gg Mansion Poker Dome

[private joker]

I think I've only seen maybe 15 minutes of the MansionPoker.net Poker Dome Challenge or whatever it's called. It's a terrible show full of like 90% donks and 10% decent internet players.

The "speed" poker rules are lame, the stacks start really short, the blinds go up super fast, and it's basically worse than a PartyPoker $10 SNG.

Anyway I decided to watch this week's tournmanent when there was nothing else on, and what I saw was the biggest joke I've seen in televised poker history.

With 6 players in and 50k starting stacks, there was 300k on the table. By HU play, it was maybe 175-125 in favor of a big guy. The little guy outplayed the hell out of the big guy for like 12 straight hands, and eventually it was pretty much over but for a formality.

Little guy had 271k and big guy had 29k. Blinds were like 8/16, so in 2-3 hands it would be over unless big guy kept getting dealt monsters that held up.

But in the first flippament, big guy had K8 and little guy had T8 or something (it was dominated) and little guy sees the shape he's in and lets out a harmless "f**k, I'm dead" kind of thing.

The tournament director (lol gg Matt Savage) decides to penalize little guy -- for 5 minutes! You get 15 seconds to act on your hand, and with the blinds at 8/16, 5 minutes was like a 200k penalty!!! The guy was down to only 40k by the time he was back in. By the way, big guy was not being a good sport about it -- he raised every hand as quickly as possible to make sure he played the most hands he could with no opponent.

So little guy gets back to his seat to see his decimated stack, and is totally distraught -- he was this close to winning the whole thing (it's winner take all obv) and now he's less than 3 big blinds from death. He plays one hand, posts another BB and counts his paltry chips -- as he's looking at the chips he shakes his head in defeat and lets out a steaming little "s**t" under his breath at his chip stack.

Big guy and the dealers both call over Savage to report it. Savage gives him another penalty, and the tournament ends in the next 3 hands while one player is sitting out and the other guy just raises until he steals enough blinds to end the thing.

Yup. A guy with a 271-29 chip disadvantage won the HU match because of the word f**k. And that word was not directed at anyone else, it was said towards the felt in frustration. An expression of dismay, not of abuse towards another person. It isn't like he said "f**k you ass hole" or anything.

Obviously I'll never watch Poker Dome again or even consider it any type of legitimate televised poker, but this is a sign for all of the poker world -- if competition can be ruined by retarded decisions like this (as a compromise, if Savage really wants to be a prick and penalize the poor guy, he could just take 10% of his stack away or something), then it's not a game I'd ever want to play.

gg MansionPoker.net. You're the anti-poker.

[Runner Runner]

That's just disgusting. If they are going to penalize for something they like they have to consider the circumstances. Obviously if it's headsup, high blind speed poker a 5 minute penalty is WAY TOO MUCH.

Savage who from what I have seen is normally a good TD should be ashamed of himself, and so should the other player for that matter.

[johnnyrocket]

thats so awful, what a bad beat

[Kevmath]

For what it's worth, Savage did post on his blog about the episode in question:

From www.savagetournaments.com:

[ QUOTE ]
Another first in my career happened during the taping of show 41. Before each taping I warn the payers that due to the fact that this is a televised event swearing is not permitted. So the current procedure is to give a 10 minute penalty during the first three rounds and 5 after that. When the tournament reached heads up player Mark Thevis blurted out those four little letters that start with F and I was forced to give him a 5 minute penalty. At that point the blinds were 8,000-16,000 and despite him being the current chip leader I knew that he was going to get hurt really bad. This is not a situation that I like even though I do get more camera time when this happens. Unfortunately this is speed poker and the other player decided to speed up on top of it. By the time he returned he was down to 30,000 of the total 300,000 in play. I found myself almost pulling for him to get back in the match and when he double up he was one more double up from being almost even and then it happened, he said it again. I could not believe it and asked both dealers if it was true and when the other player chimed in that he did say it all I could do was let him be blinded out. He denied saying it and I even had to go to the tape but when I got to the production truck the producer said it was a fact. As I stated before this was a first for me and I think it was a first for televised poker. He did apologize at the time but all of the sudden I got the feeling I was the bad guy in the situation. As he walked out into the audience he received a round of applause. I on the other hand met with production and others that said I did the right thing and thanked me for standing my ground. Mark also sent me an email later in the week and apologized which was a really classy thing to do.
I generally do not use the “F-word” penalty in most of my events because it is way too subjective of when it gets reported and additionally there are far more offensive words in my opinion that do not make the list. My rule about abusive language is simple, if it is offensive to or aimed at any other player, dealer, or tournament personnel that a penalty will be assessed. Due to the recent rule change that took place at the TDA meeting, time penalties will no longer be assessed. There was far too much inconsistency going on with the current way penalties were timed. If a player or players felt that a penalty was not deserved or worse if their friend was on a penalty they could stall and negate the effect of the penalty or worse still speed up and decimate the player on the penalty. The rule now reads that penalties will be in stages 1-2-3-4 and at a stage one penalty a player will miss one hand for every player that is currently at the table. This will now make it more equitable for final table situations as well. Please send any comments or questions about the news rules to Asktheboard@pokertda.com. The complete list of new TDA rules can be found at www.pokertda.com

[/ QUOTE ]

The episode in question is airing tonight at 1:30am ET on FSN NY.

[redCashion]

You can't blame the other player too much for acting in his own self interest by raising as quickly as possible, it's douchey but it's a move I believe most players would make. Calling the tourney director over when he swore the second time on the other hand is disgraceful. But the tourney director was insane to rule this way, and I'm surprised they would allow most of their HU match to be circumvented by such a silly enforcement of the rules.

[YTV]

I can't see how it is Mansion Poker or Matt Savages fault in any way. If they there is a rule and the player breaks it regardless if its the worst possible time ever to break it. It would be unfair to the innocent guy if the rule was not enforced. The blame should rest 100% on the dood that put himself in that situation. There is not even an argument here.

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't see how it is Matt Savages fault in any way.

...

There is not even an argument here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Funniest post of the week. Thank you sir.

Please, write in and tell Matt Savage that tournament directors have no choice, no responsibility, and no option to use judgment or common sense in assessing penalties. In any way. Ever. They are completely at the will of The Rules (which of course they have no say in either) and cannot be blamed for anything that happens in a tournament regarding rule disputes. I'd love to hear his response.

Also, Savage's comment: "because this is a televised event, no swearing will be permitted" is *almost* as funny as what YTV just said. Let me amend it: "because this is a televised event, they have editing tools."

[zer0]

it sucks for that guy, and im sure he deserved to win, but if he's that stupid i can't really feel too bad for him

[Rottersod]

Disgusting.

Every time I see Matt Savage from now on I'm going to think about what he did to this guy. Incredible that he could still try and defend his actions by insisting that it's a rule because it is televised. It's not a live event so editing out a swear word is simple.

People react in different ways to pressure and I'd bet a lot of money that this was the first time this guy had ever been doing something where he was being filmed and sitting under hot lights and playing for money.

Disgusting.

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
if he's that stupid i can't really feel too bad for him

[/ QUOTE ]

This is another dismissive, short-sighted post that Rottersod just answered very well:

[ QUOTE ]
People react in different ways to pressure and I'd bet a lot of money that this was the first time this guy had ever been doing something where he was being filmed and sitting under hot lights and playing for money.

[/ QUOTE ]