Did the Eastern Poker Tour’s $30K tournament scheduled for August 2010 ever get completed? 

The no limit hold’em tournament started November 13th and 14th. They played down to 26. November 20th, I spoke with one of the finalists. A totally psyched, pro-Eastern Poker Tour player was looking forward to playing at one of the final three *televised* tables scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 11, 2010. 

Today I checked the Eastern Poker Tour’s website to see how that poker player had done.  I learned that the tournament had been played down to eight on Saturday. Then… blip…screen fades to black…Nada… Niente… Ziltch…

Play was suppose to have resumed the next day to televise the final table.

No winners have been announced. No announcement about the date of the Comcast show. No announcement about working on finalizing a date…

(This post has been in the works for a while now. Time to finish up the Eastern Poker Tour No Limit Hold Em Tournament cancellation story and move on.)

Even though the no limit hold’em tournament had been cancelled, I showed up to see how the Eastern Poker Tour would handle “the morning of”. A friend in the travel business had told me that when large events got cancelled at the last minute, the sponsor of the event would send representatives to the venue at the scheduled time of the event in case registrants were unaware of the cancellation. The sponsors would be there with time-of-the-day appropriate drinks and goodies – and – profuse apologies. You know, those drippy, sickening sweet kind of apologies. The ones that make you think that maybe they do care. Maybe there was a last minute glitch. So my friend encouraged me to go see how the Eastern Poker Tour was going to handle the cancellation of its $30K No Limit Hold’Em Tournament.

Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010
Time: 8:40 am – 9:50 am
Location: Pembroke Country Club

At 8:45 a.m., Saturday, August 28, 2010, I arrived at the beautiful grounds of the Pembroke Country Club in Pembroke, MA 

When I turned into the driveway, I stopped to take this picture. No people around. No signs to let me know the event had been cancelled. Just beautifully manicured grounds and quiet…a lot of birds and early morning sounds.

I drove up the long windy entrance to the general parking.  At the top of the entrance where the driveway spills into a wide and long parking area, there was a man leaning against the open tailgate of a small black pickup. He was dressed all in black. Casual clothes. On his left breast was a logo I couldn’t make out from my seat in the car. For a brief moment, I thought “Yeah, the Eastern Poker Tour does care!” You’re smiling because you know that within the next second reality hit…I slowed the car to a crawl, rolled down the window, and asked if he was with the Eastern Poker Tour. He replied, “No”, with a snicker. “I’m the Chief of Police for the Town of Pembroke.”

Okaaaaayyy. The Chief of Police. So that was unexpected, and, my brain spent some time trying to process it. No reps from the Country Club. No reps from the Eastern Poker Tour. No coffee. No donuts. No aplogies at any level. Instead, a police presence.

Why did the Chief feel compelled to be there? What kind of trouble was he expecting? And why was he expecting trouble?

The short story is that we spent the next 45 minutes talking. Mostly about the process an organization like the Eastern Poker Tour has to go through to hold a No Limit Hold’Em tournament in the town of Pembroke.

The weekend prior to this scheduled no limit hold’em poker tournament, I had driven to the Pembroke Country Club to scope out the layout, the parking facilities in order to come up with a plan for getting to and from the hotel, etc. On that Saturday, three Country Club employees told me that the Eastern Poker Tour event was not going to be held there. The next night, I mentioned this to the franchise owner of the tournament I played. He said that he had heard differently and that he would confirm. The next night, he told me that he had checked on the information that I was told, and he was told that there was no truth to it. Okay, we move on. The No Limit Hold’Em tournament will be held at the Pembroke Country Club.

Of course during that conversation we talked about our individual experiences with the Eastern Poker Tour. It was interesting to compare what I was seeing (being told) as a player with the Chief’s perspective of what was going on at the same time.

We also talked about Johnson & Wales Inn in Seekonk, MA and how the Eastern Poker Tour used to hold events there. We touched on the charity tournaments that are associated with all of Eastern Poker Tour’s big events, which got me to thinking…

If you have 220 players and 50 get into the tournament by winning the satellites, that’s 170 paying players. 170 times $120 = $20,400. If you pay the charity $4,000 – $5,000, that leaves $15,400 – $16,400 to pay salaries for the day…and the rest is profit. (I’m assuming the rent for the venues is comp’d which is standard operating procedure for charity events.) Hummmm. Food for thought.

While we were talking, about 7 – 10 other vehicles arrived with players. One guy I recognized from the Framingham Tour. He wasn’t so disappointed because his family was having a reunion that weekend, so, he would be able to attend. Another 20-ish looking guy had driven from Conneticut with his mother, girlfriend, and infant in tow. The look of disappointment on all their faces is a visual I won’t forget real soon. They all had obviously been very excited.

