Cheats

Marcus from I'm not sure where wrote in a while back wondering:

Dan,

Long time reader, first time writer. I was reading today about the PPV offering of ESPN of the final table tomorrow. My question is, how are they going to prevent people from watching the coverage and relaying the information to the players in the tourney. I'm sure that this has been thought out, but I have not seen any blogs or news explaining what all will be on the PPV (pocket cams, etc.) or if there will be a delay.

Any inside info?

Thanks,
Marcus

Marcus, that is a great question. And truth be told, I don't really know the answer. But I bet someone here does. I am thinking the live coverage had to be done on a 5- or 10-minute delay, similar to the various "live" events put on by Full Tilt and Fox Sports. I do know that the TV's showing the final table at the Rio simply didn't show what the hole-card cams were seeing.

Actually, if I recall, while listening to Phil Gordon in the media room, I DO seem to remember knowing when Jamie Gold was bluffing, and when Allen Cunningham ran into a very unlucky river. But since we were sitting some 100 years or more away from the action, I am not certain what sorta delay there was. Amy? Shrink? Jen B.? Do any of you have some hard facts on this? It's a relevant question as I expect/hope to see more "live" coverage in the future.

Poker Shrink might find this interesting ... apparently there was some Jimmy Sommerfield-esque reseating going on in the main event of Festa al Lago earlier this month. In a nutshell, once they got down to like 99 players, Jack McClelland (whom Jimmy Sommerfield credits with teaching him all he knows about tourney direction) had the players redraw for seats every time they lost nine players. It seemed odd and there was a bit of grumbling ... and eventually Mike Matusow "went ballistic" and received a penalty. This led to the field chanting "Let Mike play! Let Mike play!" -- though they wouldn't join him in his commands for no one to play another hand.

In the end, Matusow was allowed back in the tourney before his penalty was up, and McClelland explained that the extra reseating was an effort to address some apparent collusion going on in this big-money tourney.

I learned about this from poker pro Tom Schneider (who cashed). Click here to hear his retelling of the incident on "Beyond the Table" (starting at 8:14).

The fine folks at LasVegasVegas are reporting that a 25-year old poker professional was caught marking cards and arrested. This is, of course, all rumor at this point; and I do, of course, have calls in to try and get someone to spill the beans. You heard anything Shrinky? I'm trying to think of all the 25-year old pros I know, and I only know of one.... who does tend to play at the Wynn a lot... and I haven't called him yet, so, uhh... maybe I should do that.

UPDATE: PokerShrink writes in with a link to the aptly named PokerParty Blog, which has an alleged name for alleged cheater. We'll update if/when we find out anything more.