WSOP ‘Verbalize’ Rule Causes Twitter Conflict

Bad rhetoric sees tournament communication chief disciplined The new WSOP rule that players must verbally express their intentions when playing at final and feature tables created a stir at the tournament over the weekend, causing a real little Twitter war between an American poker pro Jon Aguiar and WSOP communications chief Seth Palansky, after which Palansky had to offer an apology and let someone else take over tweeting on behalf of WSOP. Namely, everything started when Aguiar protested, supported by many players, at the allegedly over-zealous application of the unpopular rule when play had reached the three handed stage on a final table where he was playing. What happened was that the players complied with tournament staff orders after being threatened with a suspension in play, but not without Aguiar expressing his discontent on Twitter. To that, Palanky responded in a tweet which featured language that he later admitted had been offensive. Hence, he apologized: "It was wrong & a bad moment. Love the WSOP & the players. Sorry for damage done." In addition, his apology was accompanied by an advisory from the WSOP that the WSOP Twitter account will be handled by other staff members. After the confrontation, Aguiar stated: “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."