According to the poker website Pokerati.com, 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year Tom Schneider is willing to give a part of whatever he wins in the invite-only WSOP Tournament of Champions to those who mark their ballots with his name.
In an e-mail sent by Schneider to his supporters, the WSOP double bracelet winner states, “You vote for me, and only me, and you will be part of the pool that will split half of what I win.” Schneider describes the procedure that potential voters must go through to get in on a piece of the action and finishes his e-mail proposition by saying, “I really would like to play in this tournament and your vote is very important to me. That’s why I’m paying for it.”
The final table of the exclusive Tournament of Champions is the only part that pays out in the tournament, with players in fourth to ninth places earning $25,000. Third place in the tournament will earn $100,000, second place will take away $250,000, and the winner will earn $500,000. Depending on how much support Schneider’s plea gets – and if it is enough for him to make the top 20 players who will compete in the tournament – there is a possibility for his fans to share in a nice payday.
As of this time, Schneider’s name is not among the top 50 vote-getters in the balloting. With the voting limited to those players who have won a WSOP bracelet, 521 people are eligible. The voting seems to be across the board, with such players as defending WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event winner Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, veteran poker player and seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter, and the maniacal Dario Mineri included among the top 50.
Schneider has the poker acumen to be a part of the Tournament of Champions. Originally planning to play just three events in the 2007 WSOP, “The Donkeybomber” went on to make the final table in all of them, winning two to pull in $416,829 and the prestigious Player of the Year title. In the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Schneider drove deep in the tournament before bowing out in 52nd place for a $138,568 payday. All told, Schneider has quietly earned over $1.6 million in tournament winnings in his career dating back to 2002, according to the Hendon Mob database.
Fan voting for the 2010 Tournament of Champions will end on June 15th. Whether Schneider’s unique method of garnering votes will earn him one of those 20 berths in the tournament is unknown at this point, but credit has to be given the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year for getting his name in front of prospective voters.
While this is a “cute” story, I personally hope that this gets him disqualified from the voting. Begging for votes on twitter etc is one thing, but paying for them is entirely something else. Granted, I doubt much will be said as he has a snowballs chance in hell of getting in.
I have this unfortunate visual of the ESPN commentators pointing out the player in the 4 seat, Tom Schneider, bribed his way into this prestigious event. You sure wouldn’t see this in any other sport……….that’s for sure! Poker doesn’t need this black eye.
He is a great player, but certainly doesn’t come close to the credentials of so many others. Perhaps the WSOP should consider setting a date, where any further votes cast would require 20 selections to count as an official ballot.
In case Schneider was only kidding in his post about bribing fans to vote for him, and him only, the poor scheme might spark some computor whiz kid to saturate the votes for one player only. Why should the WSOP even take this chance?
The great players who actually were voted in without bribing anyone, would certainly be resentful of Schneider or anyone else being part of the event unethically.
The truth is everyone will now wonder….. if Tom Schneider is voted in, if it was legit or his bribery scheme worked. Most players respect him as a player, but what a dark cloud he would have to overcome to re-gain their respect. He didn’t think ahead on this consequence very much.
The WSOP TOC All-Star tourney is a great idea that will a bonanza for poker and ESPN. Let’s keep the voting process on the up and up. To have the WSOP Player’s Advisory Council be asked by WSOP management to be part of the verification process would be smart, so all feel the entire process is legit.
Hello James,
I don’t personally believe that this is a disqualifying move. It is a unique method of reaching out to voters and, as I do know Tom, he is a man of his word if he actually gets voted into the Top 20. After that, there is the small factor of making it to the final table, though!