Meeting With WSOP Officials

[Koumari Boy]

Well today at 11-00am I went along to The Rio Boardrooms to meet with Jeffrey Pollack and four other high ranking WSOP officials (Gary Thompson, Robert Daily, Howard Greenbaum, David Patent).

I have not been a happy camper at The WSOP this year (nor last year for that matter) but at least this was an opportunity to meet face to face with the organizers and express some concerns.

I was accompanied by three fellow players in Tony Bloom, Brian Wilson and John Gale.

Prior to arrival at The Rio we met up at The Bellagio Cafe to decide on our best strategy which we felt was not to try and get bogged down with specifics but more to try and work towards getting agreement on how to go about exchanging views with them with a view to moving forward and improving both the organizers and players lots. After all whatever has happened in the past is now history so we may as well concentrate on the future.

On arrival we got the formal introductions out of the way and then moved on to express our concerns as players about some of the perceptions that we had (rightly or wrongly) about things that concerned us.

Although individual things were brought up as examples to demonstrate various points this was not the time or the place to try and address those points specifically.

As I have posted extensively on my grievances in various public forums both here and elsewhere and requested an audience with The WSOP this is a report back on how things went.

Generally I would have to say that the meeting went well.

There was a feeling that those present were prepared to listen to our concerns and that in general we were really talking about a communications problem.

There was also a welcomed acceptance by those present that some of the criticisms raised were valid and that there was great room for improvement. It was also acknowledged that the players perceptions of things may not always be accurate and that many of those perceptions could be inaccurate due to conclusions being made on heresay and rumour.

Overall then I would say that I would sum up the meeting as follows:

No clear lines of communication between the players and the WSOP officials appears to exist and as such much of what was going on in the tournament area was not getting back to persons responsible for dealing with those issues.

It was also felt that somehow not all information was filtering down to the players from the organizers and that this was something that needed to be addressed along with improvements in the manner in which information was distributed.

I would say then that this meeting was about identifying what to do with our concerns and to whom to go to get those concerns addressed.

It has left me hopeful that there will be future meetings (not necessarily with those specifically mentioned above on either side) where concerns and points can be raised and addressed.

Currently I am going to put together (after consultation with other players and anyone who wishes to contact me) a list of general areas of concern that can be brought up directly with the relevant persons within The Harrah's/WSOP organization with a view to improving things for the future.

Obviously there will be an endless list of things that need addressing but for the time being I plan on starting with some of the more major and general issues.

eg Foreign Player Registration/Tax Witholding/ITIN's would be considered a major general issue whilst Food/Toilets/Food Vouchers would be considered lesser ones (not that they are unimportant just not first priority).

Here's to an optimistic and bright future for The Players and WSOP as we are never going to have one without frank and honest exchanges of views.

[MeanGreenTT]

TY Sir!

[GrinningBuddha]

Harry, have you considered working with the players' advisory board that was set up a few months ago? They may be able to streamline the changes that you'd like to see happen, since they are already working (in theory) with the powers that be at Harrah's.

[WSOPChump]

I know people have had alot of problems with the WSOP. But a few impressive things were it actually starting on time with the 2700 player field for the opener. Its definitely a quality venue.

I think the biggest issues is:
1. The large percentage takeout of the prize pool by Harrhah's. The biggest problem is not necessarily the percentage but the fact the dealers are not seeing it trickle down to them. It would be nice to get a percentage breakdown of where the money is going.

2. I think the foreign tax witholding issue is also huge since the event is very international and other casinos don't withold certain countries taxes it seems easily fixable.

3. It would be nice to see a reduction of fees in the big televised events and a smaller withholding of percentages in the 50K.

The structure changes in the events was bad. But as long as Harrah's listens to the concerns and stops making up the rules as they go long that part should be ok.

In some respects Harrah's has been pretty good for the WSOP. Binnions would not have been able to handle the sheer size of the event. Overall i think Harrah's has been good for the WSOP. There is definitely a sense of excitement you dont get at other venues. But they definitely need to work on a few things also.

[Bill Murphy]

Nice job, Harry.

Marked cards, & poorly trained dealers/floor people would have to be in the top tier.

"Poker rate" rooms being more expensive than "just walked in rate" rooms perhaps in a lower tier, along with sufficient starting stacks, blind increases, level times.

As for the juice, well, Rome ain't built in a day.

[WSOPChump]

true the cheap cards suck.
the floor's response this year and last : every card gets marked so its impossible to mark the cards.

[Kevmath]

Just curious, how much do these Copag setups cost?

[Photoc]

14.95/each retail, about 8.00 bulk.

[Kevmath]

How much would a setup that would be less likely to be marked cost?

[MicroBob]

Good that there listening to you Harry.

But kind of scary that they are the ones running the WSOP and they are unaware of some of their really significant problems.

They shouldn't need a panel to tell them that changing a shootout format after the tournament has already started or that marked cards in a $50k tournament are NOT GOOD.


I hope your efforts succeed and you are able to get places with them.
But they seem to be fouling lots of stuff up and I am skeptical.


Was this the same Brian Wilson who won a bracelet last year I think at PLHE (wore a Chicago Cubs baseball cap and a Hawaiian shirt I believe) or this is a different Brian Wilson?