Phil Gordon Slams The Wpt

[Texter 0]

How come some big name pros play the WPT and others don't; if the release is that crazy?

PL: How about the WPT – do you even play those events anymore? Phil: No, I'm one of those guys who refuses to play on the World Poker Tour until they fix their [legal] release. Along with Andy Bloch, Greg Raymer, Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, we're all in the same boat. What we're asking for is very reasonable and no different from what we've asked for from ESPN and Fox Sports Net…but the WPT, and Steve Lipscomb in particular, have decided to continue their arrogant ways. What can I say, except for we would love to play at this point. I have two WPT championships and I'd like to add a few more, especially with the purses being as high as they are these days. But I can't play. It's not that I don't WANT to play, I simply CAN'T play because the release they force me to sign is illegal and if I sign it and play in the event, all of my endorsees can pull their endorsement money and sue me.

Link to the interview

[Turbo 0]

Didn't Daniel write about this same issue in a blog in November or December?

[champsox 0]

Didn't Daniel write about this same issue in a blog in November or December?

Yes. He thought it would be an issue for him and his endorsements, but he talked with Lipscomb and realized it wouldnt be a problem.

[mangwansi 0]

turbo, your little add-on kim jong-il crap is wrong. that ain't even korean. i hope you know that, right?

[MasterLJ 0]

It depends on the endorser.I'm just going to throw this out there...Let's say the WPT release says "you cannot wear any promotional/logoed material," and Phil Gordon's Degree endorsement says, "you must wear degree apparel at every television appearance." That'll give Phil a problem.

[benhoug 0]

Where was this quoted from? I'd like to read more, but I couldn't find it on ESPN chat wrap or anything...

[Jeepster80125 0]

From http://www.andybloch.com/gl/pub/article.ph...051212152037696I'm in Vegas and I want to play poker, but I won't be playing the World Poker Tour at the Bellagio, or any more WPT tournaments, until the WPT changes the player release that they force every player to sign before playing. The current release sets practically no limit to what the WPT can do with a player's name and likeness, and the WPT has shown that it will exploit players' names and likenesses beyond what any of us accept as reasonable. I've tried negotiating with the WPT, but they will not make any significant changes. I'm not the best known player (I'm sure Chris Ferguson's decision not to play will have more of an effect) so not playing the WPT may hurt my career, but I think it's a risk worth taking. On the other hand, the World Series of Poker has responded to players concerns and the most recent release, while not perfect, is something I'm much more comfortable signing.

[joshrogo 0]

From http://www.andybloch.com/gl/pub/article.ph...051212152037696I'm in Vegas and I want to play poker, but I won't be playing the World Poker Tour at the Bellagio, or any more WPT tournaments, until the WPT changes the player release that they force every player to sign before playing. The current release sets practically no limit to what the WPT can do with a player's name and likeness, and the WPT has shown that it will exploit players' names and likenesses beyond what any of us accept as reasonable. I've tried negotiating with the WPT, but they will not make any significant changes. I'm not the best known player (I'm sure Chris Ferguson's decision not to play will have more of an effect) so not playing the WPT may hurt my career, but I think it's a risk worth taking. The WPT is not going to miss Andy Bloch one bit .. nor, will it miss the other players that have decided not to play due to the "onerous" release they must sign. Plenty of people are still ponying up their 10k to play the events and will continue to do so. Andy Bloch taking a stand against the WPT is akin to me taking a stand by saying, im not going to eat at Denny's anymore due to their racism. Won't even make their radar screen.

[FatBurger 0]

Hey, maybe that's what happened! Jerry didn't want to sign the release!

[aucu 3]

The WPT jacking up the blinds on the final table is out of line.

