Last month I wrote a piece complimenting the tournament staff for remedying the problems of 2006 and keeping the ship afloat and pointed in the right direction in 2007. One reader commented that I was “seeing things through seriously rose-tinted lenses,” but his objections to my argument seemed laughable to me then and, upon revisiting them, still do now. Even though he had yet to set foot inside the Rio, he labeled the present state of the World Series as “very corporate, very soulless.” Well, here’s the reality: a corporation owns and runs the World Series of Poker, hence it’s always going to feel corporate. That doesn’t, however, mean it has to feel soulless. For me, the real question is: what kind of experience is Harrah’s providing for players and fans in return for the healthy amount of juice they earn for hosting each event?
I have to give Harrah’s very high marks for the way they have addressed past problems each year. In 2005 the major complaints were mostly about infrastructure, long lines at the bathrooms and the inaccessibility of food. In 2006 Harrah’s trucked in a bunch of Porta-Potties and created the Poker Kitchen. The biggest complaints that year were that there were too many no-limit hold’em events relative to the number of other events, an average day in the H.O.R.S.E. tournament was way too long, and more tables were needed. Harrah’s addressed these issues in 2007 by adding a bunch of non-no-limit hold’em events to the schedule, expanding the H.O.R.S.E. tournament to five days, and creating the Poker Pavilion out back where the Poker Kitchen used to be.
Harrah’s has done an even better job this year as they were able to take care of many problems on the fly instead of waiting a year to address them. During the first week of the Series there were incredibly long lines just to enter certain events. By Week Two that was no longer an issue. The new cards implemented this year were quickly found to be seriously lacking… so Harrah’s immediately replaced them with better cards. Yes, the food in the Poker Kitchen got no better (and many would argue worse), but all the food inside the Rio sucks so where do you expect them to find better fare? Besides, most of the poker players I know aren’t exactly culinary experts. Give them an ass-meat burger and a Red Bull and they’re perfectly happy.
The biggest problem I had with Harrah’s this year was their creation of the sequestered tent, which I have already written about several times. It’s hard to defend this as anything more than one more way for them to make a buck—by not allowing fans or media to watch the action at these final tables they’re able to charge people to watch the coverage online. As a member of the media I have an especially big problem with this. My job is to write about these tournaments. I would have loved to have written about Phil Hellmuth winning his 11th gold bracelet, about the reaction on his face when he won the last hand or the things he did when he stood up from the table and moved off-camera, but I wasn’t allowed to. Sure, I could go back and watch the footage, but it’s not the same. Writing about an event through the filter of a television or computer screen dilutes the experience.
As good a job as Harrah’s has done in 2007, there are still plenty of aspects of the World Series that need to be fixed. Here are some suggestions of what I think should be done this “off season”:
Scrap the sequestered tent. I have already given my reasons above. If they don’t scrap it, may I suggest they simply remove the black cloth. That way, fans and media could watch the action in real time, and Harrah’s could still charge people to watch the action on their computers. If someone is willing to pay $50 (or whatever it is) to watch the final table of a poker tournament, they’re not going to spoil the occasion by following the action on someone’s blog.
Address the spectator issue. Two years ago, too many fans were allowed inside the Amazon Room during the main event and it made life difficult for everyone involved: players, media, tournament officials, as well as other fans. This year, not enough fans (or at least the right ones) were allowed inside the room and they all left pissed off. I think there should be a lottery for the general public that would allow a few lucky ones the right to watch the ESPN final table. That way, there would at least be a system in place instead of the mayhem that ensued this year. Some fans waited in line for an hour, only to get kicked out of the tournament room after ten minutes once the action came to a break. I would also allow each player one guest pass so they could have a wife or brother or friend watch them. For $10,000, that only seems fair.
Institute a more specific cell phone rule and enforce it. Nothing caused more confusion for the players and dealers. The problem with the present rule is that it leaves a lot of room for confusion. If you’ve just folded your hand, can you then talk on the phone? Can you send or receive a text message while a hand is going on? Dealers rarely said anything to players about their phone use until the David Singer Incident. On occasion I saw a dealer say something to a player using his phone, but generally they seemed to ignore it. A part of me wouldn’t mind seeing cell phones banned from the room entirely. Imagine this scenario. A player keeps his phone on vibrate in his pocket and whenever a confidante believes he should fold a big hand that friend calls him and lets it ring twice. Don’t think that some players haven’t tried to do something like this. As long as poker has existed, there has been cheating, and nothing makes cheating easier than technological devices such as cell phones.
Tournament structure. Last year, the players asked to be given more play so the tournament officials doubled the size of the players’ starting stacks. While this appeared to be an excellent solution, it was actually a charade because the starting limits were also doubled. In effect, nothing was done. If they really want to give the players more play, they should keep the starting stacks where they are now and cut down the size of the initial limits. For the main event this would mean going back to $25/$25 blinds or at the very least $25/$50 instead of $50/$100.
Expand and take over the room next door. The Poker Pavilion hasn’t been the greatest success. No player has been happy to discover that he’s starting one of the events in what amounts to a playground in Brooklyn when his compatriots are playing in Madison Square Garden. Whenever the air conditioning wasn’t working optimally, which seemed to happen a lot, the tent quickly grew very hot. Although the temperature was supposedly quite cool when Eskimo Clark had his first stroke at the table, if it had happened during one of the warm spells the press would have had a field day. Can you say, lawsuit? With or without the Pavilion, there’s a serious need for more room. Let me suggest that during the main event the tournament be allowed to take over the giant room next door. Hold the Gaming Expo a week earlier (or scrap it altogether) and let half the starting field play in this room. This would allow Day One of the tournament to be finished in two days instead of four and would allow for a smoother experience in general. I can already hear the argument against this idea, and it centers around money. Harrah’s can charge a pretty penny for use of that other room and using it would require them to buy 200-300 more poker tables and hire that many more dealers and staff, but oh how nice it would be for the rest of us.
As much as I would love the Poker Kitchen to serve gourmet fare, I’m not going to waste my breath. I’m also not going to spend any time discussing one of the most important issues to emerge in the poker world in the past several years: players’ rights. The World Poker Association seems to be gaining more power with each passing day, and hopefully they will continue to look after their own. In a Series where one player nearly died at the table and refused to stop playing (Eskimo Clark) and another seemed to be mimicking the demise of Stu Ungar (Vinny Vinh), it’s become more apparent than ever that the players need someone to protect their interests. I believe Harrah’s understands what an amazing event it inherited from the Binion family and will continue to do everything it can to make sure that the quality of the experience improves from year to year. Hopefully, Clark and Vinh will still be around next year to enjoy it.
