Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 2,415
Ok so I didn't post this straight after the event as I wanted to chill out and reflect a little bit, but after chatting to some fellow poker players recently they suggested that I definitely post this here for the community to see/discuss. Maybe this is the right or wrong forum so mods please move if needed to MTTc or NVG whatever. Sorry for the wall of text, cliffs at the bottom.
So this is at UKIPT Nottingham a month ago, record breaking field etc, I've busted the main and want to play the 300 side event. The 150 bounty the night before sold out 2 hours in advance with a massive waiting list so we decided to direct buy-in online with the Pokerstars client to make sure we had our seats sorted. We go down about 2 hours early and we have to collect a piece of paper from the Pokerstars desk and go take it to the Dusk til Dawn desk to register.
Firstly the place is packed and nobody as the desk knows what they are doing. There are about 4 or 5 different queues formed and nobody knows what's going on. 20 minutes later we hand over our tickets. I was directly behind my friend Tim in the queue, and this old Scottish dude behind me was chatting away to us about how he final tabled the side event last night cool story bro. So we go off for dinner and come back for the event and the seating draw comes up. I find myself on the same table as Tim in seat 3, who was in the queue in front of me, and I have position on him in seat 4. About 5 minutes later the old Scottish dude comes and sits in seat 5, which I thought was strange as we were all in the queue together, one after the other.
I look round at the rest of the table, see two people I know from 2p2 and Rupinder Bedi (UKIPT livepro) and thought it was pretty tough for a side event! It turns out that everyone at the table bought in directly online via the Pokerstars client. Another friend who bought in cash, comes over and tells us how soft his table is blahblahblah. Anyway I can't stop thinking that this seating draw is fixed, and then a couple of other mates are sitting next to each other at the table next to us, and it turns out that they were behind each other at the registration desk too.
So at the first break I go and explain this to the Tournament Director (Toby Stone) who told me he was in charge of the side event. I explained to him the above, and he tells me it's pure coincidence, everyone is seated randomly regardless of how they bought in. I ask him if he's sure and he said yes. I don't want to make too much of a fuss and let it affect my play. I then ask the two girls at the Pokerstars desk thinking that Pokerstars might not have informed the TD about this, and then tell me it's completely random too. Just at the start of the level I then find one of the Pokerstars reps who I've seen at UKIPTs before and usually chat to a bit and ask him. He's the one that tells me that they thought they weren't going to have enough space for everyone, so that they had to reserve specific seats for Pokerstars direct buy-ins, and as it turns out, someone had reserved our whole table for DBIs.
Now, again I'm not trying to make a fuss but I would strongly argue that those who have direct bought £330 straight from Pokerstars is going to be a lot tougher that a DTD regs table. I suggest to him that it's not really fair and that they should have at least made this known to those who have DBI online, and at the registration desk. Everyone in the tournament had a right to a random seat draw regardless of how they bought in. The rest of the table caught on to the fact that everyone had bought in online and we had been placed here in order.
If I knew this in advance I definitely wouldn't have regged online, nor would I have stood behind my mate in the queue.
Does this happen regularly? or has it happened at any other tournaments? I've heard of late-registrations all being banged on to the same table, but this was all pre-registered and we turned up 2 hours early. Am I making too much of a fuss? or do people have the right to know about this? I think UKIPT were doing it because it was an easy option and they couldn't be bothered putting their pool of players in with DTDs. Just wanted to give people a heads-up if you direct buy-in to another other UKIPT side-events. Not sure what their policy is with the main event.
side-note: dusk-til-dawn we're so cramped with space and people wanting to late-reg this event, that they paused the clock during the middle of a level and told everyone else to take a break while they could deal with the demand for late-reg and sort it out!!
What would you do in this situation?
So for tl;dr the cliffs. Again mods please move to an appropriate sub-forum
*Bought it to UKIPT side event online at Pokerstars
*Seated next to friend, placed at the table in the order we queued up, old man behind us
*Whole table bought in directly online, thinks start to smell fishy
*Turns out specific seats are reserved for direct buy-ins, including our whole table
*Tournament Director puts in down to co-incedence
*Did TD know about this? Or is it Pokerstars or DTDs wrong doing?
*Be careful when directly buying in for UKIPT side events
*Is this a big issue? Plenty of softer tables out there
*UKIPT being lazy? Does this happen anywhere else?
ty, muppet
