How much money is 2+2 putting up to help provide a venue not at Venetian.

Talk is cheap, it takes money to buy whiskey...

Maybe this is why Adelson is successful he puts his money behind his ideals instead of just taking about it.

Unless those "some" were competitors of Mr. Dreyfus taking a shot at him, why would anyone consider this a publicity stunt?

Especially if he comes through and funds this conference somewhere else?

Mason- could you explain how that works? I don't play online at all, but thought that the TDA was just about live casino tourneys. Why would there be any less of a need for the TDA if Adelson stops online poker in the US?

Thanks.

I had a brief conversation with him on Twitter a few days ago, after I suggested he, among others, should be more concerned with stopping RAWA than how long players tank.

He appeared to be woefully unaware of the issue or why he should be concerned.

If online goes away, the live game will suffer, as the game as a whole will decline in popularity. To believe online poker is not a big part of what drove the WSOP ME field from 300 to 6000 is naive.

How quickly the live players forget how much online helped their games. I for one, and I feel confident many many others, would never have played poker other than random home games, if it weren't for online. I certainly wouldn't be planning trips to vegas for poker.

Of course thats true, but it has nothing to do with the initial comment. Mason said "If Adelson is successful, there may not be much need for a TDA".
The TDA existed before the poker boom, because land based poker tournaments existed before the boom. If online poker is outlawed in the US (which it basically is today), land based tournaments will continue to exist. And the TDA will still exist.

The poker industry has long been strangely divided. People that play poker have no real clue that there is a very corporate environment actually running the industry. Matt is involved in the "playing" part of the industry. He is on the ground, managing tournaments, building structures and interacting with players. That is what his job is and what he is paid to do.
While it serves his long term interests well to want the best for online poker, to think he should drop his daily duties of running tournaments to be concerned with stopping RAWA is super naive.

You can call me Alex.
I offered it already during the Awards in LA to Matt and his team. I offered it end of last year to host during the conference+awards. You always like to see the devil where its not. Ask Matt.

I wasn't the one who made the comment about your offer a publicity stunt Alex.

The logical time to hold an event like the TDA summit would be during the WSOP. Why only the Venetian would host the event for free is what you should be wondering about.

2 trips(total of ~8 weeks) to LV since Adelson began his campaign and I have played 0 hands in any of his properties. That said, my small attempts to get friends to boycott has mostly fallen on death ears.

+1

He can still run tournaments there and do what he wants to do, but to hold a big event there is just such a slap in the face to poker. Massive slap.

Truth to be told, because TDA likely never ask someone else

Lol I enjoyed this.

It's naive to think that without US online poker there will be less of a need for the TDA. Live tourneys will still be run, and rules and procedures for them will still need to be addressed. And it will still be in the best interest of the players who play in live tourneys to have standardized rules.

Mason Malmuth trying to say there will be no need for a TDA if there is no online poker is the biggest "WTF?" in this thread... LOL.

Guess what, there already is no online poker. There is still a TDA.

Sure, but will it still have 1400 members, or closer to the 21 members it had when it started in 2001?

Why should the TDA have asked anyone else. They've presumably had this scheduled at the V for some time. Perhaps even before Sheldon became "poker enemy #1".

The TDA which is a low/no funded group has a free room given to them for their annual meeting. They say thanks and move on to dealing with the agenda. If you find it so important for it to be elsewhere, find out their requirements, make the arrangements, and then tell Matt where to be if its that important to him to be somewhere other than the V.

Is it fair to ask them, at this late date, to move this meeting somewhere else this year?

Seems to me the tone is set; anyone not wanting to feel the wrath of 2+2 should not be seen playing any DSE events this summer at the V.

+1

Except that poker is contracting at a significant rate. It just so happens that I do talk to many people in the industry and optimism is not heard much, and this goes for both online and live, and yes the two are now connected probably more than you think.

MM

And to conclude, based on a tweet by Matt Savage, unless I misread the tweet, it appears the meeting will be moved out of The Venetian.


MM

This isn't true. The 2011 Summit was held at the Rio but the costs were too prohibitive for us to have it there in 2013. We asked multiple properties and price quotes came back at $20,000 or more. The Venetian offered to donate the conference space for two days, provide all A/V equipment (this alone is more than $5K), provide beverages and snacks, set-up crew, etc.

The TDA has never charged anything for attendees or for any services. We keep it free so that any tournament director can attend. For the first 10 years, the Board of Directors paid all expenses of the TDA. We accepted the Venetian's sponsorship in 2013 and they treated everyone like royalty. They offered to donate the services again this year.

I love the passion that posters are displaying here, but I think the people who are criticizing Matt Savage should rethink their position. We respect your right to state your opinion, but I am surprised by the personal assaults. The fact is that no other property stepped up to host us in 2015 or in the past other than in 2011 when the Rio hosted the Summit. Following the announcement yesterday, Alex Dreyfus offered to fund the Summit, so we are able to look at other options.

Many people think that the TDA is supporting the Venetian. It is actually the other way around.

A legit criticism is not a personal assault.