If the folks who run the World Series of Poker (WSOP) wanted some controversy to spice things up until Main Event action resumes in four months, they’ve got it.

Maybe even more than they wanted.

One of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table members said in an interview with a poker blog that if he wins the Main Event, he will throw the championship WSOP gold bracelet he’ll earn “in the trash.”

Final table member Jeffrey Shulman, who has the fourth-highest amount of chips among the nine final table players, isn’t just a top poker pro who finished seventh in the 2000 WSOP Main Event and has earned over $1.3 million in his career playing tournament poker.

He is also the editor of the popular poker magazine owned by his father called Card Player and he has a beef with the WSOP head honchos.

In a news article posted on the Card Player website (www.cardplayer.com), Shulman explained his “trash” comment: “Some people are reporting that I’m upset because the World Series cancelled a media deal with Card Player. My comments have nothing to do with that and everything to do with my disappointment in how the World Series is run.

“It used to be run by people who loved and really cared about poker and had the players in mind, first and foremost. That mission’s been derailed by a few executives who now head the Series.

“This year, the WSOP locked out players who flew in from around the world to play in the Main Event, charged nearly $3 million in entry fees for the Main Event alone, continued to create an uneven playing field by giving special treatment to some, and, in general, display bad attitudes and make inaccurate decisions.”

Some observers in the poker world, however, say Shulman is just upset that the WSOP, which used to have an exclusive deal with Card Player for coverage of the WSOP, dropped Card Player in favor of a similar deal with rival poker mag Bluff.

“Card Player and the World Series had a media deal in 2005 and 2006,” Shulman said in the article. “Our opinion was that the event should be open to all media, but the World Series made a decision that only one media company would get access and that company would have to pay for it.

“Card Player and the World Series had disagreements on the media coverage from day one and we chose not to even bid on the deal in 2007. It wasn’t worth it and they sold it to someone else. We were glad to get rid of it. Harrah’s (owner of the WSOP) made the decision to auction off the media rights to cover the World Series to the highest bidder, not us. Do we like it? Absolutely not.

“I love poker and entered with the hopes of winning. But more importantly, I support making the industry stronger and better for the players, and to do this, there needs to be some major changes to the way the World Series is run at the highest level. Hopefully, by doing something like this, people will start talking about those changes.

“I am going to stand by my commitment, but instead of pointlessly throwing it in the trash, I have come up with a few ideas–auction off the bracelet and give the money to charity, hold a tournament for all players shut out of the Main Event and award the winner the bracelet, give the bracelet away in a tournament or give the bracelet to (TV talk show host) Stephen Colbert.”

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)