the bittersweet irony is that actually this works better for me...i couldnt care less about the WSOP Main event.
but id love to put my hands on as many of the 1K-5K buyin NLHE WSOP Prelims as i can.
also, instead of one 10K WPT, id love to do two 5K WSOP Circuits, for example.
sure, this will precipitate a significant drop in the WSOP entries from now on. same most probably will the case with the WPT. many players will just not bother to go sign up on their own once the 12K cash or so is in their pockets...
plus, who's to say that all of the sites, even major ones, will follow fulltilt on this issue. i think at least some, if not many, will just drop cold any overt WSOP/WPT sats. (fulltilt of course, is smart here too-"Winner's Choice" doesnt legally describe anything). so let those players who win 4-5 figures bring the cash to vegas etc and sign up on their own. oh, and we will give you a free t-shirt if you wanna rep us.
the future of bigmoney live events now lies outside of the US. fulltilt is already starting on it (aussie, dublin, much more in the works).