Why?
Just because he is a popular player, that doen't mean that he has to embody all that NPL represents, surely?
Ah yes, and it is not just the fact that he is popular. According to Paul's previous posts on this forum a lot of players come directly to him, ask him questions, ask him to ask questions, he is looked up upon, he is the voice of those who do not wish to speak up on the forum. And according to several other forum users this is true and Paul does speak for the people and ask the questions that some people do not wish to.
That is one factor, and I have also seen Paul at several venues and he is well known by the playing community and he does have quite the few admirers and supporters.
As such I classify these types of players as community leaders, the likes of which I classify also Jason Deakin (last years state leader), Matty G (most games in the NPL league), Roger H (big field experience), Daniel Booth (SkyCity NL Holdem reigning champ), David Murrin (Forum creator and admin), Big Pete and Des (Forum mods from inception of the forum), Aaron Kleeman (regular contributor to forum and well known in BG area), Bob B (god that hurt to say that Bob) there are quite a few more I could list.
But these above players do have a lot of influence over those around them when playing NPL. These guys are a big part of the NPL infrastructure of the NPL playing community. So yes the rules will be more heavily enforced on these individuals when they do step out of line.
It is a very similar situation to watching a novice player and a veteran player break the same rule. The novice player has no idea he shouldn't have folded out of turn, so he is warned and told why. The veteran player does know and therefore will sit out ten minutes for this breach.
I don't know how to make this any clearer.
