Don't Feed the Animals, Part 2

David Williams came bounding into the press box as I was chatting with PaulyDrama.

"Who's F-Train?" he demanded of Pauly.

"Why, what happened?" asked Pauly.

"He got something totally wrong."

Pauly pointed to my laptop and empty chair. "He was sitting over there, but he's not there now."

Williams unloaded on Pauly that the thing I got "totally wrong" made him look like an idiot. It was one of those instance where I know what I heard on the floor, reported it in the live blog, and one of the pros didn't like it. I've earned my stripes now I guess.

Basically, there was a dispute between Williams and the floor over whether he should be given a full starting stack. The rule at the WSOP is clear: if you register early, you get anted / blinded off from the moment the clock starts running at Level 1. If you do late registration, you get a full stack when you get to the table. Williams was protesting that he should not have been anted off, that he should have gotten a full stack. This is the point that I jumped into his conversation with the floor:

"These rules need to be publicized!" he told the floor.

"I agree, and they will be," the floor responded. "But right now there's nothing I can do."

"I just want a decision," Williams continued. "I've been waiting for a decision for five minutes, and my stack keeps getting smaller."

"You have three options," said the floor. "Play the stack on the table, take a full refund of your buy-in, or talk to Jack [Effel, TD]."

"I want to talk to Jack."

Off they went. I reported that he seemed to have registered early, come over late, and been surprised that he was anted off. When Williams came back later, he had a full stack. I reported that also. Anyway, back to Williams and Pauly.

"I know the rule," said Williams. "I'm not an idiot. I busted from PLO at 5:03 and was in the stud tournament at 5:05."

Did I get it wrong? Maybe. A quick check of his tournament receipt would provide the answer as to whether he registered at 5:05. In fact, I don't know why he didn't just show his tournament receipt to the floor to prove he registered late, if that was indeed the case. But it begs two questions:

(1) Why was Williams' stack already on the table? I haven't seen any other instances where people were stacked off who registered late, although I did see one late registration in the razz event who was given "Seat #10" at a table. Obviously that doesn't work for an 8-handed event. So, I concede the possibility of error on Harrah's part, although it seems such an error would have cropped up before Event #35.

(2) Why was Williams protesting that the rules need to be publicized better? What difference does that make if he knows the rule?

Just another crazy day at the WSOP. And now that I've pissed off one of the "names", I guess I'm legit.