. This tweet showed up at 11:58am.
Receiving lots of inquiries from players unaware of start time. New start time now 4pm for event #8 turbo nlhe. Apologize for confusion. RT
— Jack Effel (@WSOPTD) October 17, 2015
— Jack Effel (@WSOPTD) October 17, 2015
When I responded that I was already en route and asked when this change happened, Jack responded:
Go back. We had to move time. It appeared everyone fell asleep. Sorry Terrence. https://t.co/hhKxYVVTnp
— Jack Effel (@WSOPTD) October 17, 2015
I want to express my disappointment in Jack’s decision to change a noon start time, and announce it at 11:58am — two minutes before cards were supposed to be in the air. According to Jack, only 50 players were registered at noon for the turbo, leading him and other management to believe that they must have thought it was a 4pm start.
I think making a last-minute change to the start time based on a guess that players simply misread the schedule is a terrible idea. Here are just a few reasons why:
1) Many pros/regulars tend to buy in late for a 1k event. I was literally getting in a cab when I saw the announcement and was planning to show up around 12:20pm.
2) Many recreational/infrequent players don’t necessarily follow Jack on Twitter, and would not know of the change. They would only see the website and/or the print material distributed in the Spielbank casino.
3) The change was announced so late (again, 11:58am) that even if you do follow Jack, you likely couldn’t do anything about it.
4) Jack himself sent out a reminder tweet (now deleted) at about 11:15am reminding people that the start time was noon and late reg closes at 3:45pm.
5) Even if there *are* a great number of people who thought the actual start time was 4pm (and I dispute this is the case), those people would have until 3:45pm to register anyway.
6) 50 players is actually an awful lot to go tell “sorry, go take a hike for four hours”. I also suspect a very high percentage of these 50 players are recreational players as opposed to influential circuit regulars. In general, I think recreational players get screwed over a lot by pandering to vocal pros and it’s one of the things I like least about poker.
I think it would be hypocritical of me to be this critical and still patronize the event, so I’m choosing to skip the event. I both enjoy playing in turbo events, and feel I have good ev in them, so my decision is certainly harming me more than them. I do feel like it is a bad look for them. But more importantly, I feel like an ass if I take the time to do all this complaining and then hand over my 1100 Euros anyway like an obedient sheep. I love the WSOP but not more than not appearing to be a hypocrite. Today I simply don’t feel like the WSOP has earned my business. So instead of playing, I’m choosing to skip the event and instead take my girlfriend (who patiently puts up with my bitching about poker tournaments, among my various other character flaws) to a much-deserved dinner and night out.
See you guys tomorrow in the main.
