World Series of T-Shirts
Hellmuth Attire Bombs; Death, Batface Infringement Are in

LAS VEGAS–There\’s a sale at the Rio! That\’s right, get your non-freebie swag! Last year so many T-shirts were being given away, I\’m sure it was hard for the official joint to hawk its merch. This year no one\’s here to give away the goods gratis … so apparel is being sold on the corner (like literally — prime location at the Amazon room crossroads) for $25 a pop. Or shall we say $17.50 a pop?

Wow. Kinda hard to believe that these shirts have the officially licensed WSOP logo, no? Oooh, Dead Man\’s Hand! Pizz-izz-zashhaw! Don\’t Hate the Playa, Foo! Booh-yah! Perhaps the worst shirt for sale — one commemorating Phil Hellmuth\’s historic 2007 WSOP victory.

These shirts have been on sale for about two weeks now … guess how many they have sold.


OK, I\’ll tell you how many … 1.

No, it wasn\’t to Phil Hellmuth … it was to a guy who the graveyard-shift saleslady thinks was a collector of some sort, as he purchased one of almost everything. Either that or to someone who wanted to give it away as a Gigli prize to the first person out of a tournament.This one\’s cool-ish, no? Have not seen anyone wearing one, however.

But now check out this official WSOP shirt … closely.

Is it just me or does the above look a lot like a combination of a few things.

There\’s a fine line between inspiration and copyright infringement, I suppose. But then again, if the essence of the WSOP isn\’t the roughly elegant convergence of Pokerati and the WPA … with a little Batfaces thrown in to boot … then really, what is it?