Posted by Dr Fro 9:21 PM

The WSOP started on ESPN. The first duet of episodes reminded me of one thing: Why do people make such asses of themselves on TV? The second duet was more refreshing; the players took their lumps with dignity.

The second notable thing about this weeks episodes is that it confirms a trend that ESPN is not going to gloss over controversy (conventional wisdom is that they would paint poker to be a less dirty industry than it is because when the integrity of the game is at stake, viewers will be less interested). Last year, they were transparent about the chip discrepancy caused by an errant coloring up. This year, they pointed out that Justin Bonomo (ZeeJustin) was most famous for "cheating" online. To be fair to Justin, I put his sin in quotes; it deserves a post of its own to analyze whether what he did was, in fact, cheating. Further, I said "most famous" because he was famous online for his success before he was famous for his scandal.

Bravo, ESPN, for telling it like it is.

2 Comment(s):

Posted by  Junelli, at 5:22 PM, August 08, 2008  

Maybe he was famous online before the scandal because he was already cheating, yet hadn't been caught yet.

And I would say that playing simultaneously on multiple accounts in the same tournament would constitute cheating. Let me play 10 different accounts at the same time in the IAG tournament, and I might have a chance to cash. :)

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Posted by  Dr Fro, at 12:49 PM, August 10, 2008  

http://www.tournamentmonitor.com/news/zee-justin-cheat.aspx

It's not that I think that multiple accounts isn't cheating - it is against the rules. But he never sat at the same table with himself, which means that he didn't do the very thing the rule is their to guard against.

Not justifying it, but I wouldn't put him in the same category as some of the other cheaters of recent note.

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