LAS VEGAS (CN) - A champion poker player says the World Series of Poker Academy used her name and image without permission. Sally Ann Boyer, the 2007 World Series of Poker's Ladies No-Limit Hold 'em World Champion, says the academy's ads falsely claim that she won thanks to her training at the school, though she is not a graduate.
Boyer won $262,077, a WSOP bracelet and a watch in the June 2007 tournament.
"Soon thereafter, the WSOP Academy began extensive marketing efforts, using Boyer's recent win to widely market itself as an academy that breeds success in tournaments," according to her complaint in Clark County Court.
Boyer takes aim at one ad that features a photo of her with her winnings and the statement: "The quickest way to your WSOP Bracelet!" which calls her an "Academy Graduate."
Boyer says the ads ran in Bluff magazine, on the WSOP Academy Web site, and in emails and newsletters.
Boyer says she never has said "that her success in the tournament was attributable to her experience attending one day of a two-day WSOP Academy event," nor did she authorize the quote to be attributed to her.
The WSOP Academy was launched in 2007 by Harrah's Operating Co., which owns the WSOP brand and also is named as a defendant.
Post-Oak Productions also was named because it helped market the academy.
Boyer seeks unspecified damages and recovery of profits from the use of her name.
She is represented by Andrew Dixon with Bowler Dixon of Henderson, Nev.
Read the Top 8
Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day's top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Additional Reads
-
'Everybody's tired': South Dakota tribe sues US over crime February 10, 2023 -
Landmark trial begins over Arkansas' ban on trans youth care October 17, 2022
