Duke & Hellmuth chop Tournament of Champions prize money???

[Any2ForU]

Last weekend a dealer at the Bellagio said that Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke chopped the $2 million free roll Tournament of Champions event that was aired on ESPN. Does anyone have any insight on this? It completely makes sense that a side deal would be made given the fact that second place paid $-0-. I think it would be in both players best interest to make a deal. Why would anyone want to walk away empty handed when they could be guaranteed $1,000,000, or whatever agreed upon amount. I've heard that Harrah's has tried to discourage this practice, but as far as I know there hasn't been any real consequences established, such as, banning people from future events, imposing monetary sanctions, etc.

If it’s true, I can understand why certain parties wouldn't want things like this to become public knowledge. The integrity of the televised event might be jeopardized. It seems, however, that such a deal would just be a sound financial decision for the players as long as there are no real consequences. I think anyone would take a guaranteed payday of $1 million in that situation regardless of the opponent, or their skill level, when the result of losing would be walking away empty-handed. Therefore, I don't think it's a knock on any of the players involved if it's true. Has anyone heard anything about this?

[CrisBrown]

Hi Any2,

Annie has said on this forum that there was no deal. You can search for posts by her for the info. Now, I suppose you can say she was lying, and that the dealer at the Bellagio knows the real story. I suspect the dealer was just talking through his/her hat.

Cris

[DimensionPresident]

I don't think anyone wants to call Annie a liar, but IF there was a deal, do you actually think Annie would come right out and say so?

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think anyone wants to call Annie a liar, but IF there was a deal, do you actually think Annie would come right out and say so?

[/ QUOTE ]

No.

[reubenf]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't think anyone wants to call Annie a liar, but IF there was a deal, do you actually think Annie would come right out and say so?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. But do you think she would come right out and say there wasn't?

[David04]

private jokeraniel Negreanu siad that he doesn't make deals. I saw this in one of his articles a while ago

37 offsuit:Hellmuth was pissing and moaning because ESPN told him to, plain and simple. Don't you think Phil cussing and bitching is funnier to watch than Phil shaking ahnds with Annie and saying "Nice job"?

[Phishy McFish]

He talks about how Phil says he would be happy when Daniel is out of the ESPN tourney because then everyone else can make a deal........since Daniel has a rep for NOT making them. So it would make sense that Annie and Phil did so.

[slickpoppa]

This is pure speculation, but I'm guessing that ESPN made all of them sign an agreement not to make any such deals in order to keep things interesting.

[Bernas]

World Poker Tour makes everyone sign these but I witnessed deals. Well before the final table but there were still deals.

[eh923]

I would think it's interesting enough on the merit of having world-class players play with their pride on the line.

Perhaps I'm odd, but a winner-take-all prize structure doesn't mean anything to me as a spectator. Sure, it definitely affects strategy, but since the show is so condensed...it's tough to see WHEN the strategy changes happened.