[GambleAB]

Thanks for getting my hopes up. I read your blue type, went off and read the article, got all pissed with the way Pollack came off, and then came back and read your last statement, lol.

Couple of points, if I may make them:

- The TOC wasn't really a "nice thing to do for the players". That makes it seem like it was an afterthought. The TOC was created before the first circuit event ever started, as a way to yes thank players who played and did well, but also to drive players to the tournaments.

- The big joke at the first circuit event was taking over/under bets on how many people Harrahs was going to invite that didn't "make it". We were assured countless times that noone would be allowed to play who didn't qualify through the preset standards. This led me to belived that there WAS something in writing and they WERE going to abide by it.

- Ok, so we see where someone (Harrahs? ESPN? I don't know exactly where the blame should fall) didn't follow the rules. Thats half of the equation. The other half is more trickey, because it involves concepts that aren't always exact. HOW did these 3 players being allowed in the game affect the other players? I can't answer that. He is what I know though: I played in the TOC for 13 hours, and busted in 17th place. For those 13 hours, I'd say that between 6-7 of them were spent at a table with at least one of the three special invities. I feel that AN ARGUMENT CAN BE MADE that were those 3 players not in that tournament, I would have finished signifigantly better, and quite possibly would have made some good money from the tournament (not to mention more TV time, which helps me financially in other aspects). Of course we can't really put a figure on this, because if THEY are gone, then technically every hand I was dealt would have been different, blah blah blah, BUT I think that my overall play was solid enough to say that were those 3 players not there, I had a very good chance of being one of the top 9 finishers on Tuesday.

I'm very interested to see how they "make it up to the players". Lets face it. There were some players whose heads simply weren't there, and still would have busted on Day 1 if Hellmuth, Chan, and Brunson weren't there. BUT, there were also players who were playing at the top of their game, and for them the argument could be made very easily (and very convincingly) that them making the final table was a very real possibility, were the original rules followed and not broken to allow three new players into the game. People like myself, Yosh, Lonnie, Grinder, and more I'm sure that I wasn't able to play with and witness their game first hand.

I'm very interested to see how this turns out....