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

[Temp Hutter]

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i played the $2500 horse event in the tent outside and it was freezing. of course this was much later in the day.

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I played in the tent back on the 6th and it was freezing. I imagine it is hard to keep a consistent temperature in a tent with people coming in and out of the doors from the outside. The one positive is that you are close to a bathroom when you are in the tent.

[jfletcher]

I don't want to sound like a Harrah's apologist, but...

I read after the WSOP started that the cards were a diaster, and they got rid of them. The registration process was horrible, and it was apparently fixed when I was there this weekend. There were no problems. The tent thing became a problem on Friday when the temperature was over 100, and on Saturday they rectified it the best they could (no cash games, tables elsewhere indoors).

I think they're certainly trying to fix things when they are obviously bad.

Now if only they could do something about the five-outers people kept hitting against me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[rbdog]

Here's the lol for me...

I was seated at one of the last three tables remaining in the Pavilion during the $2000 NLHE. 30 players, three dealers, coupla floorman left in the whole tent. It was 7ish. During a quiet time of a player considering a call - he lifted his head and said to the table,

"I just realized I'm cold!"

[Rottersod]

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I don't want to sound like a Harrah's apologist, but...

I read after the WSOP started that the cards were a diaster, and they got rid of them. The registration process was horrible, and it was apparently fixed when I was there this weekend. There were no problems. The tent thing became a problem on Friday when the temperature was over 100, and on Saturday they rectified it the best they could (no cash games, tables elsewhere indoors).

I think they're certainly trying to fix things when they are obviously bad.

Now if only they could do something about the five-outers people kept hitting against me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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If this were some rinky dink local tourney then I'd accept your points and move on but this is the World Series man. It's the biggest series of tourneys in the world and it's held every year. It's run by a company that is in the casino business and can afford to hire professionals to plan the events. Years ago I belonged to a non-profit group and every year we put on a large trade show that attracted about 12,000 people. It was held at the same hotel/convention center and we picked the dates 10 months in advance. We hired a professional show producer to do the organizing and we got a group of volunteers together to do the legwork and each year the show went off like clockwork because we planned things out well in advance and we went back to our notes from the previous years' show.

I cannot believe that a company like Harrah's could have this many problems at an event that everyone knows what to expect. It's not going to surprise anyone that thousands are going to show up and need to register since Harrah's made everyone do it that way. Playing cards should have been tested in small tourneys or cash games well before the WSOP.

[Dynasty]

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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.

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I will say this, sad as it is, I think the guy having the heart attack in the pavillion and his threat (or promise) to sue about it, might of had a factor in here.


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Has it been confirmed that Eskimo Clark (or somebody else) actually had a heart attack in the tent?

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Anyone?

[MicroBob]

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All cash games were suspended until 3pm.

Additional tables were set up near Buzios.

They announced that there would be a concerted effort to get people out of the pavilion. Indeed, it was empty by the first break (I walked over and checked).

I'm glad to see that Jack Effel and friends finally decided to do things correctly, but these radical changes basically validate everything I said in the first place.

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Sounds good that they are making things better.
But I don't think it's accurate even now to say that they are even doing things 'correctly'.

From what I've read, the fact that ANYONE has to play in a freaking tent even for 5 minutes is a total disgrace.

So, in fact, they still haven't gotten it right. They just made efforts to make it less completely idiotic so they can at least say they are doing the best with what they have to work with or something like that.

But the Rio is freaking huge. It takes like 10 minutes to walk from the front entrance all the way down to the main-room and there are a zillion different conference-rooms, etc along the way.

Yet they are essentially making people play outside because they supposedly don't have enough room for them indoors?
WTF?


Also - I think Rottersod's comparison to a professional company actually having the foresight to plan out every detail possible of a well-run large convention is 100% relevant to this situation.

Harrah's either doesn't think or doesn't care.


To the Harrah's apologists - The reason you have to say, "Hey, they are trying to make things right. Just give them time" is because they are either too lazy or too selfish to put any effort into getting it right the first time.

They obviously showed zero concern for their customers when it apparently didn't even occur to them that playing in 100+ degree heat might be uncomfortable, unfair or inappropriate.

Any competent director could have foreseen that this would be a problem before the tournament even started or before even 1 person lodged a complaint.


If Rottersod's company or some other well-organized group were asked ahead of time whether it would be okay to hold part of the convention in a tent anyone with a brain would immediately think, "Ummm, no that's not satisfactory. We want to give our customers the best. And besides, isn't it like 100+ degrees when you want us to do that? That's completely inappropriate for our customers."


So I have zero ability to agree with anyone who somehow thinks that Harrah's couldn't see this coming.
They are clearly trying to get away as much as they can with treating their players like absolute dirt.


The chances of the Bellagio forcing an overflow tournament crowd into having to play in a make-shift tent are about zero (at least I hope it is). They wouldn't even consider something as ridiculous as this I wouldn't think.
And Bellagio doesn't exactly have the best rep for service/treatment of their poker-players.

Perhaps their new slogan should be, "Come to Bellagio. We don't make you play outside."

[pig4bill]

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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.

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I will say this, sad as it is, I think the guy having the heart attack in the pavillion and his threat (or promise) to sue about it, might of had a factor in here.


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Has it been confirmed that Eskimo Clark (or somebody else) actually had a heart attack in the tent?

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Anyone?

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http://news.pokerpages.com/index.php...amp;Itemid=202

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I talked to Paul "Eskimo" Clark outside, asked him how he's doing. Paul said he was playing and his right arm started tingling, and he had a small stroke. He seems to be feeling okay, though, at least that's what he's telling everyone that comes up and asks. He is walking with a slight limp, though I'm not sure if that's normal or not. But to everyone out there that's concerned, he seems to be in good health, so that's great.

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[pig4bill]

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Yet they are essentially making people play outside because they supposedly don't have enough room for them indoors?
WTF?

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Hey, they have to accomodate the Shower Curtain Ring Manufacturers of America convention for those 3 days at the end of the month.

It costs too much to set up and break down a poker room more than once, so they can't put it in a room that's not going to be vacant for the entire Series.

[MicroBob]

In 2005 I would walk right past some convention for Bi-Polar Disorder on my down to the WSOP room.
I really thought they could have saved the space and simply combined the two and nobody would be able to tell the difference.

Or maybe it was strategically positioned so that poker-players could just drop-in as they were walking by.

[Ghazban]

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Harrah's either doesn't think or doesn't care.

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Can't it be both?