Dublin Tournament "non coverage"

kipple

From http://www.finaltablepoker.com/view_article.php?article_id=92

Poker is a Card Game
posted by Andrew N.S. Glazer, “The Poker Pundit”
July 02, 2004
Friday Night Poker No. 2


Editor’s Note:

I’m recently returned from Ireland, where I had intended to cover a tournament called the “Gaming Club World Poker Championship.” It should have been called “The World Poker Joke.” Later, I’m going to write a separate article about why I decided to write nothing about the particulars of this tournament (e.g., who won), despite the expense of getting there (I went to write, not to play); for now, let me just say that with the exception of outright theft or certain forms of cheating, practically everything that could be wrong with a tournament was wrong here. The details will follow within a week or two.

I mention it now for two reasons. First, I’m still so incensed by what I saw and learned that I want to make sure I’ve calmed down sufficiently before I name names (and I will say that not every name involved was guilty). Second, I was so shocked by what I saw that I thought it imperative to urge my readers to take certain steps before attending: when a new group puts on a new tournament, ask every question you can think of. Assume nothing. If you get an answer that seems vague, you should press for a clear answer. Many, probably most, new tournaments will be worth attending, but before you ante up big travel money to attend one, let alone big entry fee money, get assurances you’d never think to require from most established tournaments.

Poker is growing very quickly, for many good reasons, and with growth comes growing pains. The Dublin tournament virtually redefined growing pains (Ireland, by the way, is a lovely country: none of my objections had anything to do with the country or city in which the event was held). In the human body, the fastest form of growth is a cancer, and it takes radical steps like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy to rid the body of it.

I feel badly for a few good people who were associated with this horrific event, and who appeared to have no control over the mistakes, but there are others whose names will be stained, and deservedly so, for the rest of their poker lives.

As an aside, you may or may not know that earlier this year, I took, for about three months, a consulting position with PartyPoker.com (once before I had also held a consulting position with a different online cardroom). Although the reason I’m about to state isn’t the ONLY reason I decided to resign at the end of March, it was the main one, and events like what I have just seen have made me terribly glad I left. Even though, I left that to go to PartyPoker.com and then left a six-figure part-time position there, I decided I couldn’t sit on both sides of the fence. I couldn’t be a journalist analyzing this industry while I was also sucking at the industry’s teat. While PartyPoker.com of course had zero to do with the Ireland tournament, the events I witnessed there left me feeling better about my moral stance than I have rarely felt.

There’s nothing immoral about working for a cardroom, but I finally decided I couldn’t have my cake and eat it too (despite what my growing waistline seems to indicate). I’m a writer, and will of course write for publications and websites that take ads; those that don’t take ads don’t get many readers. I just don’t think it’s possible to be honest and straightforward about the industry if the industry is paying the bulk of your bills, and I’ve just had a very good demonstration of why that’s true (“attacking” a rival cardroom’s tournament wouldn’t seem very sporting if I were working for a rival).

Enough editorializing for now: let’s talk poker.

Andy Glazer, Editor
Friday Night Poker

cormie

what exactly is he referring to?

Krusty_Clown

Sounds like he's allluding to some underhanded'ness.
Couldn't find the actual article though..

David Stewart

He could be referring to the organisation. I was in the audience for one of the heats and although I did enjoy it eventually, I was not terribly impressed with the way it was organised.

DeVore

There were problems alright, particularly with the SKY guys who apparently didnt manage to film all the heats and have decided to focus on the finals rather then the heats. Since a lot of people were guarunteed coverage and logos were allowed a lot of sponsors of players who DIDNT get to the finals will feel stiffed...
Some of the players were grumbling about the organisation of the event itself but Chris Ferguson and Simon Trumper and others were discussing it at the table I was at and both said they'd wait for the coverage to see how it came out. They werent happy but they werent screaming for their money back either.


DeV.

Davey Devil

Roy "The Boy" has had his 2c on the matter too. Seems like the draw for seats was part of the contraversy.

http://www.ladbrokespoker.com/features/roytheboy/default.asp?subsection=Roy%20'The%20Boy'&roynewsid=0

_______________


Roy's Stories

July 2004 World Champions and Jacko film extras, but I’m depressed.
Boy it was hard getting out of bed today with a gut-wrenching pain pulsating at the very pit of my stomach. Furthermore, there is the small matter of a hangover induced by a drinking session that was not up to Dublin’s normal jovial standards – quite depressive actually.

So, in fear of becoming a valium-addicted zombie, I’m going to selfishly use my column here at ladbrokespoker.com for therapeutic purposes.

You see, yesterday afternoon was spent battling through a small but select field in my heat of the World Poker Championships – a tournament, title and line-up that carries a tremendous amount of prestige plus television coverage throughout the world.

Organisationally things have not gone too well for the WPC, with the plan of staging two 18-player heats a day, starting at 9am and 3pm, proving impossible.

In fact, the final wrap is not happening until 2am, 3am or even 4am. As a result the crew-members now look like extras from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and, as I write, there are still two more days of filming to go.

Prior to that there was an outcry in regards to the draw (I confess to being vocal in this area), as it was not performed at the reception party as we were led to believe. So, as certain nationalities and ‘squad members’ appeared separated, concerns were voiced.

Ultimately fears were allayed, although it was confirmed that a four-member team with an indirect affiliation with the sponsors had been deliberately kept in separate heats to dispel fears of collusion. It has caused some ill-feeling.

Then it transpired that only the final six players of each heat would be guaranteed to get their mugs on the box. Not a concern for many but those that had found sponsorship on the understanding that their companies logo would get an airing have gone home with some explaining to do.

