Wait, why are you guys praising Lee's solution?

It is completely unfair and screws several people out of thousands.

The group players had a gigantic advantage and should not be figured into the leaderboard. You should let them keep the money (as they did nothing wrong), but you should treat the leaderboard as if they're not there and award the adjusted prize money accordingly.

So Elliot Smith should be 2nd instead of 4th, Mike McDonald should be 3rd instead of 7th, etc. You need to award the FULL DIFFERENCE in prize money (in Elliot's case, over 7k), not just give them a token $2,360 and expect them to be satisfied.

Why is Pokerstars being so cheap and unfair about this?

Do you guys realize how much money they make each year from the PCA?

Cue Pokerstars fan boys attacking me viciously, telling me that Pokerstars didn't have to do anything here, and telling me that I should thank Pokerstars for not stealing my money like Full Tilt did.

I think this seems like a pretty fair decision, good job Lee/Stars.

wrt the above suggestion; I agree that the leader-board component is a tricky one if you want to run the tournament multi day like this but I think with hiding it you still have the issue of more well connected players being able to know partial or close to full results where other players won't know.

Maybe keeping the leader-board but giving slightly more starting chips or a similar small incremental advantage to people who play earlier would be best.

This is the fairest solution in my mind as well.

but they still refuse to lower the plo rake..hmmm...

I think something that could improve a challenge like this is to have some sort of penalty for getting stacked. Maybe have your score be how many chips u won and not just how many all ins you can win if you shove every hand.

Question #1: Why is the min-cash amount you are using ($2360) different than the min-cash amount reported by support ($2655) as posted by PokerDevL above?
Question #2: Why do you think awarding min-cash to each of seven affected players is an equitable settlement for players who achieved different final results? Such equal payments might be warranted in tournament situations where the final result is not already determined, i.e. where players could have achieved a better or worse final chip stack if circumstances had been different. But in this case, these seven players finished their tournament play and their final chip stacks were set.

IMO, the five players who achieved cashes with the unfair advantage should be removed from the final results list (but retain their winnings). Then redo the winners list accordingly (re-insert Jeff Gross if he also achieved top 7 with his solo play), and re-award the payouts accordingly (awarding Jeff Gross only the difference between what he already got and his new position).

Paying out the 7 min-cashes as you propose will cost $16,520 (using your $2360). Redoing the top 7 will cost $24,780 at the most (less if you also redo the prize pool, removing the buy-ins from the players removed from the winners list - but don't take money away from top spot already paid, obv). So, for just over $8K more, you will achieve a fair solution that no one can question, maintaining PokerStar's excellent reputation and PR image.

Note: I did not participate in the PCA and have no vested interest in the outcome.

Edit: Rereading PokerDevL's post, I see he must not have posted the entire winners list. So, my figures are a little off but the principle remains the same.

Well.. I was impressed by Lee's post and feel like defending the decision.

From an uninvolved outsider's perspective, I can't see how players have any legitimate negotiating power. The terms and conditions did not put a limit on simultaneous players.

Players are at least equally responsible. Not understanding and predicting a disadvantage to playing alone is on me, and if I play anyway, I accept that I am playing a game I don't fully understand..

Aside from unsubstantiated claims that someone told a player something, the company did nothing wrong. Any reimbursement comes from the goodness of their hearts. I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Are you sure the claims are "unsubstantiated"?

If the PokerStars staff had to have a discussion and agree to let the five play at once, there must have previously been some policy or general understanding against it. It would certainly be easy for PS to ask their staff if they ever told any players that they had to play individually.

As usual, I greatly appreciate the efforts of PS to do the right thing. I'm just trying to point out that for not a whole lot more money than they have already committed to, they can make it right in a way that no one can question and that leaves them untarnished in any way.

According to Hendon Mob, the challenge paid eight places and 8th place was paid $2360.

I might do the numbers for a compensation you suggested in the 2nd question (based on $49000) a little later. But I think you are right and it would be around 8k-10k more than the $16520 pokerstars offered.

