[GambleAB]

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I would appreciate it if someone who is all up in arms about this could answer a few questions.

1) Do you think the fact that there was to be a TOC actually induced someone to play who wasn't going to otherwise?

2) Do you think anyone who played would have not played if Harrah's had said beforehand that they were reserving a half dozen seats for sponsor's exemptions?

I don't think anyone played because of the TOC and I don't believe there is anyone who would have refused to play if they had known about the sponsorship exemptions.

What Harrah's did wrong was not tell people ahead of time that there might be exemptions. That's obviously not a good thing but it completely and utterly pales in comparison to the importance of bringing in sponsorship money.

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See, now you are just showing your ignorance. I know for a fact that there were players that flew across the country (some twice) in order to play in circuit events BECAUSE of the TOC freeroll that they could qualify into. YES there are people who, if sponsorship information was made public ahead of time, wouldn't have gone to the circuit events and would have played the 10k events that were going on at the same time closer to where they lived, and would have gone to Harrahs/ESPN/Pepsi/whomever and asked to be one of the exemptions.

We obviously ALL want sponsored tournaments, more TV coverage, ect ect. But that doesn't mean that we will just lay down and let the people bringing that to us walk all over us. We as players have a voice, and we need to use it to get sponsored tournaments, yes, AND ALSO to have them run the right way. Harrahs is doing a good job, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't point out the bad parts also. Noone is "up in arms" and noone is saying this is the end of the world, there are just some of us who appreciate the gesture VERY VERY much, yet would like to see it done more consistantly and without flaws, and some of us who are just happy to be here.