The ups and downs of early entries

With a large percentage of chess players these days having access to the internet, the trend is for tournament organisers to publish a list of entries prior to the event. Of course some organisers can feel embarrassed if the list consists of 2 or 3 players a week out from the tournament, but overall it is a good thing (As an aside I know of one player who makes his decision about whether to play, not on the strength of the field, but on how many d**k h***s are playing).
Of course there is a risk that what is published as the list of entries may not actually be the final list. This is normally due to changed circumstances of players (especially overseas players) although the organisers of the 2010 Australian Championship sailed very close to the wind by publishing a list of early entrants before most of the names on the list had even thought about entering (or in 1 or 2 cases, even knew the event was being held).
While this years O2C Doeberl Cup has not resorted to "bearing false witness", the entry list for the Premier has had some minor modifications. One popular player from overseas, GM Shojaat Ghane, had intended to come but travel difficulties put paid to that. If he had made he may have had a chance to repeat his victory from last month against GM Vladmir Malaniuk, who is the third seed for the event.

Malaniuk,Vladimir (2573) - Ghane Gardeh,Shojaat (2387) [E43]
18th Fajr Open Mashhad IRI (9.6), 2010

1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nf3 Ne4 7.0-0 Bxc3 8.bxc3 Nxc3 9.Qc2 Bxf3 10.gxf3 Qg5+ 11.Kh1 Qh5 12.Rg1 Qxf3+ 13.Rg2 f5 14.Ba3 Ne4 15.Rf1 Nc6 16.Be2 Nxd4 0-1

(** Disclaimer: I am a paid official for the 2010 O2C Doeberl Cup **)