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Olivier Busquet, winner of EPT Super High Roller was wearing a "Save Gaza" t-shirt, while Daniel Colman, the runner-up was wearing a "Free Palestine" t-shirt, which caused a lot of controversy and resulted in PokerStars changing the rules for future tournaments regarding political statements.
The EPT Live commentary team stated multiple times during the live stream that the message on the t-shirts represents only the personal opinion of Colman and Busquet, not that of PokerStars or the EPT, but they still received plenty of unflattering Twitter messages.
One of those was from Robbie Strazynski, writer of the CardplayerLifestyle blog, who wrote: "Doesn't matter what "side" you're on. #EPTLive is embarassing itself by letting @DanielColman_ and @olivierbusquet wearing t-shirts like that".
This is not the first time PokerStars has been mentioned regarding the Israeli-Palestine conflict, not long ago Daniel Negreanu stated his views regarding the matter on Twitter, which resulted in a heated debate that lasted a few days. Negreanu received a lot of negative criticism, many people stated that as a sponsored pro, he should not be allowed to take a stance in issues like this.
According to Strazynski, Negreanu's statement was appropriate, because he didn't discuss the matter at the poker tables, and also he would never wear a t-shirt with a political statement on it at the poker table.
Robbie Strazynski
The last part has been confirmed in an interview by Negreanu, according to him wearing a t-shirt is not going to make people think about the issues or change their opinions, it is only going to anger people. He also stated that since there is no such country as Palestine, the t-shirt doesn't make much sense, because it doesn't say how and what Colman wants to save. He has a similar opinion on Busquet's shirt, saying that "Save Gaza" is quite vague, and doesn't state how Busquet wants to save Gaza.
Eric Hollreiser, Head of Corporate Communcations sent a statement to Strazynski, stating:
"Our tournaments are designed to promote poker and poker competition and not as a platform for political statements. Players have many channels to express their views on world politics, but our tournaments are not an appropriate place. We will refuse entry to any player displaying political statements of any kind."
He later added that "it was probably a mistake to let them enter".
Nolan Dalla, one of the most respected people in the industry, has written a blogpost in which he describes why PokerStars made a mistake with the ruling. He says that while professional athletes have a contract with their club and are representing the club with each of their actions, poker players have no such boundaries and should be able to express their views.
Nolan Dalla
Olivier Busquet stated on Twitter that he accepts and respects PokerStars' decision about the new ruling, but later wrote: "Now that I have reflected more and have read @nolandalla's article, I still accept PokerStars' decision, but I don't respect it anymore.
Olivier stated in a different Twitter message that he didn't really want to make a political statement, he only wanted to show his empathy to the innocents.