As I drove down the long and windy driveway to return to my hotel in Rockland, I saw these placed periodically along the side of the driveway.

You’ll recall that the Eastern Poker Tour cancelled the $30K Championships at the last minute – 1:22 PM, Friday the 27th – less than 24 hours before the start of the event.

I did not get the e-mail until 6 PMish Friday night. I immediately contacted Travelocity and was informed that the hotel reservations I had in Rockland, MA were non-refundable. The Travelocity customer service person was happy to “reschedule”, but, I would still be charged in full for the weekend of the 28th and 29th.  After all, it was already past check in time (4:00 pm) for the first night. I asked what the charge would be to cancel the reservations all together and was told that the cancellation fee would be the “full charge” for the room for the two nights.

Okay, so then I thought that if I connected with someone at the front desk of the hotel,  I would be able to reschedule the reservations, convert the reservations to another hotel in the area, receive a credit to be used within the hotel chain, etc. Well, I couldn’t get to the front desk. I called the 800 number on the website and was told by the customer service person that because I had made the reservations via a third party and not directly with the hotel chain, that they could not help me. They did not have access to my records, etc. and I would have to deal with the third party.

And…what were all the other players doing?
There were approximately 800 players expected over the 2 days of no limit hold em tournaments. Surely, I was not the only one to get locked into hotel reservations. The hotel where the Eastern Poker Tour had blocked rooms was only honoring cancellation requests that came in before 4 pm on Friday.  The Eastern Poker Tour sent the cancellation email at 1:22 pm Friday and posted the cancellation on its blog at 1:48 pm Friday – giving those players a mear 2.25 – 2.5 hours notice! How many received/read the email in time?  How many read the blog? I suspect there are a lot of PO’d players. I look forward to connecting with them to see what they are going to do to recover
their hotel expenses.

Okay, so now I’m not playing in the no limit hold’em tournaments that I had worked so hard to qualify for since February, AND, I have reservations for the weekend at a hotel in Rockland, MA.

Ticked off and left high and dry for plans for the weekend, I finished my laundry, packed my bag and headed to Rockland! WTF was I going to do?

The Eastern Poker Tour’s $30K Championships was being held Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 28th and 29th) at the Pembroke Country Club. You know that I had spent the whole month preparing. (Catch up EPTs $30K ChampionsTournament and PokaPaloma Prepares for EPTs $30K Championship and August Eastern Poker Tour Season Standing)

Friday afternoon, I rushed home from York Beach Maine in order to do a laundry, and then go to the hotel I had reserved in Rockland MA for Friday and Saturday nights. I reserved a hotel room so that I would be fresh and awake for the long, all-day sessions I anticipated for Saturday and Sunday. The Pembroke Country Club is about 1.5 hours from my town. My thought was that I had worked hard to give myself every advantage in playing these tournaments. I didn’t want to put myself at a disadvantage by fatiguing myself by getting up extra early or by driving the 1.5 hours back and forth…or getting stuck in the Saturday morning summertime traffic heading toward the Cape…and returning home at who knows what time of day. There was no way of knowing what time we would reach the winning 10 – or – you would bust out. The EPT had e-mailed out and posted (on its website) “stern” rules about arriving on time and registering for the events. I had worked too hard to have any fluke accidents…hence the hotel.

While I was waiting for the laundry, I decided to catch up on my e-mails.  Unbelievably, there was an e-mail from the EPT that had been sent Friday afternoon at 1:22pm announcing the cancellation of the $30K Championships tournament.

Click for larger

I checked the website and found this…

CHAMPIONSHIP POSTPONED TO FUTURE DATE
08-27-2001 01:48:00pm

Please note, this weekend’s event is pushed back to a later date.

We will post on the website and email out the details on the future event.

NEW SEASON AND NEW POINTS START SUNDAY: ALL PLAYERS WHO QUALIFIED FOR THIS SEASON’S CHAMPIONSHIP WILL REMAIN IN THEIR CURRENT STANDING.

Any questions shoot us a phone call (401) 529-4572 or an email.

So What’s my beef?

First of all, the subject of the email is SO ambiguous: IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING THIS WEEKEND: TOC/POINTS TOURNAMENTS. If you have ever played in a tournament, you are expecting the Rules & Regulations…and guess what the subjects of those of emails are? “IMPORTANT INFORMATION REAGARDING”… It is highly likely that this email was mistaken by some players for the standard Rules & Regs email and deleted without reading or simply ignored.

