Staking controversy a black eye for Asia’s newest poker tour

The bold expansion plans of Asia’s newest poker tour, International Poker Open (IPO), have been dealt a serious blow following a disastrous maiden event at Resorts World Manila (RWM) earlier this month.

The company’s first big venture outside of Korea following two small practice runs in Jeju over the past year, IPO3 was also the group’s first outing under a new three-year partnership with Resorts World properties and boasted a US$250,000 guarantee for the US$1,050 Main Event.

Photo: Somuchpoker

But with numbers well down on expectations and the promise of a significant overlay looming, players were left fuming to see the field suddenly swell late on Day 1c with newcomers who had been staked and offered special deals by organizers in order to fill the shortfall.

Further investigations revealed that dozens of players had either been offered a “discounted” buy-in of around US$800 or agreed to deals that saw them fully staked but with up to 80 percent of any winnings to be returned to the organizers.

WGM was contacted by a number of frustrated players who had paid their full buy-in only to find the field suddenly padded with new arrivals heading into Day 2. Many were also stunned to see the terms and conditions laid out in the official event schedule suddenly changed at the whim of organizers in order to register newly staked players.

The situation reached a head on Day 1c. Needing a total of 264 entrants to cover the guarantee, the first two flights had attracted just 108 starters combined with 42 on Day 1a and 66 on day 1b.

Yet even with staked players helping boost that figure on Day 1c there remained an overlay when registration officially closed, so when the tournament clock was stopped with 15 minutes remaining for the final three hands registration was re-opened to allow another batch of staked players to join.

By the time chips were bagged and tagged, 138 players had entered on Day 1c – and just for good measure another 12 were allowed to enter after chips were bagged with a shiny new starting stack of precisely 25,000 awaiting when they played their very first hand of the tournament on Day 2.

Most of the genuine players we spoke to asked not to be named, however one who was keen to air his grievances was Australian Jymmi Briggs Jr – a well-known and popular figure in the Asia-Pacific poker scene.

Briggs told us, “I am interested to know if there are any players that played the IPO3 Main Event upset that roughly 45 to 50 players did not pay one single dollar to play this event.

“I made my way to Manila for this event knowing there would be a pretty decent overlay. Day 1a and 1b totaled roughly 105 runners and I knew they would not get more than 70 to 80 for Day 1c. Well I was right and wrong. While they did not get 150 runners that PAID US$1,050, they did get 150 with around 45 to 50 runners that were ‘House Players’ and playing for a small percentage of … any money they cashed.

“As a player, this is shit. As someone who runs poker, I understand what he was trying to do, but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and take the overlay to gain respect in this industry. I don’t know the people running IPO and I am not questioning their integrity, but staking players into your own tournament does nothing more than allow a player to question the series, the game and the organizer.”

In what must surely be a first for Manila’s highly competitive poker market, representatives of rival poker rooms Poker King Club at Solaire and PokerStars LIVE Manila at City of Dreams were among those called upon by IPO to bring players and arrange staking.

It ultimately led to a comical situation on the last day which saw the IPO and an independent staker arguing over which of them had staked the final table chip leader!

Photo: Somuchpoker

The good news is that IPO appear willing to learn from their mistakes in Manila. Asked for comment, they described IPO3 as “a very serious problem” and said, “IPO is going to find ways to solve the problems we met in Manila in the first show.”

They also indicated their intention to contact some players for feedback. However, first impressions are important and only time will tell how willing players are to give IPO another chance.

One area they certainly need to address if they are going to partner with properties across Asia – and particularly if they hope to return to RWM – is marketing, which was basically non-existent in the lead-up to IPO3.

We’ve also been reliably informed that a condition of their deal with RWM was that IPO would bring more than 60 to 70 high stakes Chinese players with them to occupy cash tables throughout the week, which didn’t happen.

IPO subsequently approached Mike Kim at PokerStars LIVE Manila who brought a handful of cash players with him, but PokerStars quickly caught wind and quashed Kim’s involvement.

In what must have felt like a huge slap in the face for RWM – who were innocent victims in all of this – cash game players including the 20 supplied by IPO spent the rest of the week playing at the rival Poker King Club instead!

With the APT holding five events in Manila in 2015, the APPT having recently returned and now the World Poker Tour (WPT) chiming in, there are already signs that the packed annual schedule is having an impact on player numbers at all events in Manila.

Once starved for options, players in Asia are now starting to cherry pick the tournaments they want to attend, which means it is more important than ever to provide them with a positive and memorable experience.

IPO are yet to announce any dates or location for another event, but one thing they have guaranteed is the huge mountain they must now climb to stand out from the crowd.