pokerface2007 .....what was I thinking!!!!!!

[The Rivercard]

So here I am sitting in Binions casino and I am just starting to calm down now that we are 3 hours in to the pokerface2007 tournament. $300,000 prize pool, 30 runners, 9 places pay. I have had many sleepless nights wondering why the hell I created this tournament in the first place …I mean at the time it seemed like a good idea. So I thought some of you might be interested in the journey that I have travelled.

 

Back in the summer of 2006 I was coming around to the fact that I didn’t know as much as I thought, I had launched a new poker site on the tribeca network and had spent a fortune on marketing and yet my player numbers were awful. So I decided I had to come up with something new. I had been going to Vegas since 1992 and had seen the WSOP turn into the corporate machine it is today. I thought with all of my contacts that It may be better to concentrate more of my focus on creating a new poker tournament that was hosted at the home of poker VEGAS!!!. We had launched poker in the pub in the U/K and that was showing signs of growth so why not use some of our marketing budget on a live tourney.

 

I had spoken to so many players that had wanted to play poker full time only they didn’t have the bank roll and needed a regular income ( as we all do  ). So I thought why not have a tournament that produced a prize that someone could live on for a year with tournament and expenses paid, Pokerface2007 seemed a decent name. All I needed now was a Vegas casino, the tribeca network to agree to the satellites, live venues in U/K and USA casinos for satellites, an understanding wife and loads of energy….no problem!!!! After all with all those USA players what could go wrong? Why do I feel like some of you are shouting “run Forrest run” it honestly seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

It seems easy writing this but it doesn’t do justice to all the hours of work that went in but all of a sudden,Tribeca backed the idea from the start and The Golden Nugget was keen to host the tournament. The first satellites were up and running and our site was growing quickly now thanks mostly to smarter marketing and the huge budget we had put behind poker in the pub.

 

The first signs of problems occurred when I received an e mail from the Golden Nugget stating that there might be a problem with hosting the event, I think they guessed what was coming. Then all of a sudden the poker world changed forever, what were they thinking no online gaming in the USA!!!! Are they mad?

 

I flew to Vegas in December to try and sort the venue problems and was amazed at the reception I got. There was no way that the Nugget would host the tournament now they didn’t even want the players to stay. Paranoia had set in and Vegas had changed into a city of red tape and mis-information. We hold a Nevada gaming licence and had clearance for our tournament but this didn’t seem to matter, if you were an on line poker site you were no longer welcome. Thanks to a few friends in the casinos I was put in touch with a few places that may host the tourney.I spoke to Binions and they were much friendlier and offered to work with me to get the tournament back on track, they have been fantastic and have worked really hard for very little reward. I cannot thank them enough for the effort that they have put in. Whilst in Vegas I popped in to visit the WSOP team, I had worked with them a year earlier when they were considering going on line and I wanted to see what there view was on the new poker landscape. They were as surprised as anyone that the law had been passed and were busy trying to figure out whether they could accept money from on line sites. Though many in the USA had wanted the ban Harrah’s had fought hard to have poker excluded and believed that they had succeeded. It just goes to show that even with all of there money and influence an organisation of there size they could not stop the idiots running the asylum!

 

When I returned to the U/K having successfully secured our hotel rooms with the Nugget and the tournament at Binions I thought things were back on track….then came Playtech.

 

To be continued.....

 

 

I will conclude this after the final has been played

[The Rivercard]

ok second and final bit..........

I loved the Tribeca software, despite its faults it was the one network that I really enjoyed playing on. I know stars, FT and party had the big tourneys and players but I never really enjoy playing in their rooms. So it was an easy choice when it came to picking a network for my room. Then in November as things were starting to look good I found out that Playtech were buying Tribeca. I had not banked on tribeca selling but understood their reasons, what I was upset about is the way the switch over happened. We were not told anything about what was going on and our players were very poorly treated. It was so frustrating we were working in the dark with no reporting and no idea of when things would be fixed. I know problems happen but this was just bad planning.

I gave Playtech the chance to back out of the pokerface2007  tournament and pay the players, but they wanted to run with it, as long as they could run the on line satellites their way. They also insisted on no US players and no live satellites. I reluctantly agreed but told them that they were not going to get the seats and they should run a series of free rolls to ensure we made the numbers. They didn’t listen and as they were underwriting the prize pool I wasn’t going to waste my time arguing. I could write pages on this but let’s just say I have learnt a lot about my new software provider.

