This is false. Well before 9pm myself and others had already expressed interest to late reg the tourney. We were at the table and stated that we would immediately buy-in to get it going, but you refused to revoke the decision to cancel.

Rake isn't free. Carry on.

A guarantee is a guarantee. A word that should be used with great caution.

I only see very unlikely scenarios alá Force majeure as reasons for cancelling tourneys promoted with a guarantee. Even "minimum x players" is not sufficient for cancelling imo, because then we would see lots of shady stuff like "Powerfest/XL Inferno Main Event $11,000,000 GTD" with a "minimum 11,000 entries" text barely visible somewhere, allowing them to cancel if entries isn't met.

Any guarantee, cancelled on any site (not being force majeure), should be fined properly by their regulator imo.

They've covered the guarantee so it's not an overlay. Applying your rationale, if it was $500+$150 juice you'd be happy regging if only 85 entrants in a $50K Gtd with 10 seconds left, even though the house are taking in $55,900 from a total of 86 entrants.

Perhaps I'm being unfair singling out Party, I've seen other online&live rooms use the same ruse, but Party regularly Tweet this kind of "overlay", plus there's usually 5+ minutes left to reg so it's false promoting IMO.

Best case scenario is you are effectively paying less average juice per player, but that's all.

Where was "minimum 7 entries" shown on the advertising? How would a player know this was the minimum before making a decision whether to journey there to play?

(At least you're responding to players concerns, unlike some sites I could mention!)

I don't understand why 30 mins later makes any difference. To an outsider looking in this really smells of using a very convenient (but unfair) rule to avoid playing.

You even say yourself that you waited 15 mins and had 5 players, it was then decided to wait 15 mins more. At this point 7 players register within that 15 mins and the game gets cancelled anyway? what is the point in even leaving it open for late reg then?

Also as per above - we admit there was a miscommunication between teams (partypoker Live and the Playground) and that is being dealt with and also we apologize for the players misunderstanding of the min start rule

I just love good old "corporate speak". A bunch of words that say nothing and basically allows them to weasel out of poor situations that they create.

HOw can the players misunderstand info that has not been conveyed in any way to them?

How was it dealt with? 5 lashes with a wet tongue noodle?

When the corporations tell a falsehood it is always described as a miscommunication.

I personally did not refuse anything I am not and have not been at the Playground

My feedback and statement was based on comments and feedback from the partypoker LIVE rep at the event

Feedback has been shared and both the LIVE team and the Playgorund team will have a discussion on how to best ensure the same does not happen again


This was a live sat - not an online event
It was a side event offered at the venue running alongside other party events and the Playground World Cup of Cards series


As I stated - we will ensure this is VERY clear going forward
All events have a min guarantee - we will try our best to ensure all players are catered for and information is freely available and correct
Its not often we come up against such issues - and steps will be taking to ensure the same does not happen again

This is insufficient. Party poker should offer restitution, such as either re-scheduling this event to another night or increasing the Sept 5 guarantee from 5 to 10 packages.

If you do the latter I personally guarantee that I'll play. That's a promise.

Also, I'd like to offer some advice: live satellites such as these need on-the-ground hustle to be successful, which was markedly absent on Saturday night.

I went to the Caribbean Poker Party last year, and with a potential Main Event overlay looming, the excellent Simon Trumper hustled like a bandit to get enough satellites running to successfully make up the numbers.

Put in the effort, Party, and you'll get the rewards. Stiff your customers and you'll continue to get threads like these.

Good answers, ty

lol get a grip dude

even if you think it is weak by players to walk around and wait until registration is about to close to get max value that is the risk the casino/online site should have to take on.

if you are going to allow late registration so that you can cover guarantees then late registration should also allow for you to potentially miss guarantees.

casinos being 100% protected needs to end.

Party obv dropped the ball here but OP should be more mad at himself than Party for missing out on what would prob have been a huge overlay because he wanted to take advantage of the late reg.

