Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

The tent
The registration chaos
The One on One, mercifully described as clusterF ***
The inept personnel, for which he was directly responsible
The obviously faulty planning

Let's not wait for more disasters....The guy is clearly in over his head....FIRE HIM NOW

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Actually I believe Mr Pollock should probably be the first one off the gangplank. If the ship is sinking blame the Captain not the crew....

Jack is actually a solid guy that does a good job, if there are bad decisions made they were probably made well above his pay grade.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Whoever's Idea to turn the W.S.O.P into DONKEMENTS by changing the blind structure must go now. That's like making the golfers play last weeks U.S. open use only 3 clubs.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Blame probably falls with most pros' insights and suggestions to the heads.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
Blame probably falls with most pros' insights and suggestions to the heads.

[/ QUOTE ]

or lack there of. DN said in a video blog he had the structures in his in box for awhile but never got around to them, yet bitches about them after the fact.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Blame probably falls with most pros' insights and suggestions to the heads.

[/ QUOTE ]

or lack there of. DN said in a video blog he had the structures in his in box for awhile but never got around to them, yet bitches about them after the fact.

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't make any sense to me why the people running the WSOP can't hire people to analyze the structures and come up with the best ones.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

I thought they had a "board of review" or some such garbage of pro's for insight on the tournament structures, etc.


Someone made mention of this before, I'm certain....however it was regarding Annie Duke, and I thought I heard Lederer mentioned in regards.


Or I could totally be nuts.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I thought they had a "board of review" or some such garbage of pro's for insight on the tournament structures, etc.


Someone made mention of this before, I'm certain....however it was regarding Annie Duke, and I thought I heard Lederer mentioned in regards.


Or I could totally be nuts.

[/ QUOTE ]

Board of Review. LMAO. Thats the problem with these guys, they are trying to do things on the cheap. Hire people who have the skills to put all the data through the computers and work out all the probabilities. Don't leave it to a bunch of poker degens (said in a nice way) who won't get around to doing it because they are out playing all night and sleeping all day.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

I thought Goering and others had determined that the structure is slightly better this year. What's all the complaining about?

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I thought Goering and others had determined that the structure is slightly better this year. What's all the complaining about?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Goering's post was about the $10K Main Event structure. I don't think he said anything about the eariler events.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

The structures are fine; hell, that's about the last thing I'd be complaining about this year.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

The structures are fine, hello? The non-flop events are totally messed up. Really slow at the beginning, and horribly huge orbit costs at the final table. I guess since the pros are mostly hold'em types nobody really thought out what doubling the intial stack size with the same increases in the bring ins would do in stud events. It is not alright. I would say the blinds for the flop events are slightly too steep at the end, but it is nowhere as significant a problem.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

thats limit tournaments though, they have to become crapshoots or they'll never end

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

They don't need to be super slow at the beginning and have a single orbit cost half an average stack. That is beyond a crap shoot. They need to even out the structure, anyone that plays stud would tell you if you double stack size at the beginning you would need to more than need to double the bring in and blinds from the previous structure.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

yeah, the early levels should be looked at for sure, i agree

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I thought Goering and others had determined that the structure is slightly better this year. What's all the complaining about?

[/ QUOTE ]

There's a thread about it. The structure including the time per round at the FT is screwed up.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

I feel like limit events should have starting levels that (a) have higher limits than the existing starting levels, but (b) last longer than later levels.

That way, you actually get some eliminations in the earlier levels, easing the need to increase the blinds dramatically in the later levels. E.g. start on what is now level 3, but have each of the first 3 levels last 2 hours instead of 1 hour.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
I thought Goering and others had determined that the structure is slightly better this year. What's all the complaining about?

[/ QUOTE ]
That discussion was the hold-em structure which is indeed slightly better (although there have been some complaints about the final table structure). I haven't seen any detailed analysis of the Stud events structure, but it does look to me that the OP is correct.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Raymer said something similar about the structure of the limit tournaments in one of Pokernews live update clips.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Whoever said Jack Effel is a standup guy doesn't really know him. He simply slithered his way into a position WAY over his head.

I met Jack in San Diego 2.5 years ago. He reminds me of a vulture of sorts. Sort of goofy and ugly, scavenging around and ending up with things that no one else really wanted. (girls, jobs, and barbers would all seem to fit in that category).

Now he has a job he can't do. Its not his fault he can't do it, he just doesn't have the skills. He tries to do things to give the WSOP the appearance of success. However, its just not working. Sort of like buying a homely chick fake boobs to try to make her seem more attractive. Um, just doesn't work.

Jack is great with paperwork. He sucks at people skills. He really knows very little about poker and poker players. He has no charisma. He is goofy looking.