[zipper 0]

My recollection of DN's comments were that he spoke to the WPT and was told "of course we will not use your name incorrectly". I believe they even pulled an ad that DN and others were upset about and told them that this proves they will not over use their likeness (they overused it, but pulled it so trust us).I do not know about anyone else, and certainly this does not affect me as the WPT will never want to use my name/likeness, but when I negotiate and someone tells me not to worry we will not do what you are afraid of, I then proceed to ask them to put that in writing (since they will not do it, they should agree to put it in writing). If they had no plans to overuse an image/name, why won't they be clear about that? The only possible reason is that they want to reserve the right to overuse the name and image.Andy Bloch and others are taking a stand that is probably going to cost them money in potential winnings, but is in the best interest of all top players. These guys put up their buy-in and vig and typically the only added money is the $20K or so put up by the casino and then the WPT can do anything they want with their image. Could you imagine a PGA tour where the players put up the money and the tour could market/profit in any way they wanted to? I am not saying that the marketing has not earned these guys much bigger purses, just that the bigger purses are coming from the players and not the sponsors and the players should get some of this money for what they are giving up. Picture Tiger Woods being asked to tape over his Nike logo when he is on the course. Heck, they had Harrington tape over the Red Sox logo on his crappy old hat. What is that about? The players look stupid with tape all over their hats!

[Turbo 0]

turbo, your little add-on kim jong-il crap is wrong. that ain't even korean. i hope you know that, right?

Of course I know it's chinese... I put it there moron. 2 thoughts, 1 signature, any questions?

[Danny T 0]

Annie Duke & Howard Lederer don't play because they have no chance of winning! Annie and Howard will NEVER win a tournament with a field of 400 players or more. If anybody is interested, I would be willing to make a friendly wager on this. THEY ARE SO OVERRATED!

[CodyHartman 0]

Annie Duke & Howard Lederer don't play because they have no chance of winning! Annie and Howard will NEVER win a tournament with a field of 400 players or more. If anybody is interested, I would be willing to make a friendly wager on this. THEY ARE SO OVERRATED!

lol too funny. I may partially agree about Annie, but Howard c'mon the guy won 2 WPT titles in its first year (foxwoods and Party Poker, and Im pretty sure the PP cruise was over 400).anyways, what 2 titles is Phil referring to? I can think of his win at Bay 101, is he referring to his 6 person final table where he won and faced Juha? I only ask b/c Juha was techincally the champ of that one.

[Turbo 0]

Annie Duke & Howard Lederer don't play because they have no chance of winning! Annie and Howard will NEVER win a tournament with a field of 400 players or more. If anybody is interested, I would be willing to make a friendly wager on this. THEY ARE SO OVERRATED!

Name: Annie DukeLocation: Los Angeles, CA, United StatesCashes: 37Total Winnings: $1,191,573First Place Finishes: 2WSOP Bracelets: 1Name: Howard LedererLocation: Las Vegas, NV, United StatesCashes: 53Total Winnings: $2,793,072First Place Finishes: 7WSOP Bracelets: 2I hope I'm this overrated someday.

[psujohn 0]

Have you noticed they're taping over the logos on the hats now? It's funny because it's only at the final table. There was one guy who had a Full Tilt hat that the logo was taped at the Aruba WPT event which I figured might be because UB sponsored it. But Gavin Smith had he hat logo taped over in the even with Scotty Nguyen and The Grinder too.I believe the response from the WPT was that they were required to have that release due to their contract with the Travel channel. Though if it's true that ESPN is capable of a more reasonable release I don't see why Travel channel would be able to do the same.

[Athos 0]

"I have two WPT championships..."Who can forget the 2004 - Bay 101 Shooting Stars and, ummm, what was that other championship?

[CodyHartman 0]

"I have two WPT championships..."Who can forget the 2004 - Bay 101 Shooting Stars and, ummm, what was that other championship?

thats what I was referring to. aruba season 1 maybe?

[Turbo 0]

"I have two WPT championships..."Who can forget the 2004 - Bay 101 Shooting Stars and, ummm, what was that other championship?

