[integrate]

Concerning on which the "market" is based on, tournament poker is not the only option.

How about cash games? Before the WPT, I am not exactly sure how many bigger buy-in tournaments were around, but there were always cash games where most professional poker players made their earnings. Exactly what justifications do these 7 players have that they cannot simply play in cash games to make their living?

I have been playing poker for about 4 years now and have maybe played in a total of 5 tournaments where I COULD have made a substantial amount of money. However, I was not fortunate nor lucky enough. 95% of the money I have made from poker has been from cash games.

I suppose they have an argument if they say they only choose to play in tournaments, but tournaments are not the only option...it is a privilege to play in these tournaments and not a right. They [the 7 players] are using the excuse of the release in order to boycott the WPT [obviously as noted]. Now, because they are boycotting the WPT they technically have nowhere else to play, correct? Because they have nowhere else to play, they want to setup their own tournaments in casinos which are WPT sponsored (It is understandable why they would want to host mainly in those WPT sponsored casinos as they are the most popular in the United States), but cannot for that reason; this puts a limitation on tournament revenue for those "people" involved. I use quoatations when using the word "people" because there is almost no doubt that the 7 are putting an underlying connection of this whole issue to online gaming sites. How they are saying that online gaming companies are not involved is beyond me if they are accusing the WPT of putting a strangle hold on the so-called tournament market. I assume they will say that they want to host their own tournaments so that they have somewhere to play, but it is undoubtedly because they want more of an opportunity for company revenue.

Any response with pertinent information is appreciated as I only wish to gather more facts on the issue.

Sidenote: I will add that I am quite disappointed in Greg's personal attack on Daniel. I admire both of them as poker players but my view has changed drastically on Greg. I did not expect him to make such distasteful comments.