than anything apart from pornography to develop the web." As a professional poker blogger who started writing about the game just a few months after Moneymaker's victory, I'd like to claim my share of the credit for the glory that is the Internet. And if anyone wants to send me a royalty check, I'd be more than happy to provide my address. Or my bank account and routing numbers, in case that's more convenient. How does Al Gore get paid?
I have a bit of a quibble with this quote about how Jeffrey Pollack, the commissioner of the
World Series of Poker, has formed relationships with corporate America:
"More impressively, he has lured dozens of sponsors including Hershey's chocolate, Milwaukee's Best Light beer and Planters peanuts ("the nuts" being the term for an unbeatable hand of cards) into a game that many consider morally questionable."
First of all, I don't know that I would want my brand associated with Milwaukee's Best Light. I've drank some awful beers in my day, but Beast Light (as it's known among the cognescenti) is ghastly stuff. During the WSOP I had some downtime and decided to get a beer and watch some final-table action. They only offered Milwaukee's Best Light and after I made faces after my first two sips it was time to take action. I popped a peppermint in my mouth and managed to get the rest of it down.
Planters may have been a WSOP sponsor, but the only nuts offered in the Poker Kitchen were Blue Diamond. Which struck me as odd. What I remember most about Planters' involvment in the World Series was when Mike Matusow duked it out with Mr. Peanut. I missed getting a picture of that, just as I missed putting money down on Mr. P to wipe the floor with the Mouth.
There are some good lines in the piece. "For reasons best explained by lobbyists, horse racing, fantasy sports and lotteries were exempted (from the UIGEA)" was one of them. And there are multiple quotes from Annie Duke, explaining that she looks upon poker as an academic pursuit that also teaches you skills you can apply to other aspects of your life.
The articles closes with another minor goof, as it says that the latest season of High Stakes Poker featured a game with a $500,000 buy-in where one player walked away with $5 million. Well, no, it wasn't a winner-take-all sit-n-go. But all-in-all it was a pretty good article, one that would've been better had the author given me a ring and asked for my expert advice. I mean, what's the point of us
poker bloggers developing the Internet if people won't use us as a resource?
Permalink:
http://www.ultimatebet.com/poker-blog-post/Any-Publicity-Is-Good-Publicity/2393