Bring back Matt or Johnny. Or give the gig to Jimmy.

As long as Jack is in the drivers seat the WSOP will continue to be a cluster****.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

There is enough blame to go around but replacing Jack will not solve anything.

Someone smarter than I labeled Harrah's "The Wal-Mart of Casinos." That is so true and much like the real Wal-Mart, people will continue to bend over and take whatever the monolith gives them.

Players have whined about nearly everything related to the Series yet day after day, line up and pay into this mess and oh, BTW, continue to stop in the restaurants, bars and most important, stop in the actual casino on their way out the door.

Continue to patronize and this is what you will continue to get. Harrah's is a monolith. What has this token players advisory board accomplished in three years? More toilets?

Keep whining and you will keep getting lip service. If the money goes away then problems will truly be addressed. But, that ain't going to happen because there are too many players involved and too many of them will tolerate the abuse since they can go back home and tell their friends that they played in a World Series event.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]

He sucks at people skills. He really knows very little about poker and poker players. He has no charisma. He is goofy looking.


[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds like he should be right at home with most poker players I've met.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I thought Goering and others had determined that the structure is slightly better this year. What's all the complaining about?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think Goering's post was about the $10K Main Event structure. I don't think he said anything about the eariler events.

[/ QUOTE ]

I never said anything about the limit events, as I don't play limit events now and didn't look at those structures. Two years ago the $5k limit holdem started at 25/25 while the $5k no-limit started at 25/50. I commented back then to someone on the WSOP advisory committee that it was a joke that limit events started "deeper" than no-limit. They completely agreed. So I think this has been a problem for some time----maybe it is even worse this year.

The $10k ME structure will be marginally worse in 2007, primarily because level #27 is missing (50/100k?). I am ASSUMING the FT will be two hour levels (the footnote on the structure sheet is a misprint, so the two hours is not confirmed).

I think there is an issue with the FT in prelim NL events. When I commented earlier I didn't know the level length at the final table had been shortened from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. Sorry for missing it if it was published at the time. I did know that a level would likely be "skipped" at the FT, but with the 90 minute levels and short-handed play I didn't think it would be a major issue----even though there is no good reason to skip a level at this point (broadcast? / cost? issues). The bigger problem is that with 60 mintue levels you are compressing 5 levels @ 90 mintues in 2006 down to 4 levels @ 60 minutes in 2007----which means about 35-40% less play at the FT.

Pre FT play has improved in prelim NL events----more play time for the average player and an extra level of play.

btw, I wouldn't be surprised if the structures were designed or explicitly approved by certain members of the player committee. Harrahs clearly planned to significantly reduce the time needed to play FT's in NL events, so I doubt they are surprised by what has happened.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

except Walmart competes with low prices...the same cannot be said of Harrah's

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

from the changes that were made, it seems pretty clear that Harrah's intended to shorten the final tables of the prelim events. That was the major change. The double stacks are generally to give the impression of a better structure early. To me, it is clear that Harrah's has a fairly good idea of what they are doing with the NL structures, and have chosen the structures to create shorter final tables in the prelim events. The question is, why?

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Yeah, please don't insult wal-mart like that. Harrah's is more like a shopping mall jewelry store than a wal-mart - catering to the average citizen, but raping them in the process.

The Riverside in Laughlin : Wal Mart of Casinos.

Devo

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
The Riverside in Laughlin : Wal Mart of Casinos.

[/ QUOTE ]
Aw, come on, Bryan. Don't be so generous to my home cardroom. People might get the wrong impression that RS is a nice, decent, respectable place [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Felicia [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

I would not Fire Jack Effel; I would suggest that he may be more capable as a dealer. After all he was a dealer a few years ago. Howard are you reading this.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

<font color="red"> </font> Obviously, you all are bitter because you were not selected to work this year’s WSOP.

For all of you idiots that call Jack Effel incompetent, let me give you a little insight to his poker knowledge and experience…….In 1997 he started working for Sams Town Tunica as a dealer, two months later he was promoted to a dual rate supervisor position. Late November 1997 he took a position at Horseshoe Bossier City as a Poker Shift Manager, and he remained working there in that position until January 2000. He then transferred to Horseshoe Tunica that same month, so that he could attend college. He took a position as a dual rate supervisor, and continued to work full time, and attend college full time! In December 2004 Jack graduated from OLE MISS with honors “Cum Laude”, and began running tournaments at Horseshoe Tunica.
In January 2005, Jack worked the WPO Event in Tunica. Upon the completion of the WPO, Jack was given the opportunity to travel with the WSOP Circuit, and after 4 successful events, he was appointed Assistant Tournament Director for the 2005 WSOP. After the 2005 WSOP, Jack continued to travel with the WSOP Circuit as Co-Director. In February 2006, Jack was promoted to Poker Room Manager at Horseshoe Tunica. In May 2006 Jack was appointed Corporate Director of Poker Operations for Harrah’s Entertainment, and he relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. During Jacks tenure as Corp. Director of Poker Ops for HET, he also served as Co-Director for the 2006 WSOP, and at the completion of the 2006 WSOP, Jack was put in charge of all Tournament Operations for the 2007 WSOP.

