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FAIL at the WSOP Monster Stack Event
After years of begging for better structures for the $1000-$1500 WSOP NL events, they finally gave in and created a single "Monster Stack" event. Unlike all other WSOP events, where you get 3 times the number of chips of the buyin amount, the Monster Stack gives you 10x the chips, providing each player 15,000 starting chips for a $1500 buyin.
They were expecting about 4,000 entries, which I would say was probably a fair initial estimate. The event was taking place on a Thursday, thus making it difficult for "weekend warrior" casual players to play, and it didn't have a guaranteed huge first prize like the Millionaire Maker.
Amazingly, they got nearly 8,000 entrants. Unlike the Millionaire Maker (also near 8,000 entrants), you couldn't re-enter if you busted the first flight, so this tournament had almost 8,000 unique individuals entering! That's the second-largest number of players EVER for a live tournament, only eclipsed by the online-money-fueled 2006 Main Event, with around 8700.
Anyway, not surprisingly, it was pandemonium. The tournament area was more crowded than I had ever seen before. The parking was horrendous. This wasn't just 8,000 players, but 8,000 players all starting THE SAME DAY 1!
The WSOP still did its best to accommodate this unexpected crowd. They ran separate starting flights throughout the day, with one as late as 10:40pm. Now, truthfully there were plenty of problems, including people being "bumped" to later flights (and being forced to wait around for hours), as well as the 10:40 flight starting almost an hour late, with people literally lying down in the hallways as if it were a refugee camp or disaster shelter.
But I forgave all of that. While I've been highly critical of the WSOP for being unprepared for large fields when it was fairly obvious a large field was coming (this occurred last year at the Millionaire Maker), this one really was a surprise to everyone. They did their best to work through it, and TD Jack Effel personally managed this throughout the day, for which I can give him credit.
However, Day 2 erased any good they did the first day, as it reverted to the typical story of greed and mismanagement.
Here's what happened:
I showed up to Day 2 rather short-stacked. I had 10k, the average was 30k. I had originally entered the 10:40pm flight, which started on level 6 and only played 4 levels, though everyone started with the identical 15k. You just had less time to run it up (but also less time to bust).
What's My Room Again?
I looked at my assigned table (268), and immediately noticed that I was never told the specific room where the table would be. It was just table 268. How could they have not specified this? Fortunately, they realized their mistake, and had fairly visible signs instructing you where to go.
Cash is King
I went to 268 in the Pavilion Room, as instructed by the sign. I found it, but there was a cash game running there. What?! I asked around and nobody knew what to do. There were no floormen to be found. I was there a few minutes early, so the tournament hadn't started yet. I kept wandering around the room, when I found a floorman. I asked about the cash games. Again, he had no idea, but said he would "look into it". By this point, about 6 others approached and had the same problem -- their table had a cash game running. Finally, we all noticed some Rio employees standing up on the stage in the front, so we figured that was the place to go. There was no announcement yet about what to do, and the tournament was a minute away from starting.
We swiftly walked up to the stage. People were standing in lines, but nobody could explain why they were lining up. The others in line said that they also found cash games at their tables, and they were lining up here "because that's where the floormen are." About 5 more minutes passed, still with no announcements. The tournament was late, and everyone else (about 4000 returning players) was sitting at their tables, twiddling their thumbs, also not understanding the hold up.
Finally, I decided this was ridiculous, and needed some answers. From the line, I shouted up to the stage, "Hey! What are we all in line for? What is going on here?"
A floorman answered, "This isn't really a line. You're just supposed to all be over here, and we are reassigning tables here. Please stay here and we will get you to your new table soon."
He did not explain how this would be done, or what we should do next. Everyone just stood around. It was here that I ran into fellow pro Leo Wolpert for the first time, who introduced himself and said he listens to PFA Radio regularly. Like everyone else, Leo was also confused as to what was going on.
Finally, at about 3:15 (the restart was supposed to go at 3:00), they started calling out table numbers. "Hey, if you're at table 198, go over there to the left!" However, this wasn't being called on the microphone, and a lot of people couldn't hear it over the noise. More confusion. More people asking, "What? Which table? Where do I go?"
After a few of these, I wondered if they were calling 268 at all, since I hadn't found anyone else with table 268, and they were calling tables in the 190s. I went to the front and asked the floorman, "What about 268? When is that coming?"
He said, "Wait, you're Witteles, right? I think I saw your bag somewhere up there. Just hang back and we'll cal you."
So they stopped doing it by table, and instead were just calling names, and you would go up and get your chip bag and new seat assignment.
Here is a picture of them calling off the names on the bags. Notice tournament director Jack Effel at the top. Also notice how depressed and irritated everyone looks.
They finally called mine, and I was assigned to a new table. Sadly, I was moved from Seat 10 (at table 268) to Seat 6, meaning I lost 4 free hands, since the button always starts in seat 10.
I was dumbfounded as to why they didn't simply close the cash games running at the time, as there seemed to be only about 10 of them running, and everything else in the room was the Monster Stack restart.
The cash tables weren't even in a different section. They were back-to-back with the tournament tables.
Finally, at about 3:20, I sat down at my new table. I asked everyone, "Does anyone here have any idea why you have been waiting for 20 minutes to start?"
Nobody had a clue.
"It's because they have to run about 10 cash tables, and have spent the past 20 minutes reassigning tournament players from those tables to empty-seat tables like this."
Everyone was livid. They couldn't believe this.
"Yup," I said. "4,000 people are forced to wait over 20 minutes so Caesar's can get the rake on 10 cash tables."
Keep in mind that they frequently close all cash games when big-field tournaments start, as they need the room for these bracelet events, and those understandably take priority.
Interestingly, it was Caesar's insistence upon running cash tables in 2007 that led to the ill-advised "poker tent", which averaged 100 degrees inside and eventually blew down, almost severely injuring players. After that disaster, they promised never again to allow cash games to take priority over WSOP bracelet events.
The tournament finally got going at 3:25. I busted out shortly after, shoving QJ suited in late position and running into the BB's QQ.
So 4,000 people all collectively sat for 25 minutes, all because Caesar's didn't want to shut down 10 cash games.
Pretty ugly and callous disregard for their customers' time.
For the most part, the WSOP has run smoothly this year, but this one was a disaster and huge error in judgment.
