Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A little further info...

I received calls from a couple of the guys involved in the now-widely discussed controversy from last Saturday's ACF5K. They both explained their side of the story to me. I'll report, as objectively as possible, the meat of our conversations.

The basis for their position is that they did not cheat, and if softplays, etc. happened, it was because they were unaware it wasn't kosher in a poker game. They also both claimed that they were very new to the game, and were not aware that some of the things they may have done may have been misinterpreted by other players and tournament staff. But one of them did in fact make it clear that he did not engage in any signaling activities.

As I didn't know these folks, and had very little history with them, I listened. They were pretty distraught that what I had published and what others had written might destroy their reputations even outside the poker arena.

I answered that when I speak or write about these things, it's never with the intention of destroying an individual, nor attacking his or her character in totality. That's never my motivation. I simply go after the only thing I can legitimately criticize: what I see in the confines of a poker game. The thing that motivates me, and others in the business of poker, is the protection of the game, the security of the players, and the maintenance of a level playing field.

I've offered them a forum here to make their point, in their own words. I do hope they take me up on that.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

"I have a big ace, shhh..."

Looking forward to my next entry on this blog, I fully expected to be writing about my experiences hosting/co-directing the first monthly ACF5K tourney yesterday. My fingers were primed to tap out words about key hands, astonishing performances, friends playing at the top of their game, geniuses, donks, afterparties, etc.

There were plenty of those yesterday.

But I can't write about them.

I gotta write about a thing I hoped I'd never have to seriously address in local poker.

Cheating.

1st and 2nd places yesterday were taken by a couple of guys that demonstrated that they'd worked out a rudimentary collusive strategy going into the game. The two that monied the deepest were part of a larger group who clearly had pieces of each other (evidenced by their final-table railbird buddies proclaiming in 110 decibel-level voices that their "chickens" were still in the game).

Let me first get something out of the way:

Now there's nothing wrong with trading pieces in a tourney...I do it all the time. This is where you and a few pals commit a percentage of any potential win you have to a communal pool. I'm a chickenshit gambler and I'll take any opportunity to hedge any day.

We tend to trade pieces with friends. Because it's psychologically natural to avoid tournament-ending confrontations with friends, you'll see a lot of implicit forms of collusion such as avoidance and soft-plays. The poker world will never be rid of this, so let's resign ourselves to it.

Having said this, honest players will work to win as many chips as they can, even if they own a stake in each other. Here's an example: two guys at the final table, let's call them Honest Marco and Upstanding George, owned 10% of each other. I did, however see them play several huge, potentially tournament ending pots against each other with abandon and a clear desire to end the other guy's night. This despite the fact that the deeper both got, the greater the economic benefit.

Enough with the honesty I saw, let's talk about the dishonesty:

Several people whose opinions, awareness, knowledge and eyesight I respect reported to me that two folks were engaging in blatant soft-play in the early and mid levels of the tourney. This is while they were seated side-by-side at a table. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice to say that a dealer's attention was drawn to it. The dealer did not inform any of the floors, TD Emi Mungcal, or myself.

Soft-play's one thing. Then I heard of some signaling going on. Rudimentary things like elbow-nudges and later, a clear signal at the final table (which caused TD Emi to pull the perpetrator aside and warn him of ejection should it continue). This sealed the deal for me. We were 4-handed at the final table at this point, so I decided that this tournament should finish without scandal. It did. It ended rather dryly, with a non-climactic awarding of final prizes and a rapid exit from the building by the (now richer) crew.

It was a dirty win. One that tainted an event I truly enjoyed, and one that was put on with the best of intentions.

To me, signaling in tourneys is probably the most egregious thing a player can do to inflate whatever edge he or she may have. If a teammate knows or is "told" not to call or raise a bet one makes, he or she is now relying on information no other player has. The edge the team develops here is effectively put on steroids.

Signaling is also incredibly tough to spot or prove, because we're not privy to the codes team coaches develop. But most of us have a spidey sense when it comes to this kind of stuff, especially when perpetrated by donks who didn't exactly graduate with Post Doctoral degrees in scamming. So I'll risk slander charges and state that these guys did signal holdings and intentions in a malicious manner during the final table and where possible, earlier in the tournament.

Another nasty little activity is the good-old chip dump. "I'm short, you're big, we're on the same team, i'll donk off my stack to you." Or, "Im big, you're short, there's three of us left, you're about even with the guy we wanna knock out, so I'll double you".

