Reseating

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).

LAKE TAHOE, NV--I just asked none other than Dr. Tim's lover favorite assistant tournament director to clarify something that we have had much debate about here. In this particular WSOP Circuit main event, they redrew for seats at three tables. Why not two, once they are into the money, I inquired.

"We do it at three tables, then two, then one," he explained.

Um, OK, but why?

"You mean other than because that's how [legendary WSOP tourney director] Jack McClelland taught me to do it?"