Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Players Staking Players - A Poker Ethics Dilemma

Interesting column by Steve Rosenbloom. Some poker players pay the entrance fees for other players and share the winnings. This has been going on forever but now it seems to becoming an issue. I had long thought of the issue similar to Barry Greenstein who doesn't stake players:
"If they can't make enough money playing poker to be able to have the buy-in, I just assume they're a losing player,'' Greenstein says. "Why would I want to stake them? "
Now I'm not so sure. Poker is supposed to be an individual game not a team sport. I don't think a NASCAR approach would be right for poker. Barry Greenstein's solution to the problem would be to convene a panel at each tournament to rule on potential improprieties.
"I saw years ago an incredible hand where the flop came Q-9-9 and it went check to the river,'' Greenstein says. "On the river, one guy bet $100 and the other guy called. One hand was queens full and the other was four 9s, and each of those guys had a piece of each other and they didn't want to knock each other out. That should be penalized."

"If we have a panel to judge those things, we can rule on those things. People who don't play ethically get penalized and potentially barred."

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