Hey there,

there are reports that the MGM-Casino anounced and guaranteed a prize pool of 173,000$ at their last tournament of the summer series:
"Tournament of Champions"

MGM took 1,5% of each entry the whole seriees from each Buy in (with over 173 Events)

Players report that while the tournament already was running, with half the field eliminated the floor just changed
the pricepool from 173k down to 113k, and taking 60,000$ out of the guaranteed prize pool.

The floor explained it needs this 60k to pay the leaderboard of the series, but this was never announced like this, anounced was the following:

"Each of the 15 players also qualify for the July 17 $173,000 Guarantee Grand Tournament of Champions"

https://mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com/cont...tures-2022.pdf

Also each announcement, poster and advertisement of the series announced the tournament of champion as a 173k guaranteed tournament.
a lot of player played the daily smaller 100+ tournaments just to win a seat in the 173k event. i even know one player from french, who did qualify and then flew back to vegas
just to play this event. (The Event had a Value of like 100-150 runner with 173k prizepool so like 1k-1,7k value)

That the MGM floor just can take 1/3 of the guaranteed price pool and is getting away with this with no public awareness is a real hit for the live
tournament scene.

It would be great if someone with a voice puts a spotlight on this.

each tournament sheet stated that 1.5% will be withold for the tournament of Champion, it is just such a clear scam, they collected 1,5% of each buy in and then payed in the tournament of champion tournament just 113k and kept the rest to pay leaderboard or whatever.

SenorGuzman is betting it's not a scam.

That’s shady, a poker friend won a seat through one of the small events…he didn’t play because he’s a rec and didn't want to take the time off sad to see he would have been ripped off had he flown back…

It was recently on twitter someone called out the MGM for not honoring their daily 3k guarantee lol. They didn't have enough players so they paid 2 spots, 1st was $1000 and 2nd was $500.

If I was playing tournaments out in Vegas I'd be definitely crossing MGM off my list.

That’s pretty shady

pathetic
hope gaming steps in

mgm is such a dirtbag company

boycott time

So at MGM it’s a Guaranteed Prize Pool as long as there’s no overlay. Nice.

Lol right. Total f'n scam and joke

Place should definitely be boycotted.

Reminds me of the foxwoods tournament where there was a snowstorm so the 200k guarantee or whatever "would not be honored"

Lots of people braved the snow to make it there, thinking there'd be a nice overlay

and what's the deal with those meetup games

MGM is such a **** scum joke company thats trying its hardest to ruin Vegas that this doesn't surprise me at all... They are the first ones to introduce resort fees, parking fees, etc. which sucks because then all the other casinos just follow along then next thing you know MGMs new nickel and diming is the new norm because everyone else just follows along. GG Vegas.

Been saying it for a while now (half jokingly) how i cant wait until MGM introduces a cover charge at the door just to enter the casino... Cant Wait!

I don't have a dog in this fight but after reading the thread, if MGM is promoting an event with a guaranteed prize pool and then suddenly changing the rules or trying to justify either not paying in full or a reducing the payout at their discretion, it seems like the Nevada gaming commission should be notified about what's going on.

https://gaming.nv.gov/index.aspx?page=24

i feel like i typed this myself.
**** mgm.

Their new TD Justin Hammer on twitter always has an excuse as to why the MGM didn't do anything wrong. He sounds more like the MGM's PR guy than a Tournament Director. I think he's the same dude who Prime Social got rid of in Houston because he kept missing his huge guaranteed tournaments. So MGM hired him.

When the gaming commission gets involved, I'm sure that people way above the TD will be made aware of the complaint. If the gaming commission works anything like the state public service commissions do, once they investigate, a written response from MGM will be required. You can be sure that corporate MGM will be less than joyous when they have to respond to a complaint (and potential fine).

The worst part about an overlay is It leads to no guaranteed events in future.

Of course mgm is going to try and angle and get their 60k back.

I’m sure it was well within the tos.

It’s also par the course to have poker treated as a loss leader. None of this suprises me.