Here's a situation from last night.

Final three

Team Player 1 huge stack
Poor guy just hangin on
Team Player 2 even with with non-team member

Team player 2 moves in for about 60K in chips, Team Player 1 calls with big stack, third guy folds.

If Team Players make 1st and 2nd, they make 200K total.

If they come in 1st and 3rd they make 20K or so less.

Team Player 2 shows T6o or some such.
Team player 1 shows 64o

T6o holds up, double up. Seals the deal for player number three, who busts about 3 hands after.

I understand that 64o can be a calling hand with a huuuuge stack and an opportunity to bust a shortstack. But in this case, we have a history of collusion between these two.

Again, tough to prove, but the evidence mounts.

Where the hell is this essay going? Oh yeah. These guys can no longer play in my tournaments. Period. Protecting everybody else's money is of paramount importance to me.

I'm also instituting a set of guidelines for spotting and dealing with collusion, and will work with the ACF guys and anybody else from PAGCOR who wishes to get involved.

I will never sit a ring game with these guys.

I hope I never see them in a tourney in which I've paid my hard-earned money for a shot at the pool.

Mau, Louie, Ron, I hope your 200K lasts a long, long time.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

ACF 5K Tourney Structure

Ok all, here's the final structure for the tourney on Sat. We're shooting for a big turnout so we can build a fat pot. 10K start stack...25 minute levels...freezout

See y'all there!


Monday, May 22, 2006

CF Tagaytay is a nice place for poker. The place has an airy feel to it, with super-high ceilings and a "one big room" architectural layout. A bunch of the regular faces played the 10K+1K last Saturday, and we all had fun. No shortage of interesting types to play against or simply watch. Dirty Ice Cream monied in 8th (field of 64), making us all proud. The rest of us busted outside of the money, even though easily six of us made it to the dinner break! WEAK!!!!

The best thing about it was walking out of the casino after the tourney...into the cool nighttime mountain air. Nothing like it to wash away the grit that seven hours in a casino will lay on ya.

We had a nice get together drinky-drinky at Maverick's mountain chalet afterwards - great way to spend a Saturday altogether.

Before I go overboard on the travelogue thing, I'd like to talk about this week's stop on the tourney trail. The 5K+1K at the Airport Casino Filipino is a little closer to home, and ought to bring out the local best yet again. I'll be running the thing, and will publish the finalized structure here in the next 2 days. For those of you who've played events my group's put on in the past, you'll pretty well know what to expect.

Above the cash that 5K levers into ta prize pool, Senior Marketing Officer Richard Gabriel is putting up a bracelet for the champ. Because this 5K+1K event's a monthly thing, we'll be offering a bracelet every month. Who'll be the first to have more than one on his or her wrist?

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Weekending

Airport Casino Filipino has moved poker up a notch yet again with the kickoff of their weekly Saturday tourneys. Yesterday's installment was the 1st of weekly (3x/month) 1+2K tourneys put together with the very able help of Marco and Ed from the Poker Bar Tour. I expected 5 tables at the maximum to fill this first go 'round. 120 players sat! That just shows they hit the sweet spot in the tourney market.

It was real good to see a lot of faces I haven't seen in a while.

Congrats to the Duke for playing a mean game, playing smart, gambling it up, reading his opponents well. He took down a cool 20K for his efforts.

Oli Z., again, you're my hero; having gone from a that insane short stack early to 5th (I think). That's some strong kung fu, or a different flavor of voodoo you're sittin' on.

This Saturday we've got the Tagaytay 10K to look forward to...as well as the ACF 1K for those who don't wanna make the trip or splurge for the buy-in.

Barb and i'll be in Tagaytay, so we hope to see y'all there.

Mark your calendars though. May 27th, Saturday. 5K+1K. ACF. Yours truly will be putting it together and running things. Fat pot. Last time we ran a 5K we built a pool of 575K. That'll be a good party.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

New Structure for Tagaytay May 20 NLHE

The Tagaytay tourney structure has been amended to make it less aggressive in the early levels...starting stack 30K


Saturday, May 06, 2006

ACF Saturday tourneys - the Poker Bar Tour moves in...

Hi all, just caught a note from our good friend Marco on the manilapoker forums...