So, for all of you A-HOLES!!!, who think Jack Effel isn’t experienced enough to run the largest Poker Tournament in the World, you better guess again, because he has more talent, and is more experienced than anyone else in the Business. Don’t hate Jack just because he is smart and talented, and has moved up the corporate ladder faster than you!

BTW, Jack has been a full-time employee of Horseshoe and Harrah's Entertainment for the past 10 years! Not a Temp!!!

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red"> </font> Obviously, you all are bitter because you were not selected to work this year’s WSOP.

For all of you idiots that call Jack Effel incompetent, let me give you a little insight to his poker knowledge and experience…….In 1997 he started working for Sams Town Tunica as a dealer, two months later he was promoted to a dual rate supervisor position. Late November 1997 he took a position at Horseshoe Bossier City as a Poker Shift Manager, and he remained working there in that position until January 2000. He then transferred to Horseshoe Tunica that same month, so that he could attend college. He took a position as a dual rate supervisor, and continued to work full time, and attend college full time! In December 2004 Jack graduated from OLE MISS with honors “Cum Laude”, and began running tournaments at Horseshoe Tunica.
In January 2005, Jack worked the WPO Event in Tunica. Upon the completion of the WPO, Jack was given the opportunity to travel with the WSOP Circuit, and after 4 successful events, he was appointed Assistant Tournament Director for the 2005 WSOP. After the 2005 WSOP, Jack continued to travel with the WSOP Circuit as Co-Director. In February 2006, Jack was promoted to Poker Room Manager at Horseshoe Tunica. In May 2006 Jack was appointed Corporate Director of Poker Operation for Harrah’s Entertainment, and he relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. During Jacks tenure as Corp. Director of Poker Ops for HET, he also served as Co-Director for the 2006 WSOP, and at the completion of the 2006 WSOP, Jack was put in charge of all Tournament Operations for the 2007 WSOP.

So, for all of you A-HOLES!!!, who think Jack Effel isn’t experienced enough to run the largest Poker Tournament in the World, you better guess again, because he has more talent, and is more experienced than anyone else in the Business. Don’t hate Jack just because he is smart and talented, and has moved up the corporate ladder faster than you!

[/ QUOTE ]

Leveling?

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red"> </font> Obviously, you all are bitter because you were not selected to work this year’s WSOP.


[/ QUOTE ]

Who would WANT to work at this year's WSOP?! It's a mess!

I don't care how qualified you are. If you suck at running the WSOP, then you suck at running the WSOP.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red"> </font> Obviously, you all are bitter because you were not selected to work this year’s WSOP.


[/ QUOTE ]

Who would WANT to work at this year's WSOP?! It's a mess!

I don't care how qualified you are. If you suck at running the WSOP, then you suck at running the WSOP.

[/ QUOTE ]



You should never judge someone unless you have walked a mile in their shoes!

Jack Effel is doing a great job, considering all of the circumstances he has had to over come this year!

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
The structures are fine; hell, that's about the last thing I'd be complaining about this year.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who is this and what have you done with Nath? The late-stage structures absolutely suck compared to last year. Early rounds are fine, maybe better.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]


btw, I wouldn't be surprised if the structures were designed or explicitly approved by certain members of the player committee. Harrahs clearly planned to significantly reduce the time needed to play FT's in NL events, so I doubt they are surprised by what has happened.

[/ QUOTE ]

What players would endorse late-stage crapshoots and why? I'm still confused why Harrahs would explicitly try to truncate the final table, and I also don't get how any self-respecting member of a "player committee" could allow it to happen without advanced outrage.

I like Daniel, but I definitely am sick of his inability to get things improved, despite always claiming to have the correct answer in advance and being involved in the political process. What's the point of being involved if you're powerless to change anything?

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
What players would endorse late-stage crapshoots and why? I'm still confused why Harrahs would explicitly try to truncate the final table

[/ QUOTE ]

Players who play badly postflop would prefer a structure that forces everybody to play more preflop, which reduces the edge that good players have on suckers. Any pro player would not have any interest in that though.

