Heartland Poker Tour - missing money from prizepools

[Dan Druff]

2+2 thread is a bit confusing, but I will try to break it down here.

2+2 thread on the subject: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/65...epool-1588244/

Poker player Ben Keeline played the HPT Main Event at Ameristar on January 22, 2016. Here is his crumpled receipt:



Notice that the buyin was $1650, with $1455 going to the prizepool, $45 going to the staff, and $150 going to the casino.

671 people entered, meaning the prizepool should have been $976,305 (671 * $1455).

It was not. According to this page on the HPT's own website, the prize pool was $962,640.

That's a shortfall of $13,665.

Then it came out that they were giving away a $5,000 seat from the prizepool (something not properly disclosed to the players), but that still left the pool $8,665 short.

There is no good explanation for this.

Marketing director Korey Stewart wrote this:

HPT has always been fully transparent with prize pool deductions. A breakdown of the distribution of each $1650 buy-in is outlined in each official gaming submission and those breakdowns are listed on the structure sheet. The deductions for the recent East Chicago event in question were as follows:

- Direct buy entry fee of $150
- Staff and promotional fees of up to 4%
- $3600 deduction for the end-of-year Championship Event

This information has always been readily available to players and we are confident that all funds are accounted for at each tour stop.

Korey Stewart
Marketing Coordinator
HPT - Heartland Poker Tour

... but that explains nothing. Even if you take away ANOTHER $3600 for the championship event, that still leaves a $5065 shortfall.

The HPT will not give further comment on this. According to the below spreadsheet made by Ben Keeline, other HPT events also have similar shortfalls (look for the bolded numbers): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...Wsk/edit#gid=0

[Dan Druff]

So I've examined this again, and I think I figured it out (partially), but it just raises more questions than it answers.

The shortfall was $13,665.

The post from the HPT rep said that $3600 (not $5k) was taken from the pool for that seat -- something already shady, because I don't see where this was disclosed. But let's ignore that for now.

So that leaves $10,065 unaccounted for.

There were 671 entries. If you divide $10,065 by 671, you get $15.

Recall that the buyin was $1650, but $150 goes to the casino. That leaves $1500 for the prizepool and staff portions.

$15 is 1% of $1500. So that's what they took extra -- $15 (1%) per player.

So this means they took $60 (4%) out of the pool for the staff/promotions, rather than the $45 (3%) listed on the tournament receipt.

While the structure sheet says they can take "up to 4%", I'm not sure how they can just take 4% after the official tournament receipt for each player claims it's only 3% ($45).

Reallllllllllly shady.

Look at the spreadsheet link I posted above, and you will see 4 other tournaments (3 others at Ameristar) where this happened even worse -- where MORE than 4% was taken out of the pool. That can't be right by any measure, as the HPT claims the maximum is 4%.

This whole thing smells really bad.

I think they are just jacking extra money out of the pool for the staff, once they feel the prize pool is big enough to where people won't notice. That is, I don't think anyone is directly pocketing the stolen money, but rather they are helping themselves to extra, unauthorized money from the prizepool for the staff to share.

We really need answers on this.

[IAmProfessionalTalk]

So Annie Duke was actually a hero by trying to destroy the HPT.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

More problems at the HPT, somewhat related to the above, which I posted over a year ago.

So apparently we know where the missing 1% is. It's taken out of the pool for "promo", whatever that means.

Here is the structure sheet. See the bottom-left where it says "Non-cash awards of 1% will be deducted from the prize pool."

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/854712694007635968

"The 1% is for promo use and has always been there", says the above tweet.

It sounds to me like the company is just pocketing the 1% for operational costs, and calling it "promo". The HPT will not explain to anyone what "promo" actually is, which is pretty damn shady given that this money is coming from the players themselves.



They also apparently lied to Ari Engel (frequent player on the tour) and others, regarding the high rake.

The St. Louis event was $1440 buyin + $230 rake. The Chicago event was $1420 + $210 rake -- a tiny bit less, but similar.

Why is that significant?

Because HPT Director of Operations Ken Lambert Jr. told Ari that the rake was high in St. Louis was due to a local tax issue over there:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/854722038526824448

But since Chicago's rake is almost has high, apparently taxes aren't the reason for this high rake.

While the HPT has the right to rake what they want, they appear to have lied (or at least partially lied) to concerned players, putting the blame falsely upon St. Louis taxes.

To show you how high a rake of $230 is on $1440, the WSOP $1000 buyin events are $900+$100, meaning the rake is far less than half.