Originally Posted by
Jayjami
I didn't attend the WSOP last year, but I did get to play an event in the Amazon Room last week (which is always a good thing, because it means you made it to day 2). I noticed the pix of Russ Hamilton and Chris Ferguson were noticibly absent. Evidently there were no world champions in 1994 and 2000! Frankly, I think this is a bad idea. First, they won fair and square. Second, people need to be reminded that poker is full of shady characters. I guess now that Ceasars is in the online business they want people to forget about all the criminal activity associated with it in the past.
Interesting. Didn't know about Ferguson. I knew that Hamilton was "tarped" for a number of years, where his picture was up but there was a black tarp covering about 80% of it.
I understand your point, but I actually spport covering up these guys, given the severity of their thefts. Indeed, if you were to remove all shady characters from the wall, it would nearly be bare, but these guys perpetrated such a high-level theft that I just hate seeing them honored in any way -- especially because most casual players will have no idea about the bad things they did.
Has anyone seen Lederer around the Rio this year? I heard he planned to return to the WSOP, but it's possible he backed out of those plans, given the negative reaction. It really bothers Lederer that his rep was ruined. It was very important to him to be respected and revered within the world of poker.
Russ was a different story. He always knew he was a thief, and even before the UB fiasco, people knew him as a shady character. He didn't have much of a reputation to lose. Howard was generally seen as good and respectable (though I always thought he was an arrogant dickhead), so this really changed things.
Howard and Chris honestly don't understand that they stole from people, because neither of them want to understand it.