He's not championing the common man, he's pointing out the class system that exists. Every player in the tourney, famous or not, took an equity hit when Chan, Brunson, and Hellmuth were given a free pass into the event. We all know damn well that if Chan, Brunson, and Hellmuth had already qualified for this event that Harrah's would not have invited three of those lesser known players to play. They would have invited someone else.

Perhaps if a player such as Chris Ferguson had not qualified, he could have been invited anyway because of his status. Any famous pro could have been one of those lucky three. You never know. But name recognition is the real reason the three were invited, and it's why others such as the players DN mentioned HAD to finish in the top 20.

Whatever happened to the motto "Anyone can win?" If you pay the entry, you should have just as much chance as anyone else, no more or less. Now anyone can still win, but if you're famous you get extra opportunities.

And stop it with the word "freeroll" already. It's not a freeroll! It's a shootout tourney, where the circuit events paid out partly in money and partly with an entry to the next round of the shootout, called the Tournament of Champions. All but 3 players earned what they got, it wasn't free.