Lyle Berman Makes Final Table At Foxwoods

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Does anyone else find it odd that Lyle Berman is allowed to play in the WPT events? I'm sure there is nothing fishy going on, but to the uneducated viewer it might look strange.

For instance I have heard that Bobby Baldwin, CEO of MGM/Mirage will not play poker in his casinos due to the image problem. So when he wants to play in the big game with the boys, they move it downtown to the Golden Nugget.

Anyways what I am really looking forward to is seeing if Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten say anything negative about his play during the broadcast.

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Lyle was moved to my table early on the first day so we played together for about 9 hours. (I also ended up at his table on day two and he busted me out of the tournament.) I asked him this exact question on day one. He told me that there has been a lot of discussion about playing in these events with WPT management and lawyers. Obviously there is no direct conflict of interest because WPT just tapes the final table and the casino actually runs the event. The only reason for any discussion is because of appearance or outside perception. Apparently Lyle, the WPT and their lawyers are OK with it - otherwise he would not be playing.

On a side note - Lyle was fun to play with. He told some funny stories about the big game and its players and was generally interesting to talk to. I enjoyed playing with his son Brad last year and Lyle was a pleasure to play with as well. I hope he wins.