"The PBT goes to ACF for a NL Texas Hold'em Tournament series starting next Saturday, May 13, 2006 with registration starting at 11am and the tournament starting promptly (hopefully) at noon. The PBT @ ACF series will continue every second Saturday of the month."

The buy-in + entry fee for this first tournament is 1,000+200 and depending on the number of participants, the deeper the prize money will go. The rule of thumb is number of tables + 2 = the number of places paid. The blind structure will be the same as we use in the PBT with the same starting stack as well. No free roll certificates won in the PBT will be honored in this tournament because those free roll certificates can be used starting in June when the regular PBT @ ACF buy-in + entry fee of 1,500+300 will start to be in effect."

This is a real good transition from the bar circuit to the casino. As some of you know, the PBT has succeeded in seating a large number of players in bars all over town. It's run by two very competent people, Marco A. and Eduard U., who in my mind are good enough to run a game anywhere in the world. Putting the PBT game in the casino is a good evolution. Players now get to play for real prize pools in a casino environment. Another nice move by the Airport Casino Filipino poker bosses, and good luck to the new PBT.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Casino Filipino Tagaytay NLHE Tourney May 20th

The fine folks at Casino Filipino Tagaytay have announced a No-Limit Hold 'Em Tourney this coming May 20th. 10K + 1K, all buy-ins into the pot. Targetting 200 players, so this should pump the prize pool :).

They've sent me the structure, and I'm pasting it below. Formatting might be a prob, but if you want the original excel file, just comment here with your email address and I'll send it over to you.

CYA there@

MID-SUMMER POKER TOURNAMENT
Casino Filipino - Tagaytay

♠ ♦ ♣ ♥

No - Limit Texas Hold'Em (Freeze-out)
PhP10,000.00 Buy-in + PhP1,000.00 Entry Fee
Saturday, May 20, 2006
1:00P.M.

Schedule of Play

Level ANTE SMALL BLIND BIG BLIND TIME
1 P 100 P 200 P 400 20 minutes
2 P 200 P 400 P 800 20 minutes
3 P 300 P 600 P 1,200 20 minutes
B R E A K 15 minutes
4 P 400 P 800 P 1,600 20 minutes
5 P 500 P 1,000 P 2,000 20 minutes
6 P 600 P 1,500 P 3,000 20 minutes
B R E A K 15 minutes
7 P 700 P 2,000 P 4,000 20 minutes
8 P 800 P 3,000 P 6,000 20 minutes
9 P 900 P 4,000 P 8,000 20 minutes
C O L O R U P 15 minutes
10 P 1,000 P 5,000 P 10,000 30 minutes
11 P 2,000 P 10,000 P 20,000 30 minutes
B R E A K 15 minutes
12 P 4,000 P 20,000 P 40,000 30 minutes
13 P 5,000 P 40,000 P 80,000 30 minutes
C O L O R U P 15 minutes
14 P 10,000 P 80,000 P 160,000 30 minutes
15 P 20,000 P 100,000 P 200,000 30 minutes
16+ The betting structure will be raised at the discretion of the Tournament Director until a winner is declared

General Rules:
1. Registration will be held in the gaming area from 6:00am until 1:00pm. Once registration
is closed new players will not be allowed to enter the tournament.
2. All players will start with P30,000.00 in tournament chips.
3. All breaks are subject to change. Dinner break will be added at the discretion of the
Tournament Director.
4. The length of this tournament is approximately 7 ½ hrs.
5. Management reserves the right to cancel, change or modify the tournament in part or
whole without notice.
P R I Z E S

1. The prize pool will contain 100% of the monies collected as buy-ins. The entry fees
are not included into the prize pool.
2. Each winner will be required to provide valid identification in order to collect their prize.
3. The tournament will be played out until a 1st place winner has been declared.
4. The percentage figures listed below represent the portion of the prize pool awarded to
each finishing place based on the total number of entries:

Place 200 or more entries pays (27 places) 100 - 199 entries pays (18 places) 50 - 99 entries pays (9 places) 49 or less entries pays (5 places)

1st 34.00% 37.00% 40.00% 45.00%
2nd 18.00% 19.00% 21.00% 25.00%
3rd 9.00% 9.00% 11.00% 15.00%
4th 7.25% 7.25% 8.50% 10.00%
5th 5.25% 5.25% 6.00% 5.00%
6th 3.75% 3.75% 4.50%
7th 3.00% 3.00% 3.50%
8th 2.25% 2.50% 3.00%
9th 1.75% 2.00% 2.50%
10th - 18th 1.00% 1.25%
19th - 27th 0.75%

Monday, May 01, 2006

PPT in the books

The PPT Championship was concluded yesterday, and the Champ was crowned and received his cool 1 million. I'm afraid I wasn't present for the majority of the final table, but I'm sure the champ will be named on the PPT website shortly. CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU WHO GOT DEEP AND GOT PAID.

