Poker News

I agree that the race off theory does not hold water (In 2002 and 2003 the Main Event chip count was to the dollar) and the bigger chip race off's generally correct the overage. and also do not believe there was any cheating going on. I would be interested to see who if anyone's stack had a huge increase after that color change. I am sure that whoever made that color change had not been accustomed to $25,000 chips. I also agree that there needs to be better procedure than are out there today. The TDA will take a hard look at this and to this date has focused soley on rules and not on procedures.

PokerNews,
Thank you for taking on this issue with such a high degree of professionalism. I, like many others in the poker community, was shocked when this story first broke. The consequences of gross anomalies like this occuring in major poker tournaments could be profound. Poker needs to work towards defining standards and procedures to help govern multi-table tournaments. The players who are footing the bill will not stand for anything less. Tangible progress needs to be made over the next 6 to 12 months to ensure the continued growth and marketability of poker.

Matt Savage,
I'm guessing this WSOP controversy didn't sit well with you because you understand the effort needed to organize and run big time tournaments. I hope that you are able to lend your expertise to the efforts of others as the issues involved with running ethical and fair tournaments are ironed out.

Greg H.

I have always maintained that the sheer size of the fields at the WSOP, especially the main event, has made managing WSOP tournaments without human errors such as a the chip-up error almost impossible.

This problem, along with problems with marked cards and labor actions by dealers, may force Harrah's to finally consider replacing cards, chips, and dealers with an electronic system.

If fields of 2000+, 5000+, and 8000+ are almost impossible to manage properly, what will happen 5-10 years from now when the main event might have as many as 30000 or even 40000 players, depending on whether Texas Hold'em catches on in the East and Southeastern Asian markets (including the behemoth that is Mainland China)?

The WSOP main event chip discrepancy highlights the fact that we need uniform standards in the tournament poker industry to prevent this type of error. The integrity of tournaments should be priority number one. The World Poker Association will address these standards through committees and input from the membership. Individuals and organizations need to join the WPA to participate in the process of protecting the future of our great sport.

Jesse Jones
Founder
World Poker Association