Second of all, the TIME OF DAY that the e-mail was sent (1:22PM) and the notice was posted on the website (1:48PM)  is incredulous to me. 1:22PM and 1:48PM the day before the tournaments are about to start…less than 24 hours before? Who in the world was online on a Friday afternoon in the late Summer? And if they were on line…Who in the world would be able to cancel their hotel reservations in time?  I didn’t even get to read the email until after 6:00pm Friday. IF I could have modified my hotel reservations, it was already too late to cancel Friday because the hotel Check In started two hours earlier.

Also incredulous is the total lack of respect for the very people who put money in Glenn’s (Eastern Poker Tour’s owner Glenn McCory) pocket week-in and week-out. And I’m not talking about 4 or 5 players. There were about 800 players expected to play this weekend. The absolute ARROGANCE of the organization to wait so long to make the cancellation accouncement is midboggling. As if all any of their loyal players had to do on a Friday afternoon in the Summer – was to read emails from the EPT or read the EPT blog?  I’m thinking John McEnroe – “You can not be serious!”

The ARROGANCE of putting a note in same announcement – in CAPS and UNDERLINED (capitalized and bolded, I suppose because it is the most important piece of the announcement) that the new season begins Sunday… totally blowing off the cancellation notice. So let me get this straight. Is Glenn saying…

“We just screwed you getting every last dollar out of you while you played liked maniacs this month in order to maintain and improve your rankings – and we are announcing in capital letters and bold that we want you to give us more of your money starting this Sunday.”

How f’in stupid does Glenn think the players are?  The donkey that is the Eastern Poker Tour Headquarters surely needs a lesson in how to treat customers.

The cowardice demonstrated by McCory in having someone named Gretel – whom I’ve never received an e-mail from before but I think I saw a picture of in one of the highlights – deliver the bad news. (I hope Gretel wakes up some day to understand how she was used in this drama that Glenn created.) Glenn has his own e-mail and has used it in corresponding in the past (Glenn McCrory [glenn@easternpokertour.com]). One curious thing I have noticed over the last 3 -4 months is that looking at the website, Glenn’s involvement is less and less evident. His contact information has been removed and he is hiding behind his franchise owners and employees.

And, where was the Eastern Poker Tour employee or rep Saturday morning? Did the organization send someone to the Pembroke Country Club to greet players and explain? to apologize?

Ahhh, that would a “NO”. I was there and no one representing the Eastern Poker Tour was there.  I’ll tell you more about what I learned tomorrow… And what about the franchise owners who are the ones who are going to lose from here on out… what do they have to say?

Thursday, the Boston Globe had an article about the Eastern Poker Tour (EPT). Written by Katrina Ballard, the article introduces the Eastern Poker Tour through the eyes of players, tournament hosts, and the owner of the EPT’s newest franchise, the Framingham region. I was pleased to see the EPT get some press, and, since I have been playing the EPT for nearly a year now, I thought I’d comment about some information in the article that doesn’t match my first-hand experience.

First… a CORRECTION
Ballard states that “Players do not win money in the local games.”

Maybe she meant to write “real” money as in the “real” (WSOP/WPT) poker money we’ve all become accustomed to hearing about. Maybe not. I have played in the Framingham region ½ dozen times and each time I placed, I got paid in cash or a $30 voucher. 

Central Mass and Southern Mass regions both pay out. (The other established franchises may as well, but, I have not played them.)  Payout is not a ton of money, but, you recover your $15 buffet fee…and then some. Having placed in the top 3-4 of the Central Mass franchise several times over the past year, I have taken home $100, $75, and $50 in cash prizes, one or more times, and, a couple of $30 vouchers for free entrance into satelite no limit hold em tournaments that get you into the charity no limit hold em tournaments that the EPT holds just about every weekend.  

Tournament Organization
I live 1 mile from one of the Framingham region’s venues and instead of playing there, I drive 18 miles to play at a venue in the Central Mass region. Why? because I know that the tournament will be well run.

The tournament director (Steve Moll) actually manages the tournament. He’s watching the clock, chipping up, breaking down tables, settling disputes, and generally overseeing the action. When a blind level is coming to an end, he gives a 2-minute warning, and two minutes later, he announces the new level. (No one has to go outside to get him after the timer has signaled the end of a level.)

One night while playing a tournament in the Framingham region, I watched as the tournament director talked for 2+ minutes while shuffling cards at the final table. The play was down to 3 and one of the players was severly short stacked. The director burned up 2+ minutes of the short stacked’s time to improve. In that time, two or three hands could have been played…and the short stack could have earned some chips.  There were other hands at the final table that night where the tournament director talked and talked – not quite reaching the two minute mark…but still, totally oblivious to the clock.

