Workers Unite!!

[Boris]

Dan Negreanu made a post on RGP where he implied that some professional poker players are going to form a union.

lol.

Is this guy for real?

[fluff]

I hope he does it and gets all the professional to go on a strike! That would rule.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

You are a sick, twisted, degenerate.

I knew there was something I liked about you.

al

[scotnt73]

[ QUOTE ]
I hope he does it and gets all the professional to go on a strike! That would rule.

[/ QUOTE ]

what would they be striking against? what would the union protect them from? i know you guys are joking but what is the actual premise behind what hes thinking?

[Your Mom]

that reminds me of the seinfeld where Kramer becomes a commie with the dwarf. Good episode.

[J.R.]

I would gather the idea would be that the WPT is successful because of the star power of the top players (or so a union would contend), so a union of the top players could threaten to strike and keep this star power out of the WPT tournies unless the WPT shares a piece of the action (presumably through money added to tournies or perhaps paying players appearance fees ala the PGA).

Daniel is gonna outsmart, outlast and outmuscle Lyle Berman. Yup! (sarcasm)

[Wake up CALL]

I think Daniel just bluff-raised into a dry side pot.

[thirddan]

he wouldn't do that, hes hates when people do that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[prairieboy]

If that's the logic, then the union's in big trouble. People love the WPT because "that could be me". The celebrity of the various known players helps, but isn't the main draw.

[AAmaz0n]

I agree that part of the appeal of WPT is the "everyman" aspect of having a chance to make it to the final table. However, I also think that since the WPT has now started becoming big that it needs to think about giving something back to the players.

I don't think that anyone minded during the first season when the show was an unproven concept making some sacrifices for the show; giving interviews, having play interuppted at the final table for TV, giving away hole card information, etc.

Now that the show is doing well, however, I can understand the frustration of some of the top pros at the show using the players as unpaid extras and not adding anything to the pot. The prize money is all coming from players entry fees with no value being added from the TV show as added incentive to put up with the inconvenience that it causes in the tournaments. At this point I think that needs to change.

There are other actions besides simply boycotting tourneys that could force a change; creating a competing venue with the name players, refusing to cooperate at the final table, not granting interviews, etc. I think that if WPT continues to exploit the players without compensation some of these things may come to pass.

My hope is that WPT wises up long before that happens and starts givng back to the players that are putting it on the map - adding to the prize pool, paying the players for the time that they are giving up for interviews, creating incentives for the players to want to cooperate with the show.

Hopefully, both sides will start thinking about how to make everyone happy and not kill the goose that is creating the golden eggs. Certainly there is more money in the game through the publicity that WPT is generating. At the same time, the show has no more right to expect people to continue to work as unpaid extras than any other TV show.

Shauna