View Single Post
  #35  
Old 07-17-2007, 05:06 AM
olivert olivert is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,070
Default Re: - WSOP ME FT: Meet the Final Nine -

Tournament director Jack Effel told me that the tournament staff made a mistake at the end of play on Monday morning. There should NOT have been another redraw at 9 players as the redraw took place at 10 players.

The corrected seating chart is:

1. Rahme
2. Kravchenko
3. Childs
4. Yang
5. Watkinson
6. (empty)
7. Lam
8. Hilm
9. Kalmar
10. Khan

--

All 9 players were sponsored as of Monday at 4pm.

FullTiltPoker.NET has 6: Kravchenko, Childs, Yang, Watkinson, Hilm, and Kalmar.

PokerStars.NET has 3: Khan, Rahme, and Lam

Hilm, as the chip leader, also has a secondary sponsorship deal with Swiss watchmaker Corum as its final table "brand ambassador" and will be wearing a Corum watch at the final table.

--

Even though Monday was a day off from play, it was "media day" for the players as each player had to honor its media interview obligations with ESPN Original Entertainment TV (done by 441 Productions), ESPN pay-per-view TV (done by Poker PROductions), and Bluff Media (worldseriesofpoker.com, Sirius Satellite Radio). Each player had to spend about 2 hours doing all the interviews at the Rio.

--

On Tuesday morning at 10am, Harrah's will hold a press conference. At about 10:45am, each of the 9 players will be awarded a Corum watch. Hilm, having secured a last-minute deal with Corum as its final table "brand ambassador", will put the watch on his left wrist immediately after the presentation and wear it during the duration of the final table.

--

Each player will only be allowed 4 "friends and family" supporters seated in the first row inside the TV arena, which has less than 200 seats, many of which will be occupied by various dignitaries (Harrah's/WSOP executives, sponsors, former WSOP Main Event World Champions, etc.)

Some of the "friends and families" will have flags with them (bought from a flag shop in the shopping mall at the Stratosphere Hotel).

Hilm's cheering section will have a Danish flag, the same one they used on Sunday (I bought the flag for them as a value-added service, as I am Hilm's agent for the duration of the Main Event and I did Hilm's deals with FullTiltPoker.net and Corum on short notice.)

Rahme's section will have FOUR South African flags.

Watkinson's wife Timmi DeRosa will have an American flag.

Kalmar's crew will have the Union Jack, the flag of the UK.

I don't know yet whether Lam's supporters will have a Canadian flag. (Lam, who is originally from Vietnam, now lives in Toronto and is a citizen of Canada.)

--

Agency affiliations: Childs hired Poker Royalty (Brian Balsbaugh, James Sullivan, et. al.), while Hilm, Kravchenko, and Yang hired me to get them sponsors on short notice.



Reply With Quote