2007 WSOP - Voluntary Costumes

2007 WSOP - Voluntary Costumes


  Today, July 10th, is the first of the Day Twos, Day 2A, where the players who survived Days 1A and 1B will merge together to fight it out for Day 3. Today is also the day that ESPN begins airing the 2007 WSOP, while the 2007 WSOP is still going on. Today is also a day without former WSOP Main Event Champ Phil Hellmuth, having gone bust yesterday in Day 1D, and with Phil goes perhaps the greatest self marketer in the poker business.



  Marketing oneself is nothing new, not even in the poker world. Saying, "I'm the best" or "I'm unbeatable" may sound like a lot of bluster (and many times it is) but it is also a way of getting people to sit up and pay attention, and no one has done it like Phil Hellmuth, although one has to wonder if he's taking things a little too far.



  This year, arriving customarily late for his day, Phil showed up dressed head to toe in a jumpsuit. Now, where Jeff Madsen had to play out his Day One in a Court Jester costume because of a failed prop bet, Hellmuth is doing this voluntarily. Why? Because his name is plastered all over it, as well as the iconic symbol made out of his initials on the back.



  Phil is not a race car driver, despite his wearing a race car driver suit, complete with sponsors' names all over the outfit (in this case he was sponsoring himself.) How do we know he is not a race car driver? Because just hours before his start for the day he crashed his race car in the parking lot of the Rio Hotel and Casino.



  The crash may have shaken him up, leading to his early outer from the event; perhaps it explains his bad play for the day, and perhaps he can be forgiven for showing up in his self supporting outfit - perhaps he doesn't need to be.