Pretty interesting story to come out of the WSOP, and it only has a little to do with poker.
I like Jon Aguilar. Don't really know him well, but I respect what he does. He kind of reminds me of a younger version of myself. He is very outspoken and isn't afraid to call out people or organizations in poker that deserve it.
Some of you might remember Aguiar as the guy who got threatened via Twitter by Joe Sebok, who implied that "skeletons" about Aguilar and his girlfriend might be revealed if he kept publicly bashing UB.
More recently, and more relevant to this story, Aguiar made a post on 2+2 criticizing the undocumented "Staff Appreciation Fees" being taken out of WSOP Circuit prize pools. Aguiar's posted this in February 2012, and the thread can be found here:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...wsopc-1162780/
My analysis on that situation can be found here:
http://dandruffpoker.com/wsopc.html
Anyway, apparently that whole mess led to some bad blood between Aguiar WSOP Public Relations Director Seth Palansky. It was Palansky who ultimately responded to Aguiar's accusation in February, and he promised to make changes. At the time, Palansky responded in a professional manner and it didn't appear that he had animosity toward Aguiar. Perhaps the two of them had other exchanges that I don't know about, but apparently Palansky really hates the guy.
Back to the present.
Aguiar made the final table of Event #5, $1500 Pot Limit Hold 'Em.
Daniel Negreanu was also at that final table, as was recent WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown champion Tommy Vedes.
The final 5 at the table included Negreanu, Aguiar, Vedes, and two mostly-unknown online players.
Recall that the WSOP instituted a new "rule" this year regarding verbalizing actions at the final table. Basically, players can't just put chips out -- they have to announce "check, bet, or raise" and say how much they are betting. At first it was claimed that players would only be encouraged, not required, to do this. However, apparently that's not actually the case.
The official rule reads as follows:
The above is the now-infamous "Rule 88" of the official WSOP Rules for 2012.Participants at all bracelet event final and feature tables are required to verbalize each action in the form of "Check", "Bet" or specific amount, "Call", "Raise", or "All-In". Violators will receive a penalty in accordance with Rules 39, 102, and 103.
Apparently this rule was NOT enforced while Negreanu and Vedes (the two biggest names) were still in the tournament. However, when the two of them busted in 5th and 4th respectively, suddenly things changed. This was the report given by 2nd place finisher Bryan Pellegrino:
So already we have a case of alleged favortism here, which isn't surprising, given the way I've seen other "name" pros get away with things that the rest of us can't.I didn't know the verbal declarations rule before I was at the final table. It wasn't enforced at all while Negreanu and Vedes were still at the table, but 3 handed they started to enforce it very strictly. They were really obnoxious about it and told us to verbalize EVERY action - even checks and folds.
We asked if we could just verbalize our bets but they said 'no' and said they would start issuing penalties. The dealer verbalized loudly every time we did something, then the floorman would announce it with the microphone, AND they had commentators announcing - forcing us to do that was just ridiculous.
Anyway, Aguiar (who finished 3rd, and was subjected to the obnoxious declaration rules) fired off several tweets criticizing the situation.
Some Twitter troll named @SHAWNIVEY_OBV took issue with Aguiar's frequent complaints about things, and tweeted the following:
Notice that the tweet was also copied to @WSOP (the official WSOP Twitter account) and @WSOPTD (WSOP tournament director Jack Effel.)Tweet from: @SHAWNIVEY_OBV
@JonAguiar @wsop @wsoptd why are you the only one who cries all day every day about everything Adapt and stop sounding like a complete bitch
Shockingly, @WSOP retweeted this derogatory message to all of the WSOP's 72,000+ followers!
This stayed up for more than 24 hours.
Aguiar was livid:
Of course, for some time, it wasn't clear who was responsible for that offensive retweet, since it came from the offical WSOP Twitter account, which is manned by several people.
Finally, Seth Palansky took reponsibility, and oddly claimed that he "meant to favorite it instead of retweet it". Say what?
Here is Palansky's interview with Quadjacks about it. I suggest fast-forwarding to 8:00 where he talks about it:
Of course, being a Snake in the Grass production, the audio fails badly about 2 1/2 minutes into Seth's explanation.
Jack Effel, the tournament director, also made an apparently sarcastic tweet to Aguiar about the matter:
The Effel tweet was actually BEFORE the Palansky @WSOP tweet!Tweet From: @WSOPTD
@JonAguiar appreciate your support in helping grow the great game of poker!
Pretty crazy, huh?
PokerFraudAlert actually auto-captured the aforementioned tweets, as the system automatically posts all tweets from @WSOP and @WSOPTD.
The apparently sarcastic Effel tweet:
http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...uiar#post27036
The infamous retweet:
http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...uiar#post27075
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