Customer Service, and the Opposite...

First the customer service: (quoted from Cardplayer.com):

On Sunday evening, PokerStars.com held a $215 “second-chance” World Series of Poker multi-table satellite for those who may have taken an early exit from the huge qualifier held the same day, which attracted 7,377.

The second-chance tourney didn’t attract nearly that many people to the evening tournament, but still generated enough of a prize-pool to send another 21 players to the WSOP main event.

So imagine the players’ frustration when, with 25 people left, PokerStars.com’s site went down for almost an hour, the first time that Lee Jones, the site’s poker room manager, can remember that happening in more than a year, he says.

But the wait would be worth it for all the players, especially the short stacks who were facing elimination before the outage. When the site came back online, the people at PokerStars.com decided the right thing to do would be to award all 25 remaining players a $12,000 WSOP prize package.

And the other side of the coin: (also from CardPlayer.Com)

A group of seven poker pros (Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, and past World Series of Poker champions Chris Ferguson, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem) have filed an antitrust lawsuit against World Poker Tour Enterprises, claiming that WPTE violates antitrust laws with the release form they require all players to sign, which allows WPT to use any players likeness in any way they choose.

Now this isn't a case of a bunch of whiney pros bitching about how these companies are making money off of them - they have a very legitimate gripe (each of the players involved already has a contract with a different company guaranteeing that company the exclusive use of their names and images). Read the article.

“This is about the control of your own name and likeness and in poker that’s all we have,” Lederer said. “You could find yourself endorsing products you don’t believe in. I should be able to make that decision. I don’t want the WPT deciding for me.”

Well, the WPT is a made for TV product, so Howard's point can't be taken to the extreme where each player has to agree to each camera shot used - but I certainly don't think WPT should be able to use Lederer's image to endorse products without his permission.

“I’ve been trying very hard to get a fair release,” Ferguson said. “Sometimes this release conflicts with deals you already have.”

-KD