People in this thread are not even reading the original post. This has nothing to do with an overlay. This was a tournament that they held money out of every other tournament in the series for to meet the guarantee. The issue is that the structure sheet reads as the tournament itself is $173k guaranteed but also says that "There’s $30,000 in cash payouts for the top-15 finishers in the NLH-Only Player of the Series race and the Mixed-Games-Only Player of the Series race, the winner of each receiving $10,000." which is worded badly but seems to mean that $60k will be used to payout those 2 leaderboards. It's definitely not clear that the $60k comes out of the $173k though, which is why people are upset.

it was advertised everywhere as a 173k tournament online and also on their own schedule sheets printed or posted in their own casino. Also the staff said it has a 173k pricepool. Also the tournament was already running for 2 hours and publiced a 173k pricepool, with all prices displayed, ALSO the first 30-50 player who already busted (the tournament was a all in the money event with increasing cashes) did already receive the payout confirm to the 173k AND THEN they changed it suddenly whil tournament is running, decreased the payout to 113k , too of this 113k all the already paid finishers (who by math of course received too much then) and then calculated new way lower prices for the one remaining in the tournament.

This is the cleares of clear scams and for people who dont know, this was not a small series or small casino in Vegas, besides the WSOP Series , the Venetian and Wynn Series this was a Series with over 173 Events with buy ins up to 5k and more then 10 Millions of guaranteed pricepools. And they took for 2 month 1,5% of every single Buy In, and every sheet stated these 1,5% from every bullet played in the two month will go to the 173k guaranteed torunament of champions.

I know a lot of people just playing the low tournaments at midnight the 100 rebuy, because they have small fields just to win an event to get in this 173k tournament.

Also this event was at the same time as the last 2 WSOP events (final day of 5k and final day of 1,5k the closer) so people made a decicion and skipped this wsop
event to play the 173k guaranteed because it was expected that this has only about 100 Players (i think 110 started). One guy one a seat to the 173k guaranteed in the first month of the series, flew back home to france and just came back to vegas again for this 173k beliving it has a 1700$ EV- Value and will make up for his travel expenses.

This is a total scam of one of the most know tournament directors in Vegas and a total scam of one of the biggest series of the summer and MGM Casinos.

This really needs to be investigated by some people with a voice , Joey Ingram, Doug Polk or some human beeing with a interest to fight for a fair tournament scene.

This in fact ruined the summer for a lot of players.

Pretty shady. Seemed like all the 1.5% was supposed to go to the tourney (less sure on phrasing) as well so 173k was the advertised minimum.

FWIW, same with stuff like parking fees, cover charges to enter a casino aren't uncommon in the rest of the world.

With this $173k price pool, I wonder if somebody decided last minute "our wording about the 2x30k for leaderboards is ambiguous enough to get away with it" and if they contacted somebody higher up about it. Potentially even legal? I'm already not a fan of "guaranteed price pool 100k*" where the * says only if they collect at least 100k in buy-ins. But this one here looks to be on another level of crap.

Yeah I was just clarifying that it wasn't an overlay not being paid, it's a whole different type of issue. I agree that it's really shitty. I think they probably intended the 60k for the leaderboards to come from the 173k (because they certainly weren't just gonna pay it out of their own profits) but they definitely did not make that clear in the structure sheet and advertisements. It's clearly stated that it's a 173k guarantee tournament. The way they changed it while the tourney was already in progress is super shady too, like even the people running the tourney must've assumed it was a 173k prize pool and then some manager probably came and told them to take the 60k out. I think the players in the tourney should definitely get the gaming commission involved in this one.

Justin Hammer on twitter claiming the 60k was paid out but he acknowledges the portion that could be won from playing was displayed "incorrectly".

Lol such total bs. Um yeah Justin the wording was a little off sure. Give me a break. Total shady scam by MGM and the TD himself Justin Hammer.

Good advice. Make a complaint to the Gaming Control Board to get this addressed. This might get real traction if addressed now, there, not just bit*hed about on social media.
The tourney was in Nevada, not unregulated Texas.

Unless someone brings this up to the Board, Justin will proceed to helm MGM tourneys in this manner in his new position. (OTOH, he may just need to be educated a bit on the way things are supposed to run in Nevada.)