Going to the Dogs, WSOP Media, and Blogjoy

The last couple of days, I've been sick as a dog. I woke up yesterday with a sore gut and a cat coup on my hands. It seems I had run out of cat food and a feline uprising was in full swing. I grabbed my keys and ran a serpentine pattern for the door. Once safely at the store, I ended up buying a 40 lb bag of food as it offered the best price point. In my weakened condition, I felt like the bag outweighed me by 10 lbs. I dragged the bag through the front door with twelve paws at my heels. I quickly opened it to the din of expectant meows, only to realize...wait for it...that I had bought dog food. You know you're in for a bad day when you buy food for a pet that you don't own. Another round trip to the store and the coup was finally contained. The picture is of Seven-Toed Sammy, finally at rest.


I probably could have saved some keystrokes on my last entry if I had waited a few hours. Harrah's released its long awaited Media Guidelines for the 2006 WSOP. It looks like I had it pretty close to the mark thanks to the well functioning rumor mill.

Freelancers and bloggers are going to have to get pretty creative to get access. And anyone that is not one of the "Official Media Providers" will be contending with a lot of restrictions.

I see that I made the same argument as Harrah's - this model is very similar to other major sports media coverage models. But there is a problem with that line of reasoning. The poker media, itself, does not yet mirror major sports media. When the major newspapers came in for the final event last year, most of the reporters knew nothing about poker. They had to ask the bloggers who the major players were. I literally got asked who Johnny Chan was more than once. And yet these are the outlets that will easily score credentials. Some of the best real-time tournament reports in 2005 were filed by Pauly, Otis, and BJ Nemeth. To my knowledge, none of these reporters are working for the "Official Provider" of real time tournament reports.

So while the coverage and credentialing model is one that is consistent with major sports, the current state of poker journalism isn't. That's a problem.


I'm experiencing real blogjoy in my new unfettered blog. First of all, comments rock! Having a comments section in my old blog was also a no-no. So I'm totally loving that. And cc, I'm working up the courage for your suggestion. Nice rack btw.

And with the world in turmoil, it seems that poker may be the international language of peace. I know I will eventually tire of checking out my blog stats, but for now it is a source of wonderment. Thanks to all you bloggers out there, the following countries have found their way to this blog: US, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, India, Pakistan, Argentina, Venezuela, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Estonia, Gibraltar, Mauritius, and the Czech Republic. I've probably left someone out. Hopefully an international incident won't ensue.