Seems like there where quite a few other players there doing the exact same thing and as a consequence you all missed out. For sure the 7 people that actually bothered to reg ahead of time to try and get the game going have every right to be livid. However if people don't do this and instead wait to late reg when they can gain an advantage by knowing if its going to overlay and know how soft the remaining field is well I don't have much sympathy for them.

There will be no further compensation - we consider the issue closed
Regarding your feedback noted
As I said we will work with our live event partners going forward to ensure the same does not reoccur


Your welcome

you're

spotted but too late for an edit

Well you went with the "miscommunication" route like PS did after ditching SNE, unlike you may or may not have learned in your high school marketing lessons this is a sure way to get people fired up. "Well we would have done the right thing but yeah miscommunication so yeah.... not our fault....communication and stuff"

Compensation after the fact isn't going to work but can you at least be honest and tell us that your company shafted some people? Dismissing it isn't going to work in your favor.

There's nothing shady going on here.

I can confirm with OP that there was interest from enough players to late reg this tourney based on the info provided to us. Players were told the tourney would start once 7 players were registered and that the start time would be pushed back in 15min blocks to allow for the minimum amount of entires to be met.

At 8pm there were only 3 players registered. Around 8:30pm there were the required 7 players registered but the clock was not running. I went to the table to ask a friend what was going on and he told me to reg ASAP as they said they now needed 10 players for it to run or party would cancel. I went to cashier but was informed the tourney was already cancelled.

Got back to the table and players pleaded for the tournament to start as a clock running with 7 players and a 5pkg guarantee would generate a lot of late registrants. There were 3-5 people ready to register right there on the spot if they would just start! Ultimately we were told the tourney would run with a 3 package guarantee if players agreed. Of course we weren't happy about dishonouring the guarantee but after discussing it with one another we agreed to run the tourney for 3 packages. Party cancelled the tourney anyway - saying that they needed 10 players registered at 8pm for all this tournament to run. Their reasoning was that in ONLINE tourneys there is always a minimum amount of players required for their guarantees to run (If you check their lobby guarantees with 10packages require 11players min, while guarantees with 5packages require 6 players min). This information wasn't written or provided anywhere for us in regards to this LIVE satellite except for the fact we were told the tourney would start once 7 players registered!

All this being said, I still think partypoker, with the exception of this big hiccup, has been running great promotions and series for our community. I'll continue to support them as opposed to rival sites for reasons that have already been mentioned ITT.

Maybe don't stand around unregistered next time? 'Expressing interest' is different than registering.

Since the event was being hosted at our venue, we find it unfair that partypoker be the only ones getting ‘heat’ and providing explanations to the poker community. People have already stated that they're not happy with the reason provided, but it is nevertheless the truth that this was due to a simple (albeit with unfortunate consequences) miscommunication between partypoker and Playground Poker Club.

Now, since the miscommunication was on our part, partypoker and Playground both agree that the players should not be penalized. We have rescheduled the tournament to this Saturday, September 2nd, at 8pm. The tournament will have the same 5 seat guarantee, and the 7 players who were registered will each receive a free $1,650 entry. There is no minimum player requirement to start, and the same will apply to the next CPP satellite on September 5th.

Whether it be a $250K overlay on the Grand Prix, or the daily “Click n Collect” tickets on partypoker, we don’t think anyone can argue that partypoker is anything but generous and honest. The incident that occurred on Saturday in no way reflects the standard that both of our companies have worked hard in establishing.

We look forward to welcoming you all to Playground Poker Club, and once again apologize for the unfortunate miscommunication.

The hate is funny from people saying they probably wanted to greedily save money when considering online they have overlays or at least used to have overlays in essentially every mtt every day and honoured them. Obv probably a poor decision probably made by some live manager without much foresight into his decision making.

Well played!

A big + 1. I think Playground is far better than Party.

I am/was the 3rd person to register, at approximately 7:50 pm.
I asked playground tournament director at 7:55pm what happens if there is not enough at 8pm? He said it will start when 7 people register, I asked, "no matter what?" He said yes. "We will wait until 7 register".

We were very mislead by Playground because playground staff were mislead by Party Poker Live personal. Party Poker rep and her boss should have never cancelled this tournament!