Sadly, but there is one more pretty sh***y scamming scandal up there

Have flicked through this article and got that this guy Thomas Kremser was EPT director for a while and is quitting his job now, but there is more to it :

"Shortfalls were discovered in EPT prize pools – meaning, in essence, players were paid out short"

Is there anybody honest in poker world?

Source : http://www.pokerq4.com/kremser-gate-...ools-cover-up2

There was already a thread on this subject. He gave an extensive interview to the German site HochGepokert which you can read here. He also answered my questions in English which you can read here.

I can confirm that there was a shortfall discovered in the EPT Madrid 5K event. I cashed in the event. About a week later, I received a phone call from a PokerStars representative stating that 60,000 additional chips had been discovered in play (equivalent to 4 starting stacks of 15K), and that PokerStars would be adding 20K to the prize pool and I would receive my proportional share of that 20K, which was 300 Euro IIRC. I did in fact receive this additional money.

If you're gonna quote an obscure source and copy the salacious-sounding sentence with a thread title that implicates the director, at least include the more exculpatory one that immediately follows it. "Is there anybody honest", indeed.

"At this stage it is important to stress that there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Thomas Kremser or TK Poker Events or indeed PokerStars, however, the news does the beg question how this could have happened, where the money went to and just how many EPT prize pools are now in question?"

Title should be changed.

Also, if they checked the playerslist and the money, it's way more likely that something went terribly wrong with a color-up or that someone added extra chips and that this was not a way to try to make money by the tournament staff. I have been to 3 seasons of EPT's and never heard of anything like this because it would be so dumb, since it's always on the clock how many people entered and thus we can see how many chips should be into play.

Edit: or that ghoststacks were not taken out of play.

It would be an incredible coincidence if a color up mistake resulted in an exact multiple of extra starting stacks being in play.

I would like a Stars representative to come in and state what if anything this has to do with Kremser no longer being the EPT TD and what investigative steps were taken to determine whether this occurred in prior EPT events.

I think the 4 ghoststacks not taken out of play is a good possibility. I linked the THomas Kremser interview, but a Stars rep. coming it can;t hurt anyone of course although I already know what he's going to say.

There appears to be another way this alleged incident(s) could have occurred or what the original rumours may have been about and then there was a bad case of chinese whispers.

It would seem to be the standard practice that around 3% of the EPT prize pool is awarded to the tournament staff and split between the TD and them.

Perhaps this is where the missing money incident(s) may have happened? Perhaps not in the prize pool itself as it would seem dangerous to very publicly steal from that.

If this happened at one tournament it's bad but not a big deal imo, a mistake to learn from. If this happened on multiple tournaments and was left uncovered for a while, wow.

if you're talking about the rake, i'd be surprised if they forgot to account for that .

Kremser can easily say whatever the **** he wants without recourse. Stars can duck the issue, but they'd be on shaky legal ground if they made statements about this that aren't true. Which is why I want them to come in and address the issue directly.

[ ] scandal

Sounds to me like a mistake that was handled pretty quickly. Obviously you want mistakes to not happen, but calling it a scandal is a stretch, IMO.

Or am I missing something?

do you think pokerstars would cut off with them after 7 seasons because they "made a mistake"
its a casino with cameras you know.

He wasn't talking about the rake. Live tournaments typically set aside 3% of the money from the prize pool, in other words the non-raked portion. It goes towards paying the tournament staff (not including the dealers). On top of that, the players who win money are expected to leave a small percentage of their winnings as a tip for the dealers. Then, depending on where you live, you still have to pay taxes on your winnings....arghh! It's a wonder anyone can profit playing live donkaments!

....wait, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, this "scandal". Sounds like anything but. Move along, nothing more to see.

Since when does an honest mistake in one tournament caught and rectified by mgmt and paid out appropriately (or probably even at a loss to mgmt) qualify as a scandal?

Much ado about nothing. Close thread.

no, he didnt.
nvg-tards

Well I think the thing to question is that why is the TD fired very soon after this "mistake" occurred? I think some people want to know if stars did some more investigating and came to the conclusion that other prize pools were previously shorted and the TD may have stolen from those. If that is the case Stars should have to make those prize pools right and award the people that cashed in those events more money(the way you could tell is to just look at the chip stacks of players with 6 people left etc).

Obviously if this is true Stars would prefer to avoid answering that question because it's gonna cost them money out of there pockets. Although, if it were true that the TD has stolen from previous prize pools Stars will have to award more money to players. Stars would then be more apt to go after the TD legally to make him repay any money discovered lost, something I'm sure they would rather just avoid.

I might have missed some info or some relevant posts, but where was it said that he got fired? He isn't the TD for next season that's a fact but are you sure he didn't renew his contract to pursue other goals, wanted new challenges, had private reasons not related to this matter at all?

But wait, shouldn't part of the the "raked portion" be the amount that pays for them to run the tournament, including paying dealers & floorstaff? I fail to see why this should be separate/additional.

Ah you're right, I for some reason thought he was fired. If he wasn't fired than I guess my scenario doesn't hold as much merit.

The decision to not work together in season 8 was made long before (the stuff in) Madrid.

Interviewer should have followed up "I made my decision long before" answer with a question about whether he told Stars long before. Stars seems to be totally scrambling to put together a tournament staff in the first EPTs this season, which makes it more likely that the parting between EPT and Kremser was a last second thing.

Yea just really doesn't make sense to make a last minute change after 7 successful years. I know a lot of what I said in my first post is just speculation but I wouldn't be shocked if some of it were true. I guess the only way to find out is for Stars to answer some questions but I doubt that will happen.

Did Men the master play in this ?

+1