I was at the ESPN final table last night when the Day Five play ended and Phil Hellmuth was given a one orbit penalty for player abuse. Details of the incident are everywhere, I will only add that I am not convinced Phil did more than he ever does and, in fact, he pointed out to the floor supervisor at one point that: "You guys don't put me at the television table to be quiet."
However, I have a problem with penalties that are accessed beginning with the next day's play. If a player is going to sit out a round of play based on his or her actions; then shouldn't the players who were at the table when the infraction took place benefit from the penalty? I mean Phil will be giving up 81,000 chips [30K/15K blinds, 4K ante] to eight players who were not at his table when the penalty was given.
Let's not even deal with the increased blinds since the penalty was given or the fact that no penalty was considered until the offended player loudly complained to the floor staff. By the way, the other player, Cristian Dragomir, should have also been warned for his behavior but in the shadow of a full Hellmuth rant, it may have been hard to see his rule bending behavior.
I will suggest to the Tournament Director's Association that if a player is given an "overnight" penalty and if there is also a seat/table redraw for the following day that those penalized blinds and antes be removed from play and the player simply is dealt out of the hands. This causes some issues with the blinds but free chips, as is the current solution, seems a not well considered remedy.
