Daniel Negreanu has said the WSOP needs to "get the legal team involved" and set crystal clear rules about the use of solvers in the tournament room. He said it's time to get "that sh** out of the poker room" and that using a solver on the rail is against the law in Nevada.
Negreanu was talking in an exclusive interview with PokerOrg, set to be released on Monday.
The GGPoker pro talked about a wide range of subjects, including the controversy around the Main Event final table, where eventual champion Jonathan Tamayo was seen working with coaches and a solver on the rail.
Since the WSOP ended, GGPoker has bought the WSOP in a deal worth $500 million, potentially giving Negreanu more sway over how the World Series is run in the future.
Negreanu had a successful WSOP, winning the $50K Poker Players ChampionshipTalking with PokerOrg's Craig Tapscott, Negreanu was asked how the WSOP will address the use of solvers next year.
"We've discussed this at length," Negreanu told us, "but at this point, what needs to happen is, you know, get the legal team involved and make sure whatever we put in writing we can do so legally – it's not infringing on players' rights, it protects the venue, it protects the organizers, but also most importantly, offers clarity to the players, so there is no doubt about what happens if you do this.
"In fairness, I think they did mention it at the start of the tournaments. It said you may get a penalty, which was a little too vague because this is all new, right? We weren't really sure how firm we needed to be with this sort of stuff and that maybe a nonchalant 'hey, don't do that' would work.
"Obviously the biggest stage in poker, seeing that, was a tainted experience. But I think going forward we're going to look at the bright side of it, which is that it should spawn a rule that's clear and that gets that shit out of the poker room. It's bad. There's no upside to this. Nobody wants this, no pros, it's not good for you, no recs, [it's] no good for the growth of the game, not at all."
The players weren't trying to hide what they did, with the infamous laptop directly on the rail. And Negreanu was flabbergasted that no one said or did anything at the time.
"If I was there live and I saw it happening, I would have alerted the tournament directors immediately," Negreanu told us. "This is why I was mind boggled by the fact that no one did anything. I think most people assumed they were looking at the stream, but no they were doing much more than that.
"The biggest defence I have for them not thinking they did anything wrong is that they did it out in the open. From that perspective you can defend them.
"Having said that, when you're Dominik Nitsche and you run a training site for this sort of stuff... you play online poker; all these tools are prohibited online. You're not allowed to use them while you play. So why would you make the assumption that at the WSOP final table you can? What you need to do in that place is if you're a responsible person, especially someone in the industry, you go to the floor and get clarification. You say, 'hey, just want to make sure that what we're doing here is kosher'.
Dominik Nitsche, Joe McKeehen and the laptop"Him saying, 'Well I didn't hear the rules, I wasn't here," that's not how laws work. That's on you. You're supposed to know the rules. And they did break the law. There's no question. Nevada Gaming has rules against this sort of thing, so they did. I don't blame Jonathan, I feel bad for him frankly. First of all, I don't think it was necessary, it didn't help him much, I think he'd have been fine either way. And too many people want to taint his success, and I think that's unfair. He was more focused on playing and I think I heard in your interview he said as much.
"The onus for me was solely on Dominik, and his response after that was embarrassing. He should be embarrassed. Everyone in the poker community saying 'Dom, you shouldn't do that', and he just stuck two fingers up. I was moritifed, not for him, because he's in that place, he's very arrogant by nature and he was backed into a corner by everyone. So rather than say 'I hear you guys, maybe it was a bad look', instead of that he doubled tripled and quadrupled down, and he always will."
Look out for another exclusive extract from the interview tomorrow ahead of The Interview's full release on PokerOrg on Monday.
