I have no problem with their decision, but I'm mildly amused they went about it in such a blatant and yet foolish way. Everyone knew what they were doing and I don't have a problem with it, it's the same principal as being able to work out a deal with the extra WPTGold money on the table, however assuming it's in the rules and I can't imagine it's not the other player should have just sat out and let the player scoop up blinds. In my opinion it would have been the most respectful way to go about it, the blatant soft play and odd and even betting amount it pretty distasteful given it's a situation where most professional poker players will understand why the two guys came to the conclusion.
Professional poker players are essentially just risk managers... ain't none but a very few are going to turn down an extra $250,000 - $375,000 depending on what they meant by "split" the extra money for the sake of coming in 1st for the trophy.
For the record, the soft play is what is against the rules, not the agreement to let the short stacked player win, that's why there was so much support from the pro poker community for WSOP having to pay out the players.
If they weren't handing out an extra $1,000,000 check it might look bad for the game, but pros know what it was and most amateurs are going to be too distracted by that beautiful gold check to care
Just my opinion
GL
EDS
