http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared.../Season_9.aspx

WPT Marrakech is now there.

Also on the calendar:

Slovakia - Dec. 17-22
Paris - Feb. 11-15
Vienna - Mar. 24-28 (televised)

Thanks Kev, it is likely that I will be the TD for the Marrakesh event

Silly question but you wouldnt belive how hard it is to a anwser out of the Ft lauderdale Hardrock poker room and im some what of a reg.

will there be any 1 table sat's for the 5k in november(not sure if your involved with that one)

Not involved but I have to believe there will be

Thanks Matt/Kev. Matt, are there any other events that you know of that may be confirmed soon?

Charging hidden vig for WPT London is second rate business practice. Like everyone else I believed the vig was £300. The actual £500 vig on a £4800 tourney (10.4%) is way over the top. I expect to pay 10% on a £250 tourney, not a £5k. You also made us pay for food, drinks etc so not a great deal for the players!

The event was well run once the heating etc was sorted out but please be more up-front about charges as many players would choose other alternatives if they knew.

I have spoken to a few of the dealers and it seems that they are unable to get any information in relation to this matter. Simon Thomsett(?) seems to avoiding the issue. Having made some cursory legal enquiries, it seems there may be some far more serious issues relating to this matter and may require police involvement.

lol i see you've never been to that abortion of a poker room ..they have potential tho

I was looking at the structures of some of the Limit Events at various WPT stops and the blind levels are faster than similar nl buy ins. Is there any chance these could be tweaked a bit in the future?

Where? When? I usually don't have much to do prelims of other casinos but I can surely take a look.

Any response yet?

Hi Matt,

Just heard that WPT Marrakech is going be organized this year again. I've cashed last year but lost a decent % of my winnings because the payouts were in MAD and the casino had a bad rate changing for EUR. (obv no other solution for the exchange, as the MAD has no value outside Marocco)

I would be happy to play this WPT again, so please let me know if there's any solution for not losing money on buyins / payouts.

Thanks

I have sent an email on your behalf to the Es Saadi Casino.

Thanks, can't wait to see their reply

BUMP

Entry fees and staff/dealer tokes have never been the responsibility of the World Poker Tour and is set by the host casino. I am told that the additional 4% withheld was not ever promised to the dealers in London and that Simon has made comment in the Blonde Poker thread but I cannot seem to find it?

I was not in London and the Tournament Director was Jack McClelland.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.p...767#msg1232767

Well, you seem far more comfortable giving opinions from the safety of this forum that acting professionally and returning phone calls made to your offices. If you wish to align yourself with the indefensible then by all means do. It clearly states on the schedule that 4% is taken for Poker Room Staff, there already stands a precedent for this type of payment.

I suggest you get a good grounding on who took the money and why as it seems that WTP staff were involved and I would think that if members of your staff were walking away from a tournament with a £34400 payment you would have a very precise understanding of why they did so. Saying that you know very little besides what you have garnered from websites shows you either have no control or understanding or that you are complicit in what may turn out to be a criminal act.

WTP has no idea why its' staff took payments? When are you next getting off a plane in England, just so I can notify the relevant authorities?

The WPT has some oversight responsibility for what goes on its events. And one of the main issues regarding this situation is regarding the schedule which was hosted on the WPT website:

http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared...r_Classic.aspx

One of the reasons I played this event and consider playing other WPT events overseas is my belief that the WPT will oversee what goes on. For example, I doubt anyone would travel to play an event in Marakkech if it didn't have the assurance of reliability that the WPT label implies.

On to the issue at hand, the first problem is the fact that 4% was taken out of the prizepool. If you look at the schedule on that link, two events had asterisks which denoted that a % of the prizepool would be withheld for staff. Those events did not have juice specifically denominated.

The WPT Main Event did not have an asterisk showing that a % of the prize pool would be withheld for staff. And juice was specifically denominated -- £5000+300, which as you know is quite high.

The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from looking at that schedule is that additional money was not going to be taken out of the prizepool for staff. So not only was the withholding not disclosed beforehand (as far as I know, if it was I'm sure someone would have pointed that out by now), it was fairly clear that there was to be no withholding.

It really looks like the decision to withhold was made after the fact to satisfy the casino's obligation to the Bellagio tournament staff, which is totally unacceptable. Additionally, this withholding was unlike any other in that virtually none of it went to the dealers. Had this been disclosed beforehand I'm sure there would have been an uproar.

So at the very least I think this situation is in need of further explanation from Simon and everyone else involved. And I hope the WPT will be proactive in obtaining that explanation.

I personally had nothing to do with this event!

THE WPT staff had nothing to do with this and received no money from the prize pool at all.

Palm Beach Casino and Simon Tomsett made the decisions on what to do with the money and he made this statement on Blonde Poker.

The quotes attributed to me in this post have no foundation in fact whatsoever. The OP can by all means contact me personally to discuss.

I am the person responsible for this event, including the WPT and Bellagio team contracts. The Bellagio team were responsible for 15 % attendance of the Field travelling from the US including P Ivey. No one can argue the attendances and cash action were less the disappointing, creating a significant loss to the Palm Beach. The Partouche event in Cannes had a big impact on the numbers. The buy in in Cannes was EU 8500 with EU 1500 taken in juice per player.

Lessons will be taken from this event, I made no agreements with any of my staff regarding deductions. For the benefit of any doubt this weekend the EPO buy in is £3.5k with £250 taken in fees, no other deductions.

So comparing rake elsewhere makes it ok to steal money on the sly?


30k isn't much after all......



Is it now our fault that the palm cant get good cash games going?
how are they better if the players are paying for world class players to come and play in them?!


how is any of this acceptable?



As Todd says if the WPT brand is on something it should stand for everything WPT has already done. Don't let incompetent morons run events for you and therefore lessen the name of the WPT pls.

I agree with a lot of what you say here and am still trying to get better answers for all of you.

Just come and run the tournies yourself, if not make more M Savages and spread them around the worlds casino floors pls.

I have just spoken to the WPT offices and after much obstruction and Angelica Hael, Director of Tour Management, decided to answer an awkward question by putting the phone down, I finally spoke to the legal department.

The WPT say they had only one representative at the event. All monies were handled by Palm Beach. Therefore it would be safe to assume that the WPT received none of the disputed monies, seeing as this is what they have said.

So where did the money go?

If the WPT haven't taken it, that only leaves Simon Tomsett.

So now you know, if you play a WPT event and money from the prizepool goes missing it's up to you to find it.

Personally, from my discussions today, it seems to me that the WPT is acting extremely naively over this matter. For them to have little or no knowledge about the events surrounding this issue is either incompetence or deceitful to say the least. As a Party Gaming shareholder, this reflects badly on the company and has a knock on effect of effecting future business that the WPT may embark upon in Europe. It now becomes a shareholder issue, especially if the WPT are seen to have dealt with this matter negligently.

As the money is officially missing, it is now a police matter.

In WPT events in the US, you know that a certain percentage of the prize pool is taken out for tournament staff/dealers/etc.