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#301 – Bracelet Envy
Harrah’s decision to expand its concept of having “championships” for the different forms of poker played in WSOP events has attracted a fair amount of comment. Because I had written about the subject last week, David W., a friend of the blog and a player on Full Tilt, asked what’s probably an inevitable question: If these championship events are special, should they award a special bracelet?
This was his e-mail to me, which he gave me permission to reproduce:
With the release of the 2008 schedule and having multiple $10,000 buy-in events (I’m VERY excited about the LIMIT Hold ‘Em event), I was wondering if you thought Harrah’s and Corum would develop bracelets of equal elegance to the Main Event bracelet, or at least a bracelet a bit nicer than say a $1,500 buy-in event, but not as nice as the Main Event. It seems to me an equal buy-in shouldn’t place any preferential reverence to the Main Event, though I know that’s not the case given the extended history of the Main Event.
I was just wondering what your thoughts might be.
David:
I think it’s a nice idea but there are several reasons why they won’t go for it and, for that matter, shouldn’t. First, I don’t think Harrah’s want a hierarchy of bracelets. They were very circumspect about having WSOP-Europe give out bracelets and their strategy for those events revolved around making sure they were “worthy of a bracelet.” Note that the Circuit Events DON’T give out bracelets even though Harrah’s runs them and they have the WSOP name. It’s either a bracelet or it’s not.
Second, there’s a specific reason why the Main Event bracelet is different. It’s heavily photographed and used in promotions. Frankly, I don’t think it looks all that special, other than having a bunch of diamonds crammed on it. But that was a special case. Now the Chip Reese Award elevates another event, the $50,000 HORSE, but that’s also a special case. Some people are already thinking of that event as the REAL world championship, plus Reese was a pretty singular presence in poker. Looking ahead to the future, they could conceivably do the same thing when Doyle Brunson passes (for the main event). You could even imagine something like that in memory of Hellmuth or Chan, should they prove to be mortal. But maybe not. Maybe Chip and Doyle and the door closes.
Third, it gets too complicated. You make the $10k event bracelets special, but then what about Stud EOB, which has just a $5k event for its championship? Or the No Limit Deuce, which has the toughest field and costs more per competitor than those $10k events? Or the $5k PLO-rebuy, which could be a more expensive event than the $10k “championship”? Frankly, I think the idea of designating some events as “championship” events is a mistake. Should the winner of $5k NLHE have a bracelet (or other designation) better than the winner of $1,500 NLHE? Should the winners of discontinued events have their bracelets “devalued”? Better to say that a bracelet is a bracelet is a bracelet.
Fourth, it’s probably not practical. I don’t know what Corum makes or pays for its association with the WSOP or who pays for the bracelets. Designing an additional bracelet isn’t going to break Corum, but it’s something that’s probably time consuming and expensive if they take it seriously.
Fifth, it’s more important to argue about theoretically than in real life. Here’s an example: a lot of players don’t like the way bracelets look. I saw Annie Duke’s Omaha EOB bracelet – the 2004 version – and it looks like a license plate. A lot of people griped that the 2007 bracelets looked too delicate, almost feminine. When you win one, though, it doesn’t make a bit of difference. The winners are thrilled and they hardly wear them anyway, or they are thrilled and wear them all the time, or they are thrilled and they wear them occasionally. What it actually looks like doesn’t enter into it. (Except for Hamid Dastmalchi. He was pissed at the Binions and thought his championship bracelet looked cheap, so he sold it to Ted Forrest for $1,500. But Hamid went through a period, I was told, where he’d play any hand with a 6 so he could bust a guy with an ace if the board came 2-3-4-5.)
Michael
