Tony G Calls out CardPlayer

Professional poker player, Tony G, has a beef with CardPlayer magazine.  He feels that the magazine, through its website, is “stealing” from him. 

Tony G is the majority owner of PokerNews Limited, which owns PokerNews.com, one of the major news websites of the poker industry.  PokerNews.com, through a partnership with Bluff magazine, has the exclusive rights to live chip counts at this year’s World Series of Poker.  Last year, CardPlayer had the rights to all print and internet media, rights that they were very adamant in protecting. 

According to Tony G, CardPlayer is “stealing” the live chip counts from PokerNews.com and posting them on its own site within minutes.  He is furious that his competitor is doing this, especially considering the money and manpower required to get the updates out to the public in an accurate, timely fashion.   

Tony is right.  It is one thing to report chip counts and results once the day is done, as this information is freely released to the public.  But copying live chip count updates is a different story.  Doing this makes it look like you are there getting all the information yourself.  After all, that’s what live, on-the-scene coverage is all about.  CardPlayer accused a Bluff staffer of copying live updates from the CardPlayer site earlier this year, denouncing Bluff for its unprofessional, shady tactics (even with video, the evidence was not conclusive).  Now, if Tony G is correct, it appears that CardPlayer is on the flip side of the coin. 

CardPlayer staffers were very difficult for other media members to deal with last year, as they guarded their territory like a mother pitbull guards her pups.  Frequently, they scolded or “tattled” on non-CardPlayer media for doing things that they were clearly allowed to do.  If they are, in fact, copying PokerNews’ live updates and making them look like their own, they should stop.  Feel free to have your own people walk around providing custom updates, but do not post content that you do not have rights to post or is simply not yours. 

Hopefully, all this will be settled amicably.  Last year’s media situation was a mess because of the animosity between media outlets.  The coverage as a whole will be much better through cooperation, or at the very least, mutual respect.