|
Jack Effel: At
The Helm of WSOP 2008 Jack Effel, a native of Dallas, Texas, recently discussed with Rounder what’s in store at the 2008 WSOP, including the recent decision to delay the start of the final table of the main event from July to November: What are some of the positives of the delayed final table? Some of the positives I see is that obviously the tables get turned as far as the perceived notion of who’s going to win the tournament, and I think that is a big thing. Traditionally, the World Series of Poker has been played out in its entirety and usually by the time the winner is crowned there’s a brief moment of publicity and then sometimes you hear about that person doing something and then sometimes you don’t. Like last year you didn’t really see a lot after the fact and I think this actually builds up the momentum as far as who’s going to win and the overall excitement wrapped around the final table. Poker is a sport and people want to be excited, and someone winning the bracelet at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning and it going out in the papers may not be as big as an accomplishment as it should be. Winning a World Series of Poker bracelet is like winning an Olympic medal and it should be displayed as such. The people who play in the main event should be recognized as such. How do you respond to the criticism that some people have about the decision to play the final table four months after the rest of the tournament? Everybody is on a level playing field in that everyone has the same opportunity to pursue a coach, to train, to learn about their opponents – just as you would in any other sporting competition. Instead of you being able to see through the play of hands over the course of a few days playing the final table as scheduled, now you have time to really look into your opponents and improve your skills and really compete. The competition is going to be really tough. I think we’re in uncharted territory, but I think this can be a really good thing. The new rule on excessive celebration see ms subjective. How do you ensure that it will be enforced equally? A lot of rules are subjective to a certain degree because it depends on the situation. What the rule gives us is a guideline to work around. We try to let the public know that excessive celebration, for example, is something that will not be tolerated if it becomes disruptive to tournament play. We’ve always had a rule that any disruptive behavior could draw a penalty, and we’ve just gone beyond that because of some of the theatrics that have occurred over the last couple years to put the excessive celebration rule in there. If a person gets out of line, is yelling, screaming, throwing chairs – that’s disruptive. It clarifies now more what is considered excessive and what isn’t. It’s still not 100 percent and you’re still going to have to make the decision, but I think putting it out in Q & A with Jack Effel the open for the public to see, that you do take this very seriously, then hopefully it will divert people from engaging in overly disruptive behavior. What else is new at the WSOP this year? You’ll see a lot of neat things this year at the World Series of Poker. The registration area has been placed in a separate room, which will relieve some of the congestion of having everything together. We’ve expanded that footprint as well, so there will be 21 windows now, 16 of which will be dedicated to open registration, five of which will be dedicated to Diamond/Seven Star registration and payouts for the tournament. We have the Cardrunners satellite room this year. We have 23 tables and a fully-functional cage. There will be five windows for registration and payouts, and everything that happens in that room will be single-table satellites. That will be great because in years past the single-table satellites in the general population with everything else created chaos. Now we’re giving the single-table satellite area much love. We’re giving it the love that it really deserves, and I’m looking forward to it. That’s probably my proudest accomplishment for this year, to be able to have those two areas in separate locations. On June 14, we acquire another room, which will give us an additional 65 tables. That will help us with spillover for the really large events and give us more room to accommodate the masses. We’re going to have 274 tables. We won’t have them all at the same time. They will come in at different intervals. There won’t be any alternates for any event, so once we reach capacity for an event we won’t allow any more entries. The cell phone rule is new in that you can’t be on the cell phone. It must be silenced during play. If you want to use your cell phone you must be at least one table length away from your assigned table or you could be subject to penalties. Pre-registration has been way up this year |
He’s
held nearly every position in the poker business and now helms the world’s
most prestigious poker tournament in the World Series of Poker.