Hello, this is Jason Mo, the following events happened yesterday on day 3 of the main event here in Barcelona

Before break of the 5k main event here, we were notified that we would color up the pink (500) chips at the end of the level, I was asked to buy up all the pink chips and the table and I did that. Before break i lost a big pot so I counted my stack which totaled to somewhere between 340-350k I had a full rack of pinks (50k) 2 stacks of blue chips (5ks totalling 100k each) and 3 stacks of yellow chips (1ks totaling 60k each) and some left over chips in 5k 1ks and 500s that i set on top of my stacks that included 6 blue chips (30k) and the remaining smaller chips i had in 1ks and 500s.

I go off to break and come back, and my stack looks nothing like it did when i left it before the color up. One of my 100k blue chips stacks was gone, 1 of my 20k yellow stacks was gone, and the rack of 50k in 500s was gone and all replaced with 5 green chips (25ks). I counted up my stack and I was at exactly 310. I call the floor over and asked them what happened, they said that the number was right and that I was one in the wrong here. Several people at my table tell the floor that for sure had more chips going into break. Eventually the floor woman brings over 2 older guys that I assume were the tourney directors or at least people that ranked her, this is where stuff gets interesting:

Btw, I think all of this was caught on the live stream and the players at my table can verify that this went down:

I explain I am missing chips, they say that because the total in the middle of the table after the color up totals the number of larger chips put into play there can be no mistake. I ask how are they sure, is it possible that during the color up the chips were incorrectly distributed among the players. They don't really have a good answer for that, and say something to the effect of well the dealer and td where there so everything is fine.

I request them to look at the cameras, mainly because i am pretty meticulous about my stack and number of BBs i have in tournaments I always know what I have and know I wouldn't make an obvious mistake like that. The floor says there are no cameras anywhere in the area. I ask how is that possible, and the floor tells me that they are expensive and would cut into their profits on the tournament so they can't do that. At this point I am livid, I can not believe that they would actually use that as a reason. I ask how do you make sure that none of the stacks are tampered with or chips aren't stolen off the tables, or additional chips added to stacks. They respond the dealers are always at the tables and that's the end of the discussion after i basically tell them to **** themselves.

Anyways, just to prove my point throughout the day i just randomly take a few chips off my neighbors stack while the dealer is looking the other way. Each time i return them but i ask the dealer if he knows what i did and he has no clue. Through out the day i get multiple people messaging me saying that they have had the same thing happen. In one of the high rollers ben86 had the exact same thing happen to him, and was treated the same way. It's as if they think high stakes players that have played years of poker can't count their chip stacks correctly, then brush off the issue.

I asked to speak with the floor after the tournament and they declined, tweeted at them multiple times without a response, so i really have no choice but to post here. If anyone doesn't understand the magnitude of how big of a problem this is, the follow situations can easily happen and the floor/security/staff can't do anything about it:

1. Players can literally take chips of neighboring stacks and add them to their own stack if they have any stacks while the dealer is distracted mid hand. I am by no means a skilled pickpocketer or anything of that nature and I manged to just grab a few chips off both my neighbors stacks without anyone looking and without any cameras on the tables (obviously returning them immediately).

2. The security team places 100% trust in the dealers especially during breaks dealers are the only people at the table. This means that if a dealer is friends with someone at the table or if someone at the table simply bribes a dealer, they can alter the chip stacks of the table with out any risk of being caught. I guarantee you if i paid a dealer 1k euros to get 5k in chip ev moved to my stack from someone else, a large number of the staff would snap do that if they knew they weren't being observed at all. The 40k I lost was a little more than 10% of my stack at the time but has a real chip value over something over 5k euros, that were just directly stolen from me. I imagine 95%+ of the field is less of a nit to details as I am so missing small chunks of their stack they would never notice.

3. The whole color up process verification is just complete nonsense. All they care about is the small chips that leave the table equal to the big chips that are introduced to the table. They invite you to stay during the color up but 15 min breaks every 2 hours and the color up takes almost the whole break no one really wants to stay. In fact their first response when i told them about the missing chips was "you should have stayed during the color up" as if its my responsibility to guarantee my chip stack is accurate during every break.

I'm pretty sure that pokerstars or the EPT won't really respond or care about this, and why would they? They are breaking records for the number of entrants in lots of events. I just feel like it's incredibly disrespectful to the players where they are making almost 800k euros in rake for the main event alone that they can't have any cameras in a room where there are 10-15 tables playing for an 8 million euro prizepool because it would cut into their profits on the tournament as a whole.

did you tell security you are cu*ntycakes123 on twitter?

