Genting to repay £70,000 to WPT London players & dealers!

[Shafted proper]

In case u didn't know, regarding the recent 'WPT London poker classic' held at the palm beach casino, £200 was taken from every buy- in to go towards the tournament staff. So only £4800 went towards the prizepool from every player. It was told to the players that this was the case and that the money was taken to go to the tournament staff. This is a common practice in the U.S and is considered to be a service charge, therefore many players do not leave an additional tip when they win because they consider the percentage taken out to be sufficient, it is similar to going to a restaurant  and receiving the bill with a service charge added, it is considered perfectly acceptable to not leave anything additional for the waiting staff. 
This is not a bad system for the dealers because it guarantees them a certain amount of money without having to gamble on the generosity of the winning players.
The problem that has arisen is that out of the 40 members of staff who worked on the the tournament the whole £34,400 that was taken was  Of whom only 2 or 3 actually worked on the tournament, the rest were working in other areas. None of the recipients dealt a single hand of poker, they were brought in from Vegas to help run the tournament and bring players to the cash games. They did not do anything that anyone with 4-5 years of poker room experience could not have done themselves. 172 runners is not at all impressive and the cash game action was no better than an average night at the palm beach.
Obviously all the players were under the impression that the money taken out was going to ALL the tournament staff, so did not feel the need to leave anything additional. Out of an £800,000 prizepool £2300 was left for the dealers to split between 30 for 5 days work. On receipt of their winnings certain players actually commented on the fact that they didn't feel it necessary to leave a tip when money had been taken out already.
The man in charge of organising this poker tournament and who is ultimately responsible for this injustice is SIMON TOMSETT (poker manager for the palm beach). When certain dealers asked him where the money was going, he told a bold faced lie and said it was for the dealers, even going so far as to say (when caught out) "keep it quiet because I don't want the dealers to let me down on my next event" the English poker open. And after the event simply said "sorry guys, I'll try and sort you out next time". 
Dealers beware of working at certain premises where underhand activities are going on and make sure you know the arrangements of how you are to be paid prior to starting work.
Players please be more aware and vigilant to any activities that preside over your tournament prizepool. You don't have to stand for it. The dealers need your support.

Please pass this message on to anybody and  everybody who may have been involved or may be interested. 

[Longines]

The event was billed as £5000 + £300 but was actually £4800 + £200 + £300?

The £51,600 (172 x £300) was the normal rake that the organisers kept?

The £34,400 (172 x £200) was distributed with 30 dealers sharing £2,300, getting £76 each?

The other £32,100 went to the non-dealing event staff?


Have I got that right?

[Laxie]

First part is definitely right because Tikay mentioned it in one of his posts as well.

[outragous76]

No matter how u look at it the juice is like 11%, which is redic for a 5k! ESP when you think it's 6%

This is a shambles, hope these dealers get sorted out!

[neverbluff67]

No matter how u look at it the juice is like 11%, which is redic for a 5k! ESP when you think it's 6%

This is a shambles, hope these dealers get sorted out!

it is ridiculous : /

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

[AndrewT]

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

This is scandalous - if they won't let you swap it for cash they've stolen 25k from you.

[The Camel]

No matter how u look at it the juice is like 11%, which is redic for a 5k! ESP when you think it's 6%

This is a shambles, hope these dealers get sorted out!

it is ridiculous : /

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

The 25k for Championship has always been taken from prizepool.

Totally wrong imo.

[outragous76]

No matter how u look at it the juice is like 11%, which is redic for a 5k! ESP when you think it's 6%

This is a shambles, hope these dealers get sorted out!

it is ridiculous : /

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

The 25k for Championship has always been taken from prizepool.

Totally wrong imo.

esp when they take it all from 1st place!

[RED-DOG]

Ill tell you why they do this stuff, it's because poker players stand for it.

Vote with your feet. there is no shortage of tournaments.

[tikay]

First part is definitely right because Tikay mentioned it in one of his posts as well.

I think it was in the daily "London WPT" Blog I did for "next door" Dawn, though I may be wrong. My point was the level of juice, & the way it was described, rather than the facts implied by the OP. The Blogs got plenty of comments, but not one as to the level of juice.

The Entry was £5,300, (£5,000 + £300) with £200 being deducted for "staff". This was misleading imo. If they charged £4,800 + £500 - effectively what they did - it would be fine, because they would be drawing attention to the juice being £500.

I have no issues with £500 of juice on a £4,800 Tourney - because the players could clearly SEE it then, so it's up to them if they are prepared to pay 10% juice. (Quite common in the USA). They can charge 25%, or 50%, or 100% Juice - it matters not a jot - as long as it's clearly shown, & the players can decide.

What they did was clearly misleading though - advertising it as a £5,000 Event, with £300 as juice. It was not, it was a £4,800 Event, with £500 of juice.

The regular juice - £300 in this case - is intended as paying towards the cost of running the Tourney, so I fail to see why a competely seperate £200 was charged.

If players continue to accept this treatment, Organisers will continue to do this sort of thing. There is no need or reason to charge ANY juice on an Event such as this. Some Organisations do not charge Reg Fees and yet they STILL they add value - simply by using their nous to get Sponsors to cough up the reg fee. AND Added Value on top.

I thought the way the whole thing was promoted, managed, & run, was very sad actually. I so wanted the London WPT to be a success, but they needed to bring in people who have organised, managed & run Tourneys before, & from what I could see, they did not. Even getting Player Lists was near impossible - the Bloggers had a better handle on everything than the organisers did, or so it seemed to me.

Still, it got a good winner.

[NoflopsHomer]

For the £250 rebuy they took 10% for the staff.

http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Tournaments/Seasons/Season_9/WPT_London_Poker_Classic.aspx

[DaveShoelace]

No matter how u look at it the juice is like 11%, which is redic for a 5k! ESP when you think it's 6%

This is a shambles, hope these dealers get sorted out!

it is ridiculous : /

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

I bet your heart sank when you saw the thread title lol.

[Bongo]

also they said a 25k seat for the WPT World Championship was as well as first and they just took it out of the first place money with no option given pretty bs imo.
(ps not meant to be a brag thought it was relevant)

This is scandalous - if they won't let you swap it for cash they've stolen 25k from you.

Is that legal?

I remember there being some reason why DTD couldn't do this for WSOP sats?

[Doobs]

I played the £1000 event at last year's London EPT which was advertised as £1000+£100.  But in reality it was £970 + £130, as another 3% was taken.

I am definitely not playing it this year. 

[TightEnd]

Was Matt Savage present in London in his role as WPT Executive Tour director?


Secondly it does seem ironic, and odd, that the "top" end of the market sees players effectively fleeced on juice, image rights, little value added and the like while at the bottom end of the market players are in many places playing juice free with added value.