Twitter war on WSOP Verbalise Rule


Tuesday June 5, 2012 :  TWITTER WAR OF WORDS OVER WORLD SERIES OF POKER ‘VERBALISE' RULE
 
Tournament communication chief disciplined over retort
 
A small but highly publicised confrontation over the new WSOP rule that players must verbalise their intentions when playing at final and feature tables created a stir at the tournament over the long weekend and resulted in WSOP communications chief Seth Palansky having to offer an apology and surrender responsibility for tweeting on behalf of WSOP.
 
At the centre of the row was American poker pro Jon Aguiar, who appeared to have the support of many players when he protested at the allegedly over-zealous application of the unpopular rule when play had reached the three handed stage on a final table in which he was a player.
 
The confrontation resulted in the players complying with tournament staff orders after being threatened with a suspension in play, but Aguiar did not let it rest there, resorting to Twitter to criticise the rule and its application.
 
That led to a responsive re-tweet in which Palansky used language which he later acknowledged had been offensive. "It was wrong & a bad moment. Love the WSOP & the players. Sorry for damage done," Palansky's apology read.
 
It was followed by an advisory that going forward the WSOP Twitter account would be handled by other WSOP staffers.
 
Poker Strategy covered the incident in depth here:
 
http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/Jon-Aguiar-vs.-the-WSOP:-The-Verbal-Declarations-Rule-Controversy-[Interview]_60388/
 
In the interview Aguiar appears to remain aggrieved, saying: “Over the past 14 months, Seth Palansky has repeatedly used the @WSOP twitter account to attack, harass, and slander members of the poker world that he believes interfere with the WSOP taking as much of the players' money as they can get away with.
 
"I was actually not very surprised that he would stoop low enough as to retweet the thoughts of a twitter troll with no followers just to take a shot at me. My anger lies in the fact that my friends, family, and co-workers visited WSOP.com and saw that tweet visible (as well as another needle from @WSOPTD himself) when their intention when visiting the site was to see how I had done competing for my first gold bracelet.
 
"I find this behavior totally reprehensible and expect there to be serious consequences for Seth and to a lesser extent Jack. I believe that any self-respecting major brand would fire Seth immediately given the situation."