+1 - my exact thoughts when I was reading this...

No I'm not sure. Proof may exist. I'm just going by what Lee posted:
"..Second, it's possible that some players were (incorrectly) told.."

Which just goes to show how amenable Stars is being. They don't care about proof. They are taking player's word for it.

has no effect on me but toilet is right

what a cluster **** by Stars lol, did they get someone in from Party poker to run this event ???

While I think pokerstars handles almost everything exceptionally I have to say this isn't the most fair outcome. Remove the players who got to play with more than 1 other player (or maybe anyone who didn't play solo. Bump each person up in the prize pool accordingly is the most fair.

I think people are so jaded about every other poker site and the decisions they make they see pokerstars (as always) trying to make things right and are okay with just that. In this case they fell a little bit short imo.

Everyone needs to quit complaining before Pokerstars pulls a Partouche and threatens to never offer a tourney again.

Ok, first of all, thank you Lee for paying attention to the community and giving some response to the issue, professional but far from fair.

As I understand it, I will be getting a min-cash for an event that I was slotted to make 12k-ish in going to the final day. I have 0 doubt in my mind that if everyone had to play solo on the last day I would have finished somewhere in the 2nd-5th range of the event. While I appreciate the fact that you're doing something I still feel absolutely cheated out of thousands.

This event has left a really bitter taste in my mouth about the entire PCA, I've given it some thought and I think that the best solution to this is to give PCA 14' packages to the 3-7 people that were cheated out of some sort of cash in the event. It's not possible to know where in the money anyone would have finished so there's no set amount of $ at which everyone would be satisfied. Stars would benefit from doing this too as it will bring business back next year, and it's a mere drop in the bucket as far as an expense. When a mistake of this magnitude is made, it's best to over-compensate the victims rather than the other way around in my opinion.

I know this sounds post sounds whiney but I have to say my true feelings on this incident. I'll say again that I am grateful something is being done but I hope this gets more consideration.

You are 100% right.

Problem is that Stars has gotten arrogant and feels they can get away with things like this because they're the lesser of all the online poker evils.

What's even more pathetic are all of the idiots here praising the decision, as if it's fair.

What school did you guys go to?

The problem is nobody "had to play solo". The correct strategy was to play with others. Had you realized the full implications of the structure, and refused to play, or refused to play solo, you wouldn't have lost anything.

I hate to press this point because you are within your rights to try and get something more out of the sticky situation, but the bottom line is players should be held responsible for their choices.

Did anyone realize what was going on? I think it's reasonable to assume that among the many very astute pros at the PCA, a few might have. And those people didn't play, or waited to the last day..

"...there's no set amount of $ at which everyone would be satisfied...."
You've set your own amount, but I agree it may not be enough to satisfy everyone. Then what? It never ends.

No, the problem is some people were told everyone would play alone or with only one other person.

ok.. Then I suppose Stars needs to add some fine print to the bottom of those structure sheets nobody bothers to read..
"We are not responsible if someone gives you bad information."

was about to play the event as well, then i realized how many potential collusion issues this has.. i think they should fix the minor leaks (one player at a time), and then simply lower the buy-in to 300 or smth, just to give way less incentive for actual collusion/chip dumping.

i can't believe people paid $1k to play this stupid thing.

1st place probably paid 10k ++ and 1 million play chips cost like 3$ on eBay lol.

the set up of this tournament sounds like a fraud waiting to happen.

It's not "someone" who gave bad information.

The tournament organizers were forcing everyone to play solo until they made that exception near the end.

Therefore, it was not an option for anyone.

Ask "wywrot", who is a longtime respected player, and he will tell you he had this exact experience when he asked to play with others.

Stars screwed this up royally and at the VERY LEAST should take the group players out of the leaderboard and adjust the payouts accordingly. They should let the original winners keep their money, but should make sure the people who were screwed are paid properly -- not just a token extra $2360.