Anyway, without putting a too finer point on it and not ruining the TV spectacle, I personally stumbled somewhere up the run-in with the winning-post well in sight.

A dreadful run of cards did not help but, ultimately, one misjudgement of character is all it took; betting, being raised and re-raising all-in against, what I considered, a player solid enough to lay down top-pair with a weak kicker – I was wrong!

Landing four Aces during the early part of the day was actually somewhat of a distraction, as the highest hand of the tournament carries a €10,000 prize. Possibly my game changed slightly in the knowledge that my €6,000 entry fee was probably not lost if I wasn’t the last player standing but, maybe, I am just searching for excuses.

Incidentally, I have been eagerly trying to calculate the odds of my AAAAQ standing up. Naturally, only a straight-flush or AAAAK can do take the ten-grand away from me with five eighteen-seater games remaining.

The probability of a random seven cards supplying a straight-flush is 3,600-1 (just read that in a book). But, with nine players at each table and so much play left, the odds can certainly be divided by several hundred.

However, the game is tight with very few multi-way pots and rarely are confrontations going to the river card. In fact, at the final tables the play is pretty much small-blind, big-blind, fold, raise, fold, fold with flops as rare as a French steak.

Actually, despite the good intentions to make this event viewer friendly with the pot-limit format expected to produce more flops and show exquisite plays; the viewing public are once again going to think poker is all about luck, as the sizeable final table blinds mean board cards are rarely seen on the table apart from when an all-in has been called.

It’s far from doom and gloom. Like I say, this really is the most prestigious field assembled for an event specifically made for television featuring no less than five of the last six World Series winners. Furthermore, the tournament is run by sincerely genuine poker people with the benefit of the game at heart.

It’s clearly another step towards bringing poker’s general acceptance as both mainstream viewing material and a popular pastime. However, I am guessing that it will still be another couple of years before a definitive televised poker presentation hits our screens.

Sanity in Spain

Do you know I am not feeling anywhere near as bad as I did just an hour ago and, hopefully, this is not turning into something that will lead you to calling the Samaritans after all.

Hold up, what about the recent World Heads-Up Championships in Barcelona.

Nope, I have promised before not to go into the “he raised and I called with 7T only for the flop to come 27T and…” zone. Such stories are as exciting as the BBC’s wallpaper coverage of Wimbledon.

Poor old tennis, what a dull sport, which, if you believe our friends from the Beeb, only has a two week season – I mean it simply does not exist for the rest of the year. So why can’t we get Wimbledon tennis off the screens and replaced by poker? Write to your MP.

Ah yes Barcelona where I was dealt Aces twice during the week, once being cracked by Actionjack’s AJ in a supporting tournament then, and this one really hurt, by Dared’s 39 in a cash game. They were both head-to-head situations with plenty of pre-flop activity so I don’t think I did too much wrong!

Never hiding the fact that the World Heads-Up Championship is the one competition I spend 11 months preparing for, the disappointment of a fourth round elimination was devastating.

Playing well, coming from behind in all previous matches whilst making correct all-in calls with the likes of second pair and a poor kicker, I clearly chose the wrong moment to run into Aces – when all my chips were in pre-flop!

This was my third attempt at the title and, right now, I have no intentions of stopping until I have it won. But, I must tell you, immediately following this year’s exit that old nagging question came to me again, “why do I put myself through this when the emotions stirred by victory nowhere near compensate for the devastating pain of any single defeat.”

And finally…

Just in case you have been on another planet, the Ladbrokespoker.com Poker Million Masters II, which remains the only live televised poker tournament in the world, concludes next Friday (July 9th).

Once again I will be in the commentary box alongside Jessie May and Barny Boatman. At this point I’d like to quote George Bernard Shaw who said: “The secret of success is to offend the greatest number of people!” Get the message?

‘til next time…

Roy

kipple

As I understand it the tables were played one at a time winner gets to the final, 30 minutes doesnt seem that unreasonable to me in that situation.


you are correct that glazer is not making such harsh comments over the time of the rounds. this is a shootout format, and to expect 60 or 90 minute rounds is ridiculous (regardless of the buy-in). i have followed this man's writings for years and have never seen such an incriminating and angry 'tease'.

i'm hearing that the entire field was in a random seat draw, but not the mob. many object to them being split up because it increased the chances that they would not eliminate each other and therefore there would be more of a shot at them all advancing. glazer seems to object because this was not an invitational and the mob should have been subject to the same draw. the fear of putting them in the same draw is that they could have all been at one starting table and therefore only one could have advanced. this seems unlikely to have happened, but if it did, it is clearly not worth the powerful words that andy wrote suggesting impropriety. there is more to come i'd guess that will seem more of a serious infraction.

what i find most interesting about this mini-column is the fact that glazer gave up a PART TIME consulting job at potty for 6 figures. man-oh-man, how much are the full-timers making? sexton? lucy? o'malley? they must be making a bundle.

i don't think we will find out more until andy is ready to tell us, but time levels and improper placement of the mob can't be the source of all that anger and accusations. so while we wait for the whole story, let's just speculate how much money sexton makes off potty.

kipple

All tournaments should have a pre-published mechanism for determining the draw. Anything done outside this mechanism stinks of cheating.

For a tournament with such stakes and prestige it I am amazed at the total incompetence of the organisers.
.



T.

Sev

Speaking of Andy Glazer, just came across this piece of news on the web now.. he actually died the day this thread was posted.

http://www.pokerpages.com/press-releases/glazer-mourn.htm

mewso

Holy cow thats sad news.