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WSOP Bahamas is inflicting controversy by taking cash from the prize pool for buffets and lodge stays. [Image: WSOP.com]
An unpopular and over-priced lodge
Final week, I shamelessly obtained different folks to put in writing the majority of my article on the upcoming mêlée-à-trois between the World Poker Tour (WPT) Wynn, European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague and World Collection of Poker (WSOP) Bahamas. From a pattern measurement of 21 notable gamers from Europe and North America, it culminated in loads of compliments for EPT Prague, however a convincing endorsement of the WPT World Championships. It was noteworthy how solely two folks had something good to say and most had been extraordinarily damaging in regards to the WSOP on the Atlantis.
Within the few paragraphs that I really contributed myself, I echoed these emotions, questioning if GGPoker and WSOP had made a misstep by selecting to go toe to toe to toe with two of the 12 months’s greatest festivals on both facet of the pond. In August, they launched their 15-event $50m schedule and there was noticeably little furore. The thought of enjoying poker in an unpopular and over-priced lodge throughout the low season in a rustic the place the native inhabitants can’t play generated near zero buzz. Add to {that a} lengthy historical past of profitable gamers being hassled on the border and it really generated quite a lot of damaging comparisons.
a standout curmudgeonly act that I’ve by no means seen earlier than by an operator
This week, GGPoker made the concept of attending the WSOP Bahamas even much less engaging because it added on-line Day 1s and introduced that it was deducting cash from the assured prize swimming pools to pay for 11-night lodge stays and each day free lunch buffets for every of the qualifiers ($6,500 per participant). The net Day 1s will make the fields mechanically extra sharky whereas this qualifier lodge and lunch tax is a standout curmudgeonly act that I’ve by no means seen earlier than by an operator.
Taking the gamers’ lunch cash
When the WSOP introduced its 12-day pageant within the Bahamas, it selected a $5,300 buy-in $15m-guarantee Important Occasion with a $10m-guarantee Highroller, a $5m-guarantee Thriller Bounty, a $5m-guarantee Millionaire Maker, and eleven smaller facet occasions. These seemed like large numbers till the WPT World Championship blew WSOP out of the water by promising an eye-watering $40m in its Important Occasion prize pool.
WSOP was effectively conscious of the conflict it was instigating with the WPT but it surely presumably put quite a lot of inventory within the attract of the bracelet, tempting gamers off the Strip and to the Caribbean. The WSOP would even have thought-about itself as having an enormous weapon within the type of GGPoker’s large liquidity. The net website is the placement of the one actually international participant pool, catering to simply about each nation, no matter ring-fenced markets and flouting the UIGEA, the Interactive Playing Act, and different laws.
That confidence appears to be wavering now, nonetheless, as GGPoker scrambles to make adjustments, including on-line flights, deducting lodge prices, and taking the participant’s lunch cash to cut back the efficient prizepool.
Extra rake is best
These sorts of sneaky ways have grow to be par for the course with GGPoker which, having taken over the mantle of trade chief from Pokerstars a few years in the past, is now adopting a ‘extra rake is best’ for its backside line method. The rake on the GGPoker money video games is already exorbitant and these adjustments to the WSOP Bahamas come throughout every week after we noticed GGPoker take warmth for rising its already egregious ‘admin charges’.
That is the issue when firms hit the entrance and notice that they’ll gouge their clients for extra short-term revenue. Poker gamers are usually savvier than most in the case of recognizing a majority of these money-grabs but it surely has not but reached a degree the place a major quantity are voting with their toes.
Pokerstars discovered the arduous means within the Amaya period how a breaking level may be reached and shopper confidence may be eroded. There may be at all times a straw that breaks the camel’s again. I imagine that the WSOP Bahamas shall be a major litmus take a look at for GGPoker on this regard.
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