very sick, but not suprising. Ive heard so much storys like these from casinos in france and how the french regs can do just about anything.

This is why Matt Savage should be running every poker tournament in the world. Seriously when can the cloning begin?

I don't get the problem in your post and i read it twice.

I wonder if Partouche is going to respond.
At least now the story is beginning to appear in different poker news media. I hope their rep will suffer.

Doesn't really help the fact that French are stereotyped being selfish and arrogant.

the thing is the stereotype is correct in this case.

i worked in France for 9 months and found that even if they could speak English a lot of people were reluctant too. i got responses like "you English?" me- no im Irish, "you speak good English for being Irish" in a hostile manner.

oh..they have holes in the ground for toilets (just wanted to confirm that).

Hi, just read the post and some comments and wanted to react about this.
First, I think people saying "french are cheaters, dirty and arrogant" or **** like this are just beeing racist in some way, and even if I frequently feel ashamed about the behavior of some of my fellow citizens, I guess this must be the same in every country.

On the other hand, I must agree when I hear that regular's behavior in french casinos is very frequently out of line, and that floor managers in partouche casinos are mostly incompetent and sometimes dishonest. I live in south of france and have been quite a few times in partouche casinos, and the ruling in case of problem are mostly done in favor of regulars, even if they are wrong. Some day, a floor manager explained me that he couldn't do otherwise, because he needed to take care of his best customers...

I can only give you one advice : don't go to Partouche, and check the reputation of other casinos in south of France before going, if you don't want things like this to happen. If you're willing to go and feel confortable about live play (always keep your cards until the dealer takes them for ex), you will find some very +EV games, because most of the regs are just mafia guys or rich fish who don't have any clue about what they're doing, and of course full of tells.

the rules ins this are REALLY that simple. WE´re on VERY wrong way if we begin to play poker in favor of the quality of the casino-staff, - instead of playing by the poker-rules.

I am totally in for an international boycut, but untill I hear other stories, I would suggest only to boycut the Casino in Cannes.

very well written post mickey, i know i almost surely won't be coming back here unless some changes are made. i saw quite a few obvious blunders by floormen that just looked so ****ing dumb standing there thinking about what the right ruling was, sad thing is they're running the show.

one was after a hand went to showdown someone was bitching about not seeing the other guys hand or something, and the dealer has dealt like 4 cards out and now they all just stop and start yelling at each other, this goes on for like 5 minutes while me and muckducks are just asking them politely at first to discuss it after the hand because the pot had already been shipped and there was nothing more to do(although i know realize they could just probably find it in their hearts to rationalize a penalty by taking some chips off the top of the guys stack), and eventually start raising our voices. the language barrier is really brutal and although i know it's not anyones 'fault' they really just don't try to do anything to shorten it. i have been extremely polite and try to inform everyone i deal with that i realize there is a language barrier but i'm just looking to get what i came here to do done and not step on any toes in the process.

another instance was where utg opens to 6k at 12-2400 and the sb announces raise and throws out 7200. there were already a few obvious problems at this table where i felt like i was more or less watching over everything to make sure nothing got ****ed up, so i tell them he has to make it 9600, the opener informs me of this silly france rule where it has to be 12k, ok, but then the floor is called and since the dealer didn't announce the open raise he says the player doesn't have to reraise. floorman tries to be like nah it's cool you can fold but i'm like bro he threw chips across the line AND said raise he clearly can't fold. he decides call is reasonable and i can see why they make it a call but it's still just the players fault and he should suffer the consequences(i mean obviously, but he did later anyway when i sucked out on him), though in this case the player was definitely not in on anything with the floor and was in the upper echelon of french people i've met here.

it's going to be painful not coming back here next year because the main was soooo soft.

Funny how this thread has turned out into a general France hate thread.
I'm reading such ******ed stereotyped comments.

Partouche is shady: ok. Poker in France is terribad: yes. What happened at MM's table is unfair: yes.

Lol at all the BS hate and I've lived in France for 35 years and never seen toilets with a hole in the ground. You guys having seen this must be at least 70.

meh in aviation club on my table in 10k euro wpt, french dude wasnt in his chair after last card was dealt, he was in bb, people had already folded and the dealer kept his cards for him. i asked wtf and they just waved at me like i was a homeless person asking for change.

on a previous day i ran back to my table in time to get my hand after 2 cards had been delt but not to everyone and my hand is instakilled . rigged

Just want to add that I was in France this summer and still saw at least one hole-in-the-ground toilet.

I love France, but their toilets, and apparently their poker tournaments, often suck.

I thought this was standard if you were the bb? It's standard in Sydney at least, it happened to me yesterday and I was allowed to play my hand.

I played the Partouche Main event and busted yesterday ,
i'm really sorry off what op said but i must agree on the fact that the organisation of the tournament is realy bad. But u americans have to realise that poker is quite new in france it's not like in US where this game is played since decades, it explains the " ******ed " behaviors of some french players and the bad quality off some floorman, poker is just quite a new game for most of frech people, so deal with it and adapt yourself.

But one thing is funny with most off u americans ( i'm french ) you think that all the world should be like the usa ... lol@ the floorman speaks in french , you are in France lol, what language do you expect them to speak ??? when I go to the usa I try to speak your language, when you come here you act like like you're at home .. but u're not. ( i heard several times some americans saying things like " ******ed french donk" between themselves at the table thinking noone was understanding what they were saying ... )

I live in south off France and americans are received friendly when they come here so lol@so many haters ... u are just ignorants, don't ask why most off the world hates u after that ...

sorry for my english

I agree with you that people shouldn't expect to speak english everywhere and that you are right that it is in france. However, this is a high buyin tournament (and a high fee) that is advertised in english so I don't think it's completely unreasonable to expect some sort of help with the language barrier. On top of that, the biggest problem is not that the decisions and communications were in french, but from the sounds of it, the tournament staff went out of their way to inconvenience people who don't speak french (which is somewhat typical of my experiences in france - ****ty service, etc). If you went to america (or anywhere else) people would try to accommodate you if they could, while the french just seem to make things more difficult.

I agree with u, in High Buy-in tournament like this, the floorman should speak english tht's just obvious, but one bad thing in france is that most off people don't understand english at all, maybe that's why you had bad experiences down here, believe me it's not like people don't want to help you, they just don't understand a word of what you're saying lol

BS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_France

Main foreign language(s) English (34%)
Spanish (13%)
German (8%)

The french are arrogant bitter theyre language didnt become worldly spoken. And thats why they dont learn it properly in school. Its about time they adjust, and not the world.
(theyve just had to weak military strategy, and lost again and again)

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well this is obviously BS and you know it.

Yeah you're right they don't like YOU

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia

Ugh, add Sydney to the list of places I'm not going to play poker.

@Shataarr.

first you say nobody understands English in France, so i posted so simple facts that you have not disputed (wow a first for me), and somehow you feel posting a silly picture or calling me paranoid changes those facts.

wrong.

Thinkin the french (or any other nationality) wont help u cause theyre rude or unhelpful is beyond stupidity, they ARE generaly bad in english.

Have countless episodes trying to help french tourists and its often not that easy.