Let’s fast forward to the 2nd may 2 weeks before the tournament. We had removed all US qualifiers cancelled the live satellite venues and 5 players had been allowed to buy themselves off the tournament. We lost over 40 players $400,000 in entries!!!! We were left with 15 qualifiers. Then Playtech called and said they were running a free roll on Titan for 12 seats and Bet Fred got 2. I cannot repeat what was said on that call but I am sure you can imagine my displeasure. That week was crazy trying to ensure we had all the player details over to the states and to ensure we cleared all the funds. I secured the rooms at the Nugget and jumped through a few hoops but by May 9th we were on our way to Vegas with 30 players and there partners.

On arrival I had a message from Binions asking me to come to a meeting. Due to the problems with on line poker the Nevada gaming commission had revised the law. All tournaments now needed to submit requests 30 days before they start, we were three days away!!!. I have to admit the staff at Nevada gaming and Binions were fantastic. We filled in forms and fast tracked all the paperwork for signatures. At 3pm on Friday 2 hours before there offices closed we finally had all the signed documents. I was learning to live without sleep and was considering never entering a casino again in my life when this was all over, then at the welcome party I met up with the players and it all started feeling worthwhile. There were players from Sweden, Spain, France, Ireland, U/K, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Austria and The Faroe Islands!! I was really pleased to see some familiar faces amongst what felt like a European poker delegation. It was weird thinking that we were about to play a $300 k tournament in Vegas and there were no US players.

Play started on time on Sunday and I think I was the most nervous person in the room. I know it sounds silly but I always wanted to say “shuffle up and deal” in a Vegas tournament .We had no problems throughout the day, which considering we lost 21 players by 11pm and therefore were down to the final table was quite an achievement. The next day play again started on time and again things ran smoothly. Jennifer the tournament director was excellent and kept the game flowing without any issues.

We had our winner by 7pm Maik Andre Dahling from Germany. The trophy was presented, the photos were taken and the paperwork done. It all seemed over so quickly I had spent so many hours worrying and planning but now all that was left was the administration and time for a drink and to reflect on what had just happened.

I had just put on a tournament in Las Vegas something I had always wanted to do. There were so many problems and times I wanted to quit I wondered if it was worth it, well I have to admit it was!! For all of the last 9 months of planning and work it was great to be here and to run a tournament, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity and to be able to say that I had achieved this and loved the experience it had given me.  I know I am not a great story teller, so I am sure that I have missed out many points throughout but I hope it gave you an idea of what my journey was like.

Below are the winners!!!



1 MAIK ANDRE DAHLING
2 NICOLAS LESZKOWICZ
3 FINNBJORN VANG
4 JOHN ERICSSON
5 GEORGE COUSTILLAS
6 SCOTT O RIELLY
7 YUCEL EMINOGLU
8 S PLEUCHOT
9 VELENTIN OOSTBURG

[DesD]

Many congratulatons on your achievement.  Put your feet up for a couple of days.

Cheers,

Des.

[KingPoker]

 

Great read and congrats on staying sane!

KP

[marcro]

Very good report and I dips me lid to a job well done!

[matt674]

1 MAIK ANDRE DAHLING
2 NICOLAS LESZKOWICZ
3 FINNBJORN VANG
4 JOHN ERICSSON
5 GEORGE COUSTILLAS
6 SCOTT O RIELLY
7 YUCEL EMINOGLU
8 S PLEUCHOT
9 VELENTIN OOSTBURG

Click to see full-size image.

So is now not the right time to ask about putting my name forward for next years event?

[boldie]

great read and well done on what sounded like a great tourney.

[Indestructable]

Oops thought it was a chance to get on the Ant & Dec show Pokerface. 

[KingPoker]

Oops thought it was a chance to get on the Ant & Dec show Pokerface. 

 

[portfolio]

dave,

now the dust has settled    i hope you realise wat a fantastic achievement thru diversity this comp waS.

onwards and upwards sir.

regards

port

[The Rivercard]

Thanks for your comments, I am off to run the national final for poker in the pub on Sunday in Birmingham and then will be considering if pokerface2008 is on the cards!!!

[Ironside]

i dont understand what pokerface is/was it seems like a 10k buy in event held in vegas where you could only play if you win a seat online

it doesnt seem that different to many events out there and certainly nothing ground breaking


was there added money?

[portfolio]

google is ur friend...

[Ironside]

i have googled in many times and read the press releases

all i can work out is that its a comp where instead of winning cash you win a sponsorship package which could be worth less than the entrance money so instead of taking the cash you have to go and play in a few events round the world some places the other side of the world

[The Rivercard]

i have googled in many times and read the press releases

all i can work out is that its a comp where instead of winning cash you win a sponsorship package which could be worth less than the entrance money so instead of taking the cash you have to go and play in a few events round the world some places the other side of the world

300k prize money 30 runners 9 places paid. I think that is a good pay structure and the entire prize pool was paid out. If there is a pokerface 2008 I hope for over 100 entrants and then we will pay 30 seats I do not know of any other tournament that does that.