Friday Link Dump: Vulture Brains, Laak's Publicity Stunt, ElkY WinsTOC Seat, and the Latest Drama in Poker Media

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Happy Friday. While you're counting down to the weekend, here are a few tidbits to enjoy...

If you don't know... ElkY won a TOC seat in sudden-death SNG. The French pro beat out Andy Bloch, Gus Hansen, Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, Gavin Smith and Paul Wasicka in a special SNG. Only The Grinder was the sole bracelet winner at the table. (WSOP.com)

Shamus wonders if the 2-7 Lowball event at the WSOP is the Real Tournament of Champions? (Hard-Boiled Poker)

Hat tip to Bill Rini for this gem... Sports bettors smoking vulture brains to gain the ability to predict winner. As someone who has plenty of experience in high-altitude training, let me tell you this... smoking anything from a vulture will not give you secret powers to be able to predict the future. However, smoking vulture brains does cause slight paranoia, cottonmouth, and give you a wicked case of the munchies. Just don't do it in the Rio's parking lot. Anyone caught smoking vulture brains on Harrah's properties will get a lifetime ban. (Metro.co.uk)

My recap about Sunday's festivities is still getting lots of attention. By chance you didn't read it, here you go... Day 10: Most Likely You Go Durrrr's Way (And I'll Go Mine).

Last weekend, Daniel Negreanu criticized PokerNews' official WSOP coverage on Twitter that a lot (if not all) of the staff took as a cheap shot. That was not his intention, and although he later apologized to some staff members, he did not reach out to all of them -- who felt slighted even more. Negreanu posted his opinions on the official updates and chip counts on his blog, which drew a Dear John letter from a veteran of the poker industry who sounded off in an Op/Ed piece titled... Daniel Negreanu Is Right in All the Wrong Ways. (Pokerati)

My take on it all?

I was a part of the first ever official live WSOP coverage team for PokerNews in 2007, and that was the hardest I've ever worked in my life (mind you, I pulled two tours on Wall Street). The staff is underpaid (like all of poker media), overworked, and lacks manpower with a support and tech team that is based out of a former Soviet puppet state 9 or 10 time zones away.

The sober reality is this: it simply costs too much money to properly fund a successful WSOP official coverage team. No matter how good or fast of a job they do, it's never going to live up to the stringent demands on the overly critical public and meet the insatiable self-serving needs of pros and the online poker juntas.

Negreanu has valid points but failed in his way of presenting them. I agree with most of what the anonymous Op/Ed had to say and wish I wrote it and had the balls to post it on the Tao. However the entire issue at hand (and on a larger scale -- the entire concept of poker media) is so convoluted that there is no potential solution.

With that said... it's a war that can't be won, which is why I'm a mercenary sitting on the sidelines. Pay me and I'll shoot whoever you want, but you have to pay triple during the WSOP.

Oh, and by the way... play on PokerStars.

That's it. NGTFOOMO.