Event #26 $1500 PLO [{{((w/ rebuys))}}]

[ackbleh]

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Harry Demetriou just posted on FCP about this:

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I heard that todays was event was originally supposed to be a £1500 Pot Limit Omaha event with rebuys but that they misprinted the literature. This would make perfect sense as a freezeout PLO tourney would be pretty fast with only 1500 statring chips.

Howvever I also heard that they were going to leave it as published (a freezeout) because of the typing omission.

To be honest I believe that them changing it back to a rebuy tournament is the correct thing to do but what they should have done is highlighted it to everyone at the time of the buy in - ie they should have put notices up or printed this on the tickets.

Now that it has changed I would also think that the FAIREST and most SENSIBLE thing to do is for them to make an announcement before start of play that anyone wanting a refund could withdraw and get their money back in full prior to the start of play.

In fact should anyone from The WSOP read this I would actually bet that it would be odds on that they announce refunds available prior to the start of play for all who want them.

It would be the VERY LEAST they could do.

{/quote]

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Oh, but the drama's not over, and nobody can defend the current state of things. A friend just called the WSOP tournament office to ask, and was told it had been changed BACK to a non-rebuy event. He then pressed the issue and was told 'well they might allow rebuys at 4pm'. From the official tournament office. I was incredulous so I called from a different phone. It took two tries to get through, but here was the conversation:

Me: What's up with the PLO tourney today?
Harrah's: What?
Me: Is the omaha tournament today with rebuys or not?
Harrah's: There are no rebuys. (period, end of statement.)
Me: I thought I heard something about rebuys at 4pm?
Harrah's: Yes, I heard something about that, they might allow rebuys at 4pm.
Me: Well is there someone you can ask who might know? This is something we need to know to decide if we are going to play or not!
Harrah's: hang on. (pause). I'm told that there will probably be rebuys at 4pm, yes.
Me: 'probably'? But your standard response if someone asks you is to say 'no'? If I hadn't heard something about this and asked a follow up question, you never would have told me? (mildly raised voice, clearly bewildered)
Harrah's: Sir, i have a SHEET (pissy, she continued on but i hung up)

Harrah's is the worst thing to ever happen to the WSOP. The evidence continues to mount. If the series continues this way, I hope the new players' alliance run by Jesse Jones allies with a different casino group, brings back Johnny Grooms, and allies with the online cardrooms to start a directly competing, far superior tournament series in Vegas in the summer.

I realize this one incident is not enough to support this conclusion, but they [censored] EVERYTHING up. Here's a partial list:

-Supposed 'auditing' procedures making it a major hassle to get paid
-Other moronic 'auditing' changes that make no sense whatsoever, such as asking the first names of single table satellite participants, then writing them down without checking ID, and then having the winner SIGN THEIR FIRST NAME to claim the prize, without ID or a printed name other than what they give. WTF?
-The same crappy cards that were clearly inadequate last year
-Being unclear and unorganized about tournaments -- the shootout, and now today's PLO.
-I talked to the Grinder yesterday and he claimed to have single-handedly altered the structure of the Omaha event, during the event, partially enabled by there not being a previously prepared structure sheet
-The infamous lockbox incident.
-Charging a higher 'WSOP player rate' for hotel rooms than for random unassociated people reserving on their website, for many non-main-event periods of the WSOP.
-Many players showing up at the rio to find that despite having paid a deposit and having a reservation, they do not have a room there
-Many, many people being told over the phone, even prior to the wire transfer deadline for event one, that 'there's no way it will sell out, don't wire your money, just show up and pay when you get here'. Some arrived late the night before to find they had no hotel room and could not get into the tournament, or if they could they'd miss the first several hours.
-selling exclusive access for reporting to cardplayer.com
-Putting MAJOR PRESSURE on internet media to only report favorable stories, to the point where if you print something negative they force you to take it down immediately if they hold leverage (the demetriou story on cardplayer.com) or call you in and flat out lie to you about events you have personally witnessed in an attempt to get you to pull your story (a situation I have personal knowledge of but will not identify further). Trust me, the poker press you see about the WSOP is VERY controlled by harrah's, and they care a lot more about how things look in the media than how the tournaments are actually run.

Harrah's made a few good changes, sure. There are decent $6 cheeseburgers and a wide variety of crappy food available with short lines and not-too-outrageous prices. We can piss now. But that these are the good changes made only underscores the very important major shortcoming: Nobody in charge has a [censored] clue about poker. They are able to make changes to improve things that have very little to do with poker, but anything regarding the integrity of the game they completely blow. Harrah's bought the WSOP because poker is 'hot' and they thought they could make some money and build their brand with it. The actual poker, the integrity of the game, is the least of their concerns. It's only a concern that when they [censored] up things so bad that their control of the media cannot possibly stop outrage, they try to calm people and band-aid the situation.

Harrah's is the worst thing to ever happen to the WSOP. This was their year to show that things would improve, but things have gone straight downhill. But, hey, at least we can quickly get $6 burgers, and then later crap away the residue without delay.

[Lawman007]

So now they are going to allow rebuys at 4:00 p.m.? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Harry's comments about Johnny Grooms are interesting. There certainly weren't these types of problems when Johnny was running things.

Johnny is now the tournament director at the Gold Strike in Tunica. They recently had a big tournament down there, and he ran things flawlessly, as usual.

He told me that he left Harrahs because of a difference of opinion over how players should be treated. I think we are all seeing that for ourselves now.

[pineapple888]

[ QUOTE ]
Harry Demetriou just posted on FCP about this:

SNIP



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That's it. These organizers are now officially classified as "retarded".

WTF does it even mean "we may allow rebuys at 4 PM"? Can you get back in if you bust? Add on if you are still in?

What a total, gigantic fckaround.

My friend's over there now trying to get clarification, I'll post the latest if nobody else does first.

[PITTM]

lol at the rio.

rj

[ackbleh]

while that was clearly what the tournament office was trying to communicate on the phone, it now appears that the noon tournament will be without rebuys and there will be an ADDITIONAL TOURNAMENT at 4pm WITH rebuys.

[AThermopyle]

Who's in charge at the Rio, Emily Litella?

[pineapple888]

[ QUOTE ]
while that was clearly what the tournament office was trying to communicate on the phone, it now appears that the noon tournament will be without rebuys and there will be an ADDITIONAL TOURNAMENT at 4pm WITH rebuys.

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Confirmed. Freezeout to start at 12:20 PM, rebuy at 4:00 PM. It was not clear to my friend whether they are both bracelet events.

Probably they'll have the winner of each event play heads-up NLHE for the bracelet. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[KenP]

This is only being discussed in places like this. "The independent main-stream press' knows not to bite the hand that advertises in it.

[TylerD]

[ QUOTE ]
while that was clearly what the tournament office was trying to communicate on the phone, it now appears that the noon tournament will be without rebuys and there will be an ADDITIONAL TOURNAMENT at 4pm WITH rebuys.

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I would REALLY love to hear Daniel's reaction to this.

[Lawman007]

[ QUOTE ]
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while that was clearly what the tournament office was trying to communicate on the phone, it now appears that the noon tournament will be without rebuys and there will be an ADDITIONAL TOURNAMENT at 4pm WITH rebuys.

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I would REALLY love to hear Daniel's reaction to this.

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I heard that his head exploded. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]