This was an interesting tourney to watch from an outsider's perspective. It was a well-produced event, with the real stars being the PAGCOR tournament direction team led by Mr. Emmi Mungcal. The Floors, Dealers, and all the staff made this a top-notch event from a logistical/procedural and technical perspective.

The Poker Club of the Philippines must also be commended for producing and working through not only the Championship itself, but also the satellite series that preceded the event, which, of course, is the largest poker event ever conducted on our shores. Congrats to you.

Congratulations to the winners, and special mention to our close friends, Bryan, Neil, Jun, Marty, Mike, Mischa, Doc Butch, Aris, and Ace (hope I'm not forgetting anyone), who all got deep in a field of 160.

Special Congratulations to Eric and Mr. Energy, who monied in 10th and 8th respectively. Fine work guys.

Now a number of people have mentioned some disappointment (in varying degrees) in the way in which the prize pool was handled. Online and in person, folks have asked my opinion on the fact that the prize pool did not budge from the guaranteed 1.6mm, even though the field clearly significantly crossed that line.

At the end of the day, it *is* the organizers' prerogative to do what they will with the revenues earned from the tournament fees. In fact, I'm not certain what the tournament fees were vis-a-vis the buy-in. The published seat price was 21K (20K for Poker Club Members); there is no way to know, unless the Poker Club tells us, what the buy-in was and what the fee was.

We should be aware, however, that PAGCOR would have shared in some of the revenue, and there were, of course, expenses all along. We simply don't know those numbers.

I am going to post the following to give my humble views on the matter. I do this because the event has stirred up some conversation, and it was an important event for Philippine Poker.

This is the straight-up, unavoidable issue, however: 160 players sat the game. At the published price of 21K, that builds a prize pool of P3.36 million. Because we are dealing with a single price buy-in, let's take the WSOP model and rake the pot a certain percentage to generate revenue. At the WSOP, a certain percentage of the pot is withheld to cover expenses and earn a little bit. That percentage gets smaller as the field grows, but the most I've seen is 10% for the smaller events. So let's add 10% more to this and say that the prize pool in this instance could have been acceptably raked at 20%. That should have left, net to the prize pool, P2.688 million. About a million more than was paid out.

So in my humble opinion, we could have seen more money in the prize pool.

Another issue was the number of ways paid. The tourney sat 16 ten-handed tables, 160 players. Because the additional money did not enter the original prize pool, ten (10) places were paid, as originally published. Based on the size of the field alone, most of the tournaments I have played, or run (and I've done lots of both), would have paid deeper. I, for example, would have paid 18 places (the number of tourney tables =16, +2 places, or 18 players altogether).

This is how the tournament paid (no deals were made)

Champion P1,000,000.00
1st Runner up P 200,000.00
3rd place P 100,000.00
4th place P 50,000.00
5th place P 45,000.00
6th place P 44,000.00
7th place P 43,000.00
8th place P 42,000.00
9th place P 41,000.00
10th place P 40,000.00

As invariably happens, somebody asked me how I would have paid out. I thought this would be an interesting experiment, so I dropped the numbers into my trusty spreadsheet and here's what it spit out:

Pot after 20% rake: P2.688 million

Ways Paid: 18

1. 806400
2. 456960
3. 322560
4. 268800
5. 215040
6. 134400
7. 107520
8. 53760
9. 53760
10. 53760
11. 26880
12. 26880
13. 26880
14. 26880
15. 26880
16. 26880
17. 26880
18. 26880

This way, raking 20% of the pot would have produced revenues of P672K. Some to PAGCOR, some to the organizer. There would have been profits on the satellite series, so I would be happy with this (actually I would rake it at 10% max).

The winner loses about 200K, but look at the payout effect for 2nd to 10th. Not to mention 11th to 18th, all of whom made no money yesterday.

Anyway, I can't stress enough that this is simply my analysis based on a "how I would do it" scenario. It is simply an answer to those who asked me that precise question.

In the end, we had a major tournament, and we had two days of fun.