New WPT lawsuit

World Poker Tour presenter Shana Hiatt has added to the TV show’s legal woes by suing her former bosses for trying to sabotage her post-WPT career.

Hiatt, a former Playboy model who fronted the show for three seasons and became one of the universally recognised faces of the WPT, claims that WPT chief executive Steve Lipscomb contacted broadcaster NBC – which was interested in getting the presenter involved with two shows, NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship and Poker After Dark – to tell them that they were prohibited from using her as she was still contractually bound to the WPT, despite the fact that she no longer worked for them.

Hostile environment

Hiatt denies that she signed an exclusivity contract and has demanded that the WPT publicly confirm that she is a free agent as well as paying her damages. The legal complaint also states that Hiatt left the show after becoming aware of defamatory comments made about her and her husband by the brother of a senior WPT executive. She claims that after delivering a letter asking for these comments to cease in February 2005 the WPT show became too much of a ‘hostile working environment’.

This new legal move puts extra pressure on the embattled World Poker Tour, which is still facing a claim from seven top poker pros, including Howard Lederer and Joe Hachem. When Lederer was recently in London he refuted the WPT’s counter claims that the legal stand was being made on behalf of the online sites that they represent rather than players’ interests.

Lederer said: ‘It might be a brilliant legal strategy but I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the game. We’ve got no interest in hurting the WPT. Whether the WPT really believes that [the online sites are behind the action] or not, I don’t know. Is it just part of their legal strategy? Probably. I don’t think it will see the inside of the courtroom.’

Lederer also responded to top pro Daniel Negreanu’s claims that the players were being ‘greedy’.

‘Daniel is welcome to take a piece of me in this lawsuit. There’s no chance I’m in this for profit. It’s an expensive case, we may not win, and what we’re fighting for in monetary damages doesn’t justify the cost. We just want the WPT to do what’s right by the players.’