LAPC Main Event: Why Are We Here?

Day 1 of the LAPC Main Event was one of the most dispiriting days I've had in the poker industry. It started off when we were informed during Level 1 that, because of WPT contractual obligations, we'd only be allowed to send two people on the floor for fifteen minutes per level. This flew in the face of what we'd been told by Commerce before making the trek from Vegas to LA and made it virtually impossible to cover the tournament in the typical PokerNews style. It also made redundant the small team of four people that had been put together for the tournament.

I personally did the best I could to drum up anything to write about, but it's hard to do even the more-feature-oriented pieces without reasonable access to the floor. I could probably write a book on the short-sightedness of media exclusivity but I think for now I'll keep those thoughts to myself. Suffice it to say that I was singularly unimpressed by everything I witnessed yesterday. That shouldn't be interpreted as a slight on TD Matt Savage; I think that part of the problem was that we got caught up in a turf war of sorts between Commerce and the WPT.

It's going to be a long week.