Sequestrium: a tent-like structure erected in the middle of the 2007 World Series of Poker main tournament room. The purpose of the edifice was to isolate the final table players of a tournament in order to provide security and fairness to the play while the action is being webcast with hole card cameras by Bluff Media. The webcast was on approximately a one hour delay. The isolation of the players was deemed necessary in order to prevent hole card information from being relayed to the players either in real time or with a short delay, which would create an unfair advantage to the player or players receiving the information.
WSOP Commissioner Jeffery Pollack has called the use of the Sequestrium “an experiment” and he has promised that if it was found not to be in the best interest of the World Series and the players, it would be abandoned for next year. The “experiment” was one of several innovations that Harrah’s has attempted to bring wider coverage of the WSOP and to broaden the fan base. According to WSOP staff, the purpose of the Sequestrium was to allow poker fans not in Las Vegas to see several WSOP final tables in nearly real time and to see them in their unedited entirety with hole card cameras and professional commentary. To see the 17 final tables that were webcast, you had to subscribe to a WSOP webcast package for $49.95.
So clearly there was both a profit motive for Harrah’s and for Bluff Media in this experiment. Also clearly this was an attempt to popularize the World Series by providing a new outlet for the content. Neither of these commercial aspects of the Sequestrium are out of line with the stated goals of Harrah’s to expand the fan base for the Series and to make it better experience each and every year..
However, the experiment that was the ‘Bluff/Harrah’s 2007 World Series of Poker Sequestrium’ needs to be declared a failure and a stake driven through its black curtained heart. Let’s go through the list of everything that was wrong with this experiment. But before that, perhaps readers who were not at the Rio in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker might want to ask the question: “What the hell is a Sequestrium?”
The term “Sequestrium” was coined by me, back in early June during the first use of the tent for Event #6 of this year’s WSOP. The term Sequestrium is a portmanteau, which is a word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words. I combined the word sequester: to remove or withdraw into solitude with the word atrium: the main or central room of a house, open to the sky at the center. You have to image a four-sided room created out of 12 foot high black drapes in the middle of the tournament/convention space at the World Series. The “room” is open to the sky or at least open to the ceiling and, in theory, completely cut-off from the rest of the World Series going on all around it; that was the Sequestrium. The very next day after I began using the term, the official WSOP publication was using Sequestrium and it was suggested to me that Sequestrium sounded like the combination of sequester and sanitarium. Now a sanitarium is a place of convalescence or recovery of health, a kind of a health resort. I wondered if what people meant was sanitorium, which is a hospital for the treatment of various mental disorders. Indeed, both WSOP officials and Bluff Media staff used the term “Sequestorium”.
Many, many people involved with the World Series felt that sequestering final table participants was a bad idea. We have yet to talk with one person other than those who created the Sequestrium, who think it was a good idea and no one, at all, has said that it was a financial success. WSOP floor staff think it’s wrong; members of the Bluff Media staff putting on the production think it’s wrong; players universally hate the idea; family and friends of the player’s, some of whom flew out to Vegas for the final table, absolutely hated the idea and told WSOP officials so on several occasions.
But let’s look rationally and dispassionately at the reasons why the Sequestrium should be declared a failed experiment.
Family and Friends and Fans: Can you imagine making a final table at the World Series of Poker and not having your family and friends there to see you play? Imagine your husband, wife, sister, brother or best poker buddy at a Series final table and you can’t watch them. Can you imagine as a fan, coming to the WSOP to see what it’s all about and being told that today’s final table is not in the ESPN arena with great stadium seating but in a tent and you can watch it on plasma screen out in the hall on a one hour delay.
The Players: You have made it all the way to a World Series of Poker final table and they are going to lock you away from your poker coach. You cannot talk to him or anyone else, even during the breaks, you are locked in. Now it is true that eventually they added some chairs to the Sequestrium so that each player could have two guests. But those guests were locked in and had to be escorted to the restroom and had to eat dinner with the players. Once you leave the sequestered area, you were not allowed back in. Imagine telling your mother that she needs to be escorted to the bathroom; she already thinks your playing poker is a bit undignified.
The Phil Hellmuth Example: At one point, Jeffery Pollack suggested in defense of the Sequestrium that we ask Phil what he thought of the arrangement; this after Phil won his record 11th bracelet at a sequestered final table. If Phil had won that bracelet on a sinking ship in the North Atlantic would he have liked drowning? All kidding aside, there is a really uncomfortable downside to this ‘win in the tent.’ Phil doesn’t need anyone to talk to at a final table; he is the best No Limit Hold’em player in the world but with one exception, the players at that final table were amateurs. They were put into isolation with the best player in the world. They were put at a huge disadvantage inside that tent and no one has questioned the ethics of giving Phil such a huge advantage over the other players.
The real problem is that no one thought out this experiment before they sprung it on the players at the ‘Greatest Event in Poker.’ Remember it was the Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, who called this an experiment. So let’s talk about experimenting on humans.
In the world of science, in universities, hospitals and even in business environments; there are regulations about experimenting on humans. These organizations have something called Human Subjects Committees. These committees set up rules and standards for experimenting on people. The prime directive of all HSC regulations is that the individuals involved will be informed about all aspects of the experiment and they must consent to their own participation.
Poker players at the World Series this year were not asked if they would like to participate in this experiment. Remember these players are playing for their own money in the prize pool. Neither Harrah's nor Bluff put up any added money for these events. They did, in fact, hijack 17 final tables to run an experiment for profit. They locked up 17 tables full of players without regard for the will of the players nor did they disclose to players signing up for the events that they might end up in an isolated tent. The experiment is over and something on the order of 100 players, who will only make one World Series final table in their life, will be able to tell the story of playing their one great moment at the World Series of Poker in a tent.
The Sequestrium was a bad idea, hopefully a costly experiment that will not be repeated in the future without the expressed written consent of the players involved. There is a limit to the greed and disregard that players will take from any poker provider. I know that poker players tend to act like sheep and go along with whatever the event sponsors offer up but the Sequestrium went too far. The experiment was universally disliked and ridiculed by everyone involved. Harrah’s has already announced that the “other tent” the Player’s Pavilion was a failure and will not be repeated again; let’s here that same announcement about the Sequestrium.