In contrast, at the Central Mass tournaments, all players are very sensitive to the blind time. Even when players are self dealing, the next hand is being dealt while the winner of the last hand is raking in the chips. At the final table, a second deck is being shuffled while the franchise owner deals and manages the current hand. When the hand is complete, the second deck is being dealt and the first is being shuffled.

Read the full Boston Globe article Local poker circuit welcomes all to hold ’em or fold ’em

How can you experience a bad beat in a no limit hold’em tournament before it starts?

MY experience today has taught me…By choosing an Eastern Poker Tour no limit hold’em tournament and by not standing in the exact spot you were suppose to be standing in – even though no one told you where to stand.

So, I planned my whole day around playing in an Eastern Poker Tour charity event tonight. Whole Day? Yeah – The plan was to win a seat into the 6:00pm charity event by playing in one of the satellites (two if I had to) that started at 2:00pm.

I arrived at the venue at 2:20. Walked right to Eastern Poker Tour’s desk and signed up for the next satellite table. I told the two women at the table that I was going to the bathoom. I did that and came back to the desk and the guy running it, Nicholas Faucher, was there beside the two women. I went to go into the poker area. It was so much hotter in there – like 8 degrees hotter than in the hallway – that I came back out and took a seat across from Eastern Poker Tour’s desk. Then I waited and waited and waited. Finally, after 45 minutes, I got up and checked how many spaces were needed to be filled in on the satellite table list and there were 2 left. So I watched every person come and go until finally, a tenth person signed it.

I got up and walked over toward the poker area. As I entered the room, I heard Nicholas say, “Everyone waiting for table 3 come up front here [where the table was].” Some players were already at the table. There was no chair in the seat that I wanted so I went and found one and dragged it over. Then another player was trying to fit at the table and no one had left room because they just sat down where there were seats. So that player went and shagged his own chair.

I had won a free pass into a satellite game [of my choosing] in early May. I placed the pass in front of my seat. Nicholas took the pass of the player to my left and processed that first. Then he takes mine and says [with an arrogant swag of the head and an attitude], “I need some ID over here.” So, I retrieve my license and hand it over to him. He checks it out, then the list, then tosses the pass back towards my seat and says [with even more disgust than when he requested my ID], ‘You are not on the list.” I respond, “What do you mean I’m not on the list. I signed it an hour. Where’d my name go?” I look at the list he is using and indeed my name is not on it. He said, “You were on that list.” as he points to a nearby table . So, I said, “What? I’ve been waiting for an hour. Why didn’t you call me?” He just ignores me and goes on processing the rest of the table.

So I go to the desk to wait for him and get some clarification. While waiting, I asked the the woman sitting at the desk for the sheet for the other table and she says that she can’t help me. “Hey, I only work for the organization. I don’t know how to play poker.” [Derrrrr. We weren’t talking about poker. We were talking tournament organization. Presumably, that is why there were three people manning the desk.]

Nicholas gets that table settled, comes out and I ask for an explanation about what happened. He told me “I waited TEN minutes for you.” [Okay, so, now we know he’s an outright liar. No one waits ten minutes in poker.] I told him, “That’s just not true. It doesn’t take ten minutes to walk across the floor and go to the bathroom and come back.” Nicholas said, he had looked for me every where…Waited several minutes…[Oh, so NOW the story changes. 30 seconds ago, he waited TEN minutes for me.] Even gone into the bar looking for me… Derrr, I was sitting right next to the desk near the entrance. I told him where I had been sitting and that I had been there for an hour. And he gives me that arrogant swag of the head again and says, ” Hey if you are not there when the table is called, you get bumped to the next list.” So, I responded, “but, you didn’t bump me to the next list.” Nick, “I thought you left.” Then he says, “What do you want me to do? There are players in there that want to play poker.” <– AM I EVEN SUPPOSE TO UNDERSTAND THAT? That’s why I arrived an hour ago!!!!!!!!!!!

Nicholas Faucher was rude and arrogant, and I didn’t deserve his attitude. The bottom line is that I was not standing exactly where he wanted me to stand, and, he bumped me to put someone else in – probably, one of his Rhode Island friends. Well, I say to the Eastern Poker Tour that I am not an F’N mind reader. If you want me to be in a certain spot – I’ll be there – just tell me where.

I am so disgusted with Nicholas Faucher’s attitude. I’ve already tweeted about my experience. I’ve vented here. Now, I’m going to share my experience with my family, friends and poker colleagues including my brother – who lives in North Kingstown – and his poker buddies.

What are your experiences? Is this typical behavior for regional poker organizations?