Negreanu's latest blog update...

[Voltron87]

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let me get this straight: ESPN told everyone that if you finished in the top 20 of one of the circuit events or got to the final table of the main event you would qualify for the TOC 2,000,000 freeroll. Then ESPN adds 3 superstar players, which cuts into the 109 original players' equity, and this is a really really big deal? I'm not impressed Danny. He does not seem that intelligent from his writings, and his attempt to play the populist angle is just plain ugly. What exactly is the big deal here?

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The big deal is that the 2005 TOC was presented as a "no invite" tourney the whole time. There was no basis for adding three players to the tournament, and no criteria for picking those 3 players. Even if you wanted to make a case for Doyle and Johnny's inclusion--since they did both win a history-making 10th bracelet yada yada--how do you justify Phill's invitation?

No matter how you slice it, it's not cool to randomly invite 3 superstars at the last minute just because you feel like it. Danny's right, this isn't Kosher.

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I'm not really up on the specifics of this, so I don't know the details. Even if ESPN changed around their rules a bit, which they clearly have, they are not taking away any entries from qualfiers. At first I thought they kicked 3 amateurs out so the superstars could get in, and I thought "That's really, really [censored] up" but that's not what happened.

Sure, it isn't kosher and ESPN aren't following the terms they set out 100%. But I just don't see where much damage was done here, they are running a freeroll on their terms anyway.

Danny's writing really is poor, the whole populism bit is not good at all. It's corny and you can't invoke it on such a small slight,