Players forced to play $2k NL WSOP event in 100 degree tent

[Dan Druff]

Harrah's has seriously screwed up the WSOP, but today was perhaps their biggest blunder yet -- or at least the worst one I've had to personally deal with.

I bought in for the $2000 NL event (#25) last night. It was scheduled for today at noon, and I was assigned to table 160. Standard stuff.

I showed up and found a lower-middle-limit cash game running at table 160. I was directed to the floorman, who directed me to the "pavilion" out the back door. I knew it was some sort of tent, and I feared it might be hot in there, but I had no idea what I was in for.

It was (and still is, as I write this) 105 degrees today in Las Vegas. I walked into the pavilion and encountered a hot, stuffy atmosphere that was only slightly more comfortable than outside. I should have refused to sit and demanded my money back, but instead I sat down. I hadn't played in 5 days, and it was my first NL event since I finished 10th in the rebuy tournament, so I was excitied to get back into the action.

Still, I was puzzled. Why were they running cash games in the main room, if they're going to stick $2000 tournament players in this miserable room? Why not just suspend the cash games and let everyone play where it's comfortable? I brought up these issues at the table, and it was like preaching to the choir. The other players were miserable, the dealer was miserable, and even the floorman was miserable. Even worse, several players were dressed in heavy long-sleeved shirts and pants, anticipating play in the over-airconditioned main room. That compounded their problem, but even I was roasting in my jeans and T-shirt. I specifically didn't wear shorts because I thought I'd be playing in the cool main room.

As the hours wore on, it got worse. People were getting more and more unhappy with the situation. Some guys said -- not even in jest -- that they envied those who were busting out. I heard a story that Erick Lindgren attempted to put together a mass walkout as a result of the conditions, but the room was too noisy and crowded to get such a thing organized.

Finally, my moment of truth came. I flopped a set of 10s and busted someone. That was the player needed to break our table. I was up to 11k, just missed having to take my blinds, and was finally about to be moved out of this nightmare.

Or so I thought.

I drew table 84. It was still in the pavilion. In fact, that was the table closest to the door and farthest away from the already inappropriately weak air-conditioning units. Now I was sitting in a spot even hotter, and it seemed to be one of the last tables in the break order.

As the next hour passed, I started to lose chips. 800 here, 1000 there, 900 another time. I started to realize that I wasn't playing my best game, and in fact was trying too many stupid isolation moves for chips I didn't really need. I realized the heat was distracting me. The only way I could temporarily avoid thinking about the hot and miserable conditions was to distract myself by playing too many hands. I caught myself when I got down to 6k. Unfortunately, I picked up QQ when it looked like the big stack to my right was isolating a short stack, shoved, and ran into AA. Donk down.

I walked out of the tournament really mad. I was 20% mad at myself, but 80% mad at Harrah's. I was mad at myself for letting adverse conditions throw my game off. I was furious at Harrah's for forcing me to play under such circumstances, just so they could greedily run cash games in the main room.

I tracked down Jack Effel, who was the on-floor director of the tournament. Basically, he was the guy who made the boneheaded decision to put a large chunk of the $2k NL field in the 100-degree pavilion. I didn't expect him to offer me compensation, nor did I expect him to admit any fault. But I had to hear it from the guy's own mouth. What excuse could he possibly have for running low-limit cash games -- or any cash games, for that matter -- when those games displace WSOP tournament players and force them to play in an oven-like tent on a 105-degree day?

"We're trying to accomodate everyone," was his answer. "Some people want to play cash, some want satellites, and some want World Series events. So we're trying to accomodate everything."

"But cash games should always be second priority," I protested. "You forced many hundreds of people who prepaid $2000 for a World Series event to play in sweltering and completely inappropriate conditions, just so you could collect rake from $4/$8 side game players."

"Well, we do our best to accomodate everyone," he responded.

"Why weren't the cash games out in the pavilion instead?", I asked him, already knowing the answer. The answer, of course, is that cash game players aren't prepaid. They can (and will) leave if the conditions are crappy, while tournament players can't.

"There isn't a proper security setup there for cash games", he responded.

"Then don't run them at all. You guys don't run cash games when huge tournaments run with 3000 people. It's okay to suspend them in that situation. So why not suspend them today, when the tent is clearly inappropriate for tournament use in this weather?"

He thought for a second. "Because we have room for everyone to play today," was his simple answer, completely avoiding my point.

"So what you're saying is that as long as you can physically sit people down at a table, you will have no problem moving tournament players into the most horrendous playing conditions. What if it was 10 degrees hotter? What if it was 130 in the tent? Would we still have played?"

"Now you're throwing out pointless what-ifs", he responded.

"I'm just curious what point of misery you're willing to force upon the players. Because today was pretty miserable, and you still did it so you could get some extra rake from low-limit cash games. This is the World Series of Poker, not the World Series of Cash Games. Once again, why doesn't the tournament have priority?"

At this point we were interrupted by some guy with some sort of ID issue, and I realized I was wasting my time talking to this company stooge. I asked how to contact Jeffrey Pollack (the WSOP director), and excused myself.

On the way out, I overheard other players singing the same song I was. Well-known Italian pro Max Pescatori was telling someone he had 13k in chips and made intentionally stupid moves to either chip up huge or quit. Others were swearing they wouldn't play another World Series event after this debacle.

Apparently this wasn't the first time the pavilion has been a problem.

On June 5, Omaha players were sent out there for the 5pm tournament. While the weather was cool, there were 40-50 MPH winds outside, causing hurricane-like noise inside the tent. At one point, the whole room started booing loudly. Their prayers were answered when part of the tent blew down, and the tournament was temporarily delayed while space was magically found in the main room for everyone.

Eskimo Clark was apparently playing in the sweltering tent when he collapsed, and I was told he had a heart attack. He is supposedly going to file a lawsuit against Harrah's for it. This is third-hand information, so I can't verify it's true, but it sounds plausible, and the lawsuit actually has merit.

In both of these other cases, cash games were again running in the cool and well-protected main room.

In my opinion, this is the worst blunder at the World Series so far. Why? Because it was done intentionally to simply maximize profit.

The staggeringly long lines were a result of poor planning and incompetence, but were not intentional.

The awful new playing card design was ill-conceived and careless, but was done with the best of intentions.

This was done simply because Harrah's wanted the most rake possible, and the prevailing attitude was that prepaid tournament players were the low men on the totem pole. That's a disgusting attitude, and is beyond disrespectful to those who plunked down $2000 for the event.

There should NEVER be any WSOP tables running in the uncomfortably hot pavilion unless EVERY SINGLE TABLE in the main room is used up by other WSOP tournaments. Cash games and satellites should always be last priority.

I took another look at my WSOP ticket for today. It was processed by a cashier named Gabriella Reed, so the bottom of the ticket reads "License: wsopgreed".

I guess I can't say they didn't warn me.