Phil Gordon, expert poker analyst and co-host for Celebrity Poker Showdown, is a world-class poker player, adventure traveler, sports fan, and accomplished businessman.Phil has won nearly $1,100,000 in poker tournaments since taking the poker world by storm in the 2001 World Series of Poker championship event where he finished 4th and won $400,000 as well as a spot on the Travel Channel documentary ("Inside the World Series of Poker"). In 2002, Phil followed up his performance with 2 final table appearances, including a 6th place finish in Pot-Limit Hold'em, and a 3rd place finish in Omaha 8/Better. Later that year, Phil was invited by UltimateBet.com to play in the professional division of the World Poker Tour's inaugural tournament in Aruba where he beat out seven of the top players in the world to win the professional division and claim the $250,000 first place check. In 2003, Phil led expert analysis for the World Series of Poker championship event for Binion's Horseshoe live internet broadcast as well as daily reports for a national radio audience on Sporting News Radio's Murray in the Morning show. In March 2004, Phil won the World Poker Tour's "Bay 101 Shooting Stars" tournament in dramatic fashion and claimed the winning purse of $360,000. Phil's poker experiences have been chronicled in Cigar Aficionado, National Public Radio's "This American Life" with Ira Glass, Smithsonian Magazine, CNBC's "Squawk Box", Card Player Magazine, a classic episode of "Blind Date," and many other publications throughout the world.Phil came to the world of professional poker via the high-tech industry. After entering college as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist at age 15, Phil graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology at 20 with a degree in Computer Science. After a 2 year stint at Lockheed Missiles and Space, Phil joined Netsys Technologies, Inc. in Palo Alto, California as its lead software engineer and first employee. Three years later, Cisco systems purchased Netsys for 95 million dollars in stock and cash.Phil grabbed the money and took flight. He packed a backpack, gave almost everything else to Goodwill, and bought a one-way ticket to Africa. During the next 5 years, Phil traveled solo to over 50 countries on 6 continents. In Africa, he has dived with the Great White Sharks, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, tracked gorillas in Uganda, snowboarded down the highest sand dunes in the world, and rafted the Zambezi River. In South America he built a balsa raft to float the Amazon River Basin, trekked the Inca trail, sailed through the fiords of Patagonia and explored the pristine wilderness of the Galapagos Islands. In Australia, Phil covered 20,000 kilometers solo in a Land Cruiser, dodged kangaroos and wallabies, climbed Ayer's Rock, dove on the Great Barrier Reef, and judged a wet t-shirt competition in the middle of the outback. Phil's travels and travel narratives are available to the public on the internet at the award-winning site, www.pgordon.com.In 2003, Phil bought a monster RV with his best friend and poker professional Rafe Furst and set out for what they describe as "The Greatest Road Trip in Sports History." They kicked off the tour at the Super Bowl in San Diego, January 26th, 2003. They criss-crossed the country in "Big Blue" , attended more than 140 sports events in 40 states including the Final Four, the Stanley Cup Finals, all three triple crown races, the Daytona and Indy 500, the Masters, US Open Tennis, 25 baseball stadiums, the top 25 public golf courses and everything in between. All during the journey, Phil and Rafe are raising money and awareness for the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation (www.preventcancer.org/usa). At tailgate parties, sports bars, poker tournaments, and by autographed memorabilia donated by sports organizations, they raised $100,000 for CRPF. The tour concluded at the Super Bowl in Houston on February 1st, 2004. Daily journals from the road and more than 5,000 pictures and video clips are available at www.ultimatesportsadventure.com. The USA tour is sponsored by ShowMeTickets.com, American Tailgater, and Appleton Estates Jamaican Rum.Phil has completed work on a book titled "Poker: The Real Deal" that will be published by Simon and Schuster. The book is scheduled for nationwide distribution in September.

[funkyworms 0]

Annie Duke & Howard Lederer don't play because they have no chance of winning! Annie and Howard will NEVER win a tournament with a field of 400 players or more. If anybody is interested, I would be willing to make a friendly wager on this. THEY ARE SO OVERRATED!

I'll give you some action on that. Since the are SOOOO overrated, just give me [(amount of entries in said tournament) * (2)] : 1 on each of them.So in this year's WSOP main event, that will be ~$14k to me if one of them wins, and $2 to you if neither wins.I'll need for us to put the money in escrow just to be safe. I have my $2. Let me know when you have your $14k and we have a bet.

[grocery_mony 8]

if the waiver isnt a problem to players with endorsements why dont they change it. the wpt is allianating pros( though the list of players who boycott is short) but as poularity of tv poker shrinks they shouldnt be burning any bridges. the wsop will always be around but i am not to sure if the wpt will be.

[SSPadawon4 0]

How come some big name pros play the WPT and others don't; if the release is that crazy?Link to the interview

You know the WPT will give in to their wishes and that all the pros will go back eventually.