An in-depth look at poker sponsorships Part 2: The NASCAR effect

In Part 1of this series I talked about how poker sponsorships have created a power vacuum where a small group of players who were at the right place at the right time have basically created a wealthy elite in the poker world, that is nearly impossible to crack -as entry-fees keep climbing for the televised tournaments, and headline stealing tournaments, as well as the televised cash games only the already successful are capable of cracking this elite group.

In this part I want to talk about something that is not quite as disconcerting, but something I see as a major problem for poker mainstream appeal in the long-run: The NASCAR look many players are sporting, especially in major tournaments like the World Series of Poker main Event.

The NASCAR Factor

There has been a disturbing trend at the poker tables over the past few years: What started off as a PokerStars hat here, a Full Tilt Poker hoodie there, has turned into spur of the moment sponsorships where every player at the featured table of a televised tournament finds themselves signing papers with some online Poker Room or another and having a variety of patches slapped on their shirts, hats, or any other visible part of their body.

Even worse are the players at the World Series of Poker Main Event final table who appear to be some variant of a NASCAR automobile, with sponsorship patches covering every inch of their body -think Kevin Costner’s character in the golf film Tin Cup, Roy McAvoy.

The problem is not simply one of aesthetics, although the patches are often gaudy and look downright ridiculous in most cases, but it also cheapens the event. In the early days of the WPT they had a strict dress code, and in order to further promote poker players as a serious entity we need to strip them of their backwards baseball hats, sweatshirts and basketball jerseys when they appear on TV.

In my mind there is no difference between appearing on TV at a poker tournament and appearing on TV as a guest on a daytime talk show -some people decide to dress nicely, while others show up in wife-beaters and ripped jeans. I’ll leave it to you to determine who comes off looking better, even if they were to say the exact same thing.

I’m not advocating the complete lack of sponsorships or Tony Dunst-like attire, but couldn’t PokerStars get their point across just as easily with a nice collared polo? The overkill displayed by these sponsors is so tacky as to make me NOT want to play at their Poker Room.