This is the exact same post as P5s so nothing new if you read that one already. People need to know about the incompetence of Borgata/Party poker though in my opinion.

I was unfortunate enough to satellite into this tournament and end up getting 4th. I remember contacting customer service via their live chat option with about 30-36 players left because I had top 3 stack and making the money was a reality in my mind at this point. So I pulled up the tournament lobby and saw that only top 2 players paid which I figured had to be a mistake because I did not see anywhere in the lobby or promotions that only the top 2 players were to be paid for this particular tournament. The first time I pulled up the live chat with customer service they told me that there was in fact a screw up on their end with the payout structure and they would email me as soon as possible. A couple hours later I was 3/10 on the final table bubble and checked my email and there was nothing from Borgata poker. So I pulled up another live chat session, mind you in the middle of a Sunday MTT session, and asked them what was going on with the payout structure of this particular tournament. They told me to hold on yet again. After waiting for another 30-45 minutes, I was well into the FT at this point, they finally came back and said that nothing was wrong with the payouts and that is how it was supposed to be. They told me this AFTER telling me that they had made a mistake in the payouts only a couple of hours ago. Obviously anyone in their right mind would not be happy about this. I have never played in all my years of playing MTTs where only top two pay without this being explicitly obviously to the players. Nowhere in the lobby or in any of the promotions did it say anything about only the top two players paying. The fact that it said 1st was guaranteed 20k and 2nd was guaranteed 10k for a total of 30k (the guarantee for the whole tournament which would only be 60 or so players) does not in any way mean that if the prize pool were to exceed 30k that all the money over the guarantee would also go to the top 2 players. The total prize pool was about 70K and had around 150 players I think. In every single tournament I have ever played where they guarantee X amount to 1st they do not only pay out first. For example in the $200 200K guarantee they hosted on the same Sunday they guaranteed 50K to first but they did not only pay 1st place with the remaining 150K in the prize pool. Overall they completely screwed up either in the promotion of the tournament or in the format of the payout structure. I do not play poker for a living anymore and would have never played this event if I had known that it was only going to payout the top two players. Since I satellited into this tournament I obviously looked at the tournament lobby the day before and saw NOTHING about only top two places paying and if this was there plan the whole time they should have said in big bold letters ANYWHERE in the lobby that that was the case and I would have taken my $500 tournament credits and bought into their other tournaments that day. Later that night I was on the phone with Borgata customer support and they told me the same thing, "Yes we messed up in the payout structure and that at the minimum 5 players were to be paid out". If this were the case then I truly did get screwed. I have since tried to get my chat emailed to me via the customer service and they said the only way I could get proof of live chat was to take screen shots. I was in the middle of playing at least 6-8 tournament across 2 different sites so this obviously was not easy to do. I was also deep in the WSOP $215 and was timing out regularly in that as well as other tournament multiple times due to trying to live chat with Borgata and figure all this nonsense out. This is hilarious to me seeing as how the chat in question was a few days old AND they have read back to me sections of previous live chat I have had with them so I know they are able to look back at it but do not want me to have proof of them telling me they screwed up on the tournament lobby and were working to fix it. Overall Borgata and Party Poker completely screwed up on this tournament and should absolutely make this right by their players in some way or another. At this point Thursday, May 1st, I have not heard one word back from them about compensating any and/or all of the players that in my eyes were completely duped in this tournament. I took all my money off of this site and will not be playing on there until this is at the very minimum acknowledged. Them screwing me over on my payout is another story all its own!! WSOP.com was extremely helpful and better in every single way possible in my mind when it comes to online gaming in New Jersey. I would never tell anyone to put their money on Borgata/Party if they were going to give legal gaming in NJ a shot.

Holy wall of text, Batman

Party has already confirmed that the payouts were a screw up on their end. Everything in the prize pool over the 30k was to be distributed normally. It wasn't supposed to be stacked onto the top 2 prizes. This is a fact. The people ITT hating on everyone have no idea what they're talking about. Not sure if they're going to do anything about it, but I can assure it has already been confirmed a screw up.

yea, everyone calling for refunds etc needs to settle down. It was unfortunate what happened, but sometimes **** happens. This doesn't mean that every single technical glitch that occurs in the software means people will get their buyins back. It was an error, they will learn from it.

I finished 3rd for NJCOP#14.

The game had an error in the payout structure.

An online gaming host would not have a payout structure with none but 2 final table players without explicitly advertising as such.

Further, in large part, players will not knowingly pay a $500 entry to a tournament without payouts for at least all the players at the final table.

The payouts might extend beyond the final table since the prize pool more than doubled the guarantee.

Keep on them about this people.

They need to fix the tournament to what should be a reasonable payout structure.


-MickVictory

the largest internet cardroom in the world used to run a $5,000 winner take all tournament every week. people were pretty happy to play in that...

This wasn't a winner take all.

The tournament just before (NJCOP#13) also guaranteed 50k to first place, but that’s not to imply there’s ONLY a first place. In fact 144 players won something.

glad you didnt jump off a bridge, mick.

