The recently-completed World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions (whew) has been hailed as having one of the most entertaining final tables of all time. With Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth seated in such close proximity, that comes as no surprise. What WAS a surprise to many of the players who fought and clawed to gain entry to the TOC is that Hellmuth was there at all. The Poker Brat, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson were given "sponsor’s exemptions" to the event. This kicked off a firestorm of dissent, spearheaded by a blog post written by Daniel Negreanu, who said flat out that those who played by the rules and got into the TOC fair and square were lied to. Steve Rosenbloom of ESPN also wrote a column about the controversy. After the jump, you’ll see there’s still some hard feelings here, and a hell of a lot of ineptitude… SCREWED IN A TWO POINT FIVE MILL FREEROLL Since the criticism started, Jeffrey Pollack, the vice president of sports and entertainment marketing for Harrah’s, has been making the rounds explaining how and why this happened. He met with both Negreanu and Rosenbloom to clear the air. To Pollack’s credit, he made the call to Rosenbloom and apologized for what happened when speaking to both writers. So, thumbs up there. But thumbs down to the reason Pollack gave over and over for the reason the brouhaha happened in the first place–that he’d just started his job and didn’t know better. Uh, is that the best line to take with professional poker players, most of whom have bullshit detectors set permanently on "high?" Rosenbloom asked questions that probably had Pollack channelling Scott McClellan:

Rosenbloom: "There was never any indication [of sponsor exemptions], unless there is fine print. Is there fine print in this? Because it was repeated enough that there was never a hint, threat, suggestion, indication that there would be a sponsor exemption or Mystery Guest No. 1."

Pollack: "The communication predates me. I don’t know. I haven’t taken the time, nor do I have the interest to go figure it out at this point. It’s history.'’

That’s not an answer likely to engenger much good feeling among poker pros.

Rosenbloom: "If you were going to consider sponsor’s exemptions, wouldn’t it behoove you or somebody to say, ‘Can we do this? Is this what we advertised this thing as?’ Wouldn’t it be incumbent upon somebody to check the fine print to see what kind of standing you have on this? Because somebody in your organization has to be poker-savvy enough to know that bringing in somebody who can knock you out of a tournament is not a poker player’s idea of fair and equitable.'’

Pollack: "I’m not a lawyer. But I do know absolutely without question we have the right and had the right to put these players in under sponsor exemptions. There’s no question about that.'’

Rosenbloom: "Based on what? Is there a standard clause in your contracts or the way you draw up terms and conditions?'’

Pollack: "Three rules governing World Series of Poker events clearly state that all decisions regarding the interpretation of rules and eligibility lie solely with us and our decisions are final.'’

One of the big reasons certain people gravitate toward playing poker for a living is because they want to live outside the world of rules and bureaucracy. They loathe petty politics and want to live by their wits and their guts. Perhaps there’s just no way to prevent the spread of corporate politics once a critical mass of money accumulates. But Pollack did apologize, Negreanu said he was honestly interested in making things better his "customers", and Rosenbloom’s next column will focus on how Pollack plans to improve service for those customers. And here we reach some ominous news–according to Negreanu, Pollack’s brother is NHL commisioner Gary Bettman. Which can’t exactly be heartening for poker fans. If the entire slate for the 2008 World Series is cancelled, and then the following year the television rights are sold to, oh, Animal Planet, well, we should’ve seen it coming. Pollack discusses TOC exemptions [ESPN] Poker Superstars III and Dinner with Jeffery Pollack [Daniel Negreanu’s Poker Journal]