IMO, the FT structure was changed so that there would be less to film and that the "exciting" hands (all-in confrontations, monster bluffs etc) would be seemingly more common and thus entertaining to those who are watching.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red"> </font> Obviously, you all are bitter because you were not selected to work this year’s WSOP.

For all of you idiots that call Jack Effel incompetent, let me give you a little insight to his poker knowledge and experience…….In 1997 he started working for Sams Town Tunica as a dealer, two months later he was promoted to a dual rate supervisor position. Late November 1997 he took a position at Horseshoe Bossier City as a Poker Shift Manager, and he remained working there in that position until January 2000. He then transferred to Horseshoe Tunica that same month, so that he could attend college. He took a position as a dual rate supervisor, and continued to work full time, and attend college full time! In December 2004 Jack graduated from OLE MISS with honors “Cum Laude”, and began running tournaments at Horseshoe Tunica.
In January 2005, Jack worked the WPO Event in Tunica. Upon the completion of the WPO, Jack was given the opportunity to travel with the WSOP Circuit, and after 4 successful events, he was appointed Assistant Tournament Director for the 2005 WSOP. After the 2005 WSOP, Jack continued to travel with the WSOP Circuit as Co-Director. In February 2006, Jack was promoted to Poker Room Manager at Horseshoe Tunica. In May 2006 Jack was appointed Corporate Director of Poker Operations for Harrah’s Entertainment, and he relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. During Jacks tenure as Corp. Director of Poker Ops for HET, he also served as Co-Director for the 2006 WSOP, and at the completion of the 2006 WSOP, Jack was put in charge of all Tournament Operations for the 2007 WSOP.

So, for all of you A-HOLES!!!, who think Jack Effel isn’t experienced enough to run the largest Poker Tournament in the World, you better guess again, because he has more talent, and is more experienced than anyone else in the Business. Don’t hate Jack just because he is smart and talented, and has moved up the corporate ladder faster than you!

BTW, Jack has been a full-time employee of Horseshoe and Harrah's Entertainment for the past 10 years! Not a Temp!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously he has past experience. No one in this thread is questioning that.

That being said, there's way too much evidence of this event being a total disaster. Too many events? Maybe. Lack of proper infrastructure? Absolutely. Is that Jack Effel's fault? Not sure. Maybe it's the powers that be at Harrah's trying to milk it for more. He's certainly to some extent involved, and ultimately responsible.

The Main Event looks like a massive storm cloud to me at this point. Maybe Harrah's will get lucky and have only 5,000-6,000 players and not botch it. I doubt it.

The concern has gone from ensuring a good event for players to ensuring a good event for shareholders. The perfect event would be great for BOTH. At this rate it will be neither.

Of course, they could potentially learn from this and make 2008 the best event ever. We're poker players, we're much too skeptical to believe that at this point.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

Obviously, the Peter Principle come to life.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]
and I also don't get how any self-respecting member of a "player committee" could allow it to happen without advanced outrage.

I like Daniel, but I definitely am sick of his inability to get things improved, despite always claiming to have the correct answer in advance and being involved in the political process. What's the point of being involved if you're powerless to change anything?

[/ QUOTE ]

The simple answer seems to be that nobody on the player committee gave them more than a cursory glance.

I like Daniel also, but he admits in a rawvegas.tv video that the structures sat in his box but he never read them, so he now has no right to complain. If he knew how crapshoot-y these events would all be on Day 2, I wonder if he would have booked as much bracelet bet action?

As a side project I've been running numbers on previous WSOP structures; I haven't yet found a Series worse than this year for the limit events.

This does us all a huge disservice since we felt that the players' interested were going to be fairly represented with Daniel, TJ Cloutier, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Scotty Nguyen, Robert Williamson III, and Maureen &amp; Bob Feduniak all on board.

The last thing poker needs is another cog in the WSOP machine falling asleep at the wheel.

Pollack, Effel, et al: If by some chance you guys still end up with the WSOP next year-- put a real poker numbers guy on the Player's Committe. And pay him.



ps. I'm laying 8-5 that Harrah's won't own or run the WSOP next year. PM if interested.

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

[ QUOTE ]

Pollack, Effel, et al: If by some chance you guys still end up with the WSOP next year-- put a real poker numbers guy on the Player's Committe. And pay him.


[/ QUOTE ]

Sklansky and Mal? hmmmmmmm

Re: Fire Jack Effel Now!!!!
 

I'm guessing you guys think you could run the WSOP better????? Yeah right!!!! Now, that would be a CLUSTER [censored]!!!! Give Jack a break, he's doing a great job!! There is always going to be room for more improvement!!!