My stack shortage also occurred after a color up. At the restart of day2 of the 50k they emptied my bag and colored up. If nothing else comes of this I recommend to stick around or take a shot of your stack before you go on break.

yeah taking the picture is probably a good idea, sucks we have to worry about this stuff though. some stops do have cameras tho, dunno how much that helps

Maybe someone should tell them, that coloring up does not mean to only remove the smaller denomination chips, but also replace them with larger denomination chips of the same value.

So disgusting, what the actual **** is wrong with these people? I haven't played an EPT in my life and maybe never will yet I'm just enraged by this. Floor's response is amazingly rude and unprofessional (camera's cutting into their profits, they actually said that????) and I for one want Stars to comment on this and not put their head in the sand like an ostriche like they always seem to do nowadays

The cut in profit is obviously a poor explanation as to why there are no cameras. They could have simply set its not their by default because they play in the annex of the casino, though technically the hotel and some of their usual conference rooms.

As far as the dealers being friends with players and could get bribed idea ... I very much doubt this to be honest.

It's all nice for the press that they are breaking records left and right, but one gets the impression that they still cannot handle all the traffic despite facing such a huge increase in field sizes last year already.

Seems completely ridiculous. It was EPT Barcelona that Jeans had the laptop/break in/trojans issue with last year too wasnt it

Yeah, in the main hotel that also hosts the event.

Ridic for me to suggest this but please boycot barca next year, this is outrageous

Thanks for the hot take. I feel the complete opposite. Many human beings will do plenty to cheat and steal. What makes this spot any different

Have you informed Pokerstars ?

this is really disturbing..

I tried to talk to the floor at the end of the tournament was told their decision was final. Poker stars and ept won't respond

What a shame.

Lets build some electric fences around our stacks.

This is Jason Les. I'd like to add in that nearly the same exact thing happened to me earlier that day on an earlier colorup. I was near certain my stack was 290 after buying up all the 100's and came back from break and I had 240. The floor ruled the exact same and said the same. Players at my table agreed with me that from the pots I had played the first level of the day I should definitely of had at least 50k more.

Felt hopeless protesting it and wish there were cameras.

shadddddyy

oh, another story about pokerstars incompetence/indifference in their EPT tour.

some shameful ****.

Damn - I never checked exactly my stack after the color-ups as I was blindly trusting the tournament organization/dealers - but I guess it was stupid. Thanks for posting I'll be more vigilant in the future.

I'm also very surprised that they have no camera - you would expect some kind better security when you're playing for a 5K+ BI.

waiting for lee jones.

Casino area w/o cameras....cool story bros.

Wouldnt it be more likely that the extra chips missing after the color up went to another player as opposed to taken out of play? In some cases It would be easy to prove a mistake was made when there are less total chips in play than there should be.
This happening multiple times in the course of 2-3 days in all high equity spots makes it more likely than usual that foul play is involved, not just an accident.

I certainly wouldn't stay at that hotel or play poker there after the stories from the Jeans debacle. This missing chip thing is another in a line of terrible stories from Barcelona. Why would you play there I don't get it.

I understood why Stars would not respond directly in the Stinger thread. However I would expect a response here. The security at EPT's is their responsibility.

I outline this in the op, the floors explanation of why my chips were correct was that the total amount of chips pulled out of play during the color up was equal to the big chips introduced, meaning the sum equaled 0.

I think it's like u that someone at my table picked up the extra 40k but that is impossible for me to prove. The floor just said that he dealer was here the whole time so the number is correct. lol

Just gonna point out also that during the breaks not every table has a dealer on them although they do by the time the players reenter the room. I've been on break in other tourneys here and walked through the main event tables to leave the room and most of them were empty. When you couple that with the fact that even when players return if its early someone could swipe chips off without the dealer noticing if they're not paying super close attention, it's extremely worrying. I remember being surprised about it but just kind of ignored it because I assumed well there's cameras.

For all the things the WSOP gets wrong at least they make the dealers stay through all breaks at the table. I understand the dealers need a break too but its pretty absurd. If I was surreptitious and knew there were no cameras, I could've just swiped some 5ks on day 1b or something while I was walking out of the 25k and used them in the main later.

You can't have no cameras and no dealers at the tables for any amount of time. I also hate when they color up anyone at the table to make stacks smaller when people aren't there. That shouldn't happen, just wait until 2 mins before if you must and ask the player to color up their chips themselves.