Harrah's criticised for World Series of Poker Main Event Organisation

Since the inception of the November nine concept, where the final table of the main event is put on hold for three months and then broadcast live on pay-per-view, poker goes into a frenzy of anticipation between the tenth player busting in July and the first hand of the final table in November. 6400+ players battled it out for the honour of being one of these nine players, but many were left disappointed when told that unfortunately the main event had sold out and they could not buy-in on Day 1d.

Poker professionals have since been very vocal in their belief that quite simply the main event should not have sold out. From a financial point of view, for every player registered into the main event earns the casino and WSOP organisers $800 as an entry fee. This means that refusing players entry into the event costs them money which is a foolish proposition for any business. There have been rumours that around 500 players were informed when trying to register for Day 1d that they were unable to enter. This included Ted Forrest, Patrik Antonius and other well-known professional players. This lack of preparation cost the tournament organisers approximately $400,000 in tournament fees alone.

Smaller events also sold out, particularly in the early part of the series where tournament fields are generally smaller. Whilst not as high profile as the main event this still causes concern as the World Series is such a massive part of the poker calendar it is correctly expected that they pull out all the stops to make sure everyone who wants to play has the opportunity to get into the events. It is simply good customer service.

Professional player Todd Witteles suggested that Harrah’s should have been better prepared. He said it is a well-known fact that players tend to prefer to wait and play on Day 1c or 1d when scheduling their main event. Whether this is down to laziness or wanting to keep the dream alive as long as possible we cannot know, but with this information it was suggested that the entire casino floorspace should be prepared if necessary for the onslaught. Witteles argued that if you expect 3000 players maximum prepare for 4000 so no-one misses out. Time must be set aside for setting up tables and chairs, laying out the poker chips and finding the poker dealers. Once it became clear too many players wanted to play at that point it was too late and entries had to be refused.

Playing an extra day 1e for the 500 players who missed out was not an option either. The structure of who played together for the two second days leading down to one day of play with the remaining players were organised in advance and it would have been chaos to try and fit players in. No doubt problems would have occurred and although unfortunate, turning players away was the only option. The mistake was not looking at last years numbers and realising extra capacity was required for a hectic last opening day. Airlines use previous year’s figures to predict passenger volume and Harrah’s should have used this technique to ensure everything was in place for a busy Day 1d.

One of the players who missed out may have gone on to win the event. At the very least the prize fund would have increased and this helps the prestige and media attention that shines onto the main event. The media coverage needs to be about the poker, and not about the lack or preparation and statements by unhappy players. We all hope that next year these problems are solved and we have yet another fantastic WSOP in 2010 with everyone getting into the main event who wishes to buy-in and take their shot.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Tags: poker, poker players, world series of poker, wsop