To summarize this thread: Party screwed up, and so did everyone who registered for the tournament (unless of course they understood what they were signing up for). Take some responsibility. You can't open a tournament lobby with the payouts posted in black and white, register for said tournament expecting them to be different, and then complain once they are not. Needless to say if you finished ITM in the high-roller event, you would not be upset about the payouts.

I hope people are keeping their expectations realistic, and by that I mean nothing is going to be done about this as far as getting buyins back, tournament tokens, points, etc.

I have faith that party will step up.

It's not the players error.

Many of us were calling in from the beginning, and they told us it was a "known issue".

Most players, including the ITM players, recognized the issue before and during the final table. They were asking for a fair resolution.

We are awaiting the decision of partypoker and borgatapoker.com.

Thanks drama.

i wonder if you finished 1 spot higher if you would be in this thread asking for something to be done. I for one really enjoyed watching you donk off all those chips to finish outside the money. Carry on your bitching though.

It absolutely is. Are you upset about the payouts? You clearly are. Where these payouts posted on the tournament lobby when you registered for the tournament? They clearly were. It sounds to me like you expected something to happen with the payouts that was different from what was posted in the lobby. You do know what an error is, right?

What does this even mean, from the beginning? Did you call before you registered for the tournament, or after?

They should have noticed it before they registered for the tournament. It is sad the final table couldn't make a deal, but the point I'm trying to drive home is that the payouts were posted on the lobby. Whether they are fair, as intended, suck or not is irrelevant. They were what they were in the lobby, and that's pretty much it.

I hope I'm wrong, but really, don't hold your breath. It really sucks you bubbled this one. That's the reason I unregistered from the lobby - didn't want to deal with that variance. The thought of registering for that tournament and expecting the top 20% to be paid never entered my mind, however.

+1ish

I disagree with the part about party doing nothing.

In all honesty, I was about to register for this until I saw the pay structure and decided not to. I even spoke to my roommate who told me he was going to play and I asked him why with the pay structure and he didn't mind.

They won't do anything. I can't believe this thread is 5 pages.

its only 2 pages for me. lol at 2012 saving his first post for this.

not even 1 page long...2p2 noobs

100 is too long for me gags. 50 is easier to get through.

I really don't think Party should do anything about what happened. Like Kowalski has been saying, everyone saw the payout structure and still registered...move on, nothing is going to happen

Dear NJCOP Event #14 Players,

In response to some of the concerns raised here and elsewhere about the payout structure used for NJCOP Event #14, please note that our intent for this event was always for it to pay just two positions, and advertised it with $20K guaranteed for first place and $10K guaranteed for second place.

Some feedback we received in advance of releasing the final NJCOP schedule was to add a high-roller event, and to consider an extremely steep payout structures – perhaps even winner-take-all – as there was strong interest in that format. So we added this event with this structure to the schedule intentionally, and regret that we did not advertise this structure more as a feature of the event as the actual turnout and post-event comments indicate we might have had even greater participation.

Our poker software shows payout structures clearly in each tournament’s lobby, and they update in almost-real-time as players register and rebuy (though there is sometimes a slight delay when add-ons are made). The registration lobby for this event did show the payout structure correctly at all times. Players who registered before the $30K guarantee was met would have seen that only two places were being paid, and players who registered after the guarantee was met would have seen the same thing. So while we recognize advance communication was not great about exactly what might happen once (and if) the $30K guarantee was exceeded, the prize payout details were available for players to see before deciding whether/not to play. Therefore, we do stand by our payout structure for NJCOP Event #14 and will not be revisiting it.

We apologize for the negative experience some of you had in this event, as this was the one dim spot in an otherwise successful first NJCOP (two missed guarantees of 15 events being considered a reasonable start). We will take greater care in the future about emphasizing special payout structures when scheduling similar events, and hope you all return for those series.

Thank you for playing on partypoker.

Best regards,

Party Rep

lol you can't be serious Party?

A lot of ppl (myself included) asked for a HighRoller to be added to the NJCOP schedule, however if you think players wanted it to pay top 2, you're nuts. I strongly disagree you had intentions of paying only top 2 and something clearly went wrong with the payouts. If you truly did intend to only pay top 2 without stating it, other than the lobby, this is awful.

Just because you put a GTD on 1st and 2nd, doesn't mean it's only paying 2 spots. The Sunday $50K guarantees $10K to the winner, but has a normal payout scale? Your concept of a HighRoller, if this is real, is just awful. If they are going to be run like this, I would hope to never see one again.

+1..

It's clear everyone who works for party down to the live chat help aren't very smart. They have no idea how to properly run a poker site. Please god allow a ROW pact.

And what I mean by stated in the lobby, I feel it should have been listed somewhere in the client itself "Top 2 Paid" or Absurdly Top Heavy HighRoller, etc something along those lines. Why wouldn't you tell players about this payout structure when posters were giving you feedback and helping with the NJCOP Schedule?

A simple post on here stating the HighRoller would have a different payout scale would have gone a long way imo.