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Well it looks like that the crybabies (yes, Daniel Negreanu that means you) have gotten their way. The 2010 WSOP schedule is out and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event is now the $50,000 “Players Championship.” The game is now an 8 game mix that will have all the games of HORSE but also will include NL Holdem, PL Omaha, and 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball.

The change to the 8 game format does not bother me. What bothers me is that the final table will be EXCLUSIVELY NL Holdem. So essentially we have rewound the clock and returned to 2006 where luck played more of a role of determining the champion than skill. If you don’t believe that, then watch Andy Bloch against Chip Reese heads-up. Granted, Reese was a fantastic player, but he had a horseshoe lodge squarely up his ass in that heads-up match. Had that been limit poker, the outcome may well have been different.

This is all done for ratings. Ok, I get the fact that ESPN wants ratings and most people are too narrowly focused to be able to watch anything than Holdem. Yes, I am a poker purist. If the game is 8 game up until the final table, then the final table should be 8 game. There are rounds of NL and PLO in the mix. That should be enough.

But no, ESPN wants to tinker with the game and bastardize the game. We should rename the WSOP the World Series of Whatever the Hell ESPN Wants.