Thursday, July 12, 2007

The English Only Series of Poker?

This is interesting (from the WSOP tournament update page):

Juan Fernadezi, currently sitting at table 6, has just been warned to follow the rules. The floor staff was called over because Fernadezi was speaking in Spanish during hands. "This is an English-only game. You have to be able to speak English in order to play here. If you can't, you can talk only when the dealer is shuffling," was the warning issued to Juan. He's been told he will receive penalties if he continues to speak in Spanish, even when the table tried to inform the floor staff that he can't speak any English. The players at the table, seemingly disappointed by the ruling, were getting along quite well before the ruling came down. The table has been playing in almost complete silence since the warning was issued. As an interesting aside, we have had two blind players play in the Main Event who were allowed assistants to sit behind them and whisper their hole cards, as well as the action around the table, into their ear.

I can't imagine what difference it makes what language someone is speaking while playing poker...and why did it take until Day 3 of the tournament for this to become an "issue?"

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