A Rival Tournament for the WSOP to be Launched? We'll see...

[TomasJ]

You might already be aware that the owners of the World Series of Poker, Harrah's Entertainment intend to launch their own online poker site. Many of the top players do not like that idea.

Recently, Phil Hellmuth was a guest on Hardcore Poker Show and decided to express his opinion on Harrah's. He used quite some harsh words but most importantly he hinted that if Harrah's launches a poker site then Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars and Ultimate Bet may get together to launch a rivaling tournament series.

That would definitely not be good news for Harrah's if it happened. The WSOP would lose a lot of its value. Hellmuth showed a lot of discontempt (not that this is rare in him) and you can listen to his comments clicking here.

[classiccola]

why would the wsop lose a lot of value? Would the site there opening be just for tournaments or cash games as well? I dont see why they need to do this but i always thought it would be cool if they had an online world series of poker huge tournament.

[Fonzi]

Originally Posted by classiccola

why would the wsop lose a lot of value? Would the site there opening be just for tournaments or cash games as well? I dont see why they need to do this but i always thought it would be cool if they had an online world series of poker huge tournament.

If the WSOP has their own online poker site, some think they will either not allow or reduce the patches of other online poker sites. What incentive does a bif site like Pokerstars have of sending their players to the WSOP if they won't be able to wear the patches and promote them? That's where the problem lies.

Personally I think it's a huge mistake by the WSOP to take this route. They should stick to doing what they do. Now if Harrah's wants to start a poker site and compete with the other Online Poker Sites, I'm all for it.