Second Guessing and the Media

Gearing up here for this NCAA Final tonight between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Villanova Wildcats. I actually had Villanova making it this far in my bracket -- which is otherwise a dumpster fire -- although I didn’t think my Heels would be there, too.

I can say “my” Heels as an alum and lifelong fan. Perhaps I was too close this year to recognize UNC’s strengths -- namely a deeper roster than most as well as a big size advantage that here at the end of the season has routinely translated into a big edge on the boards. Of course, ‘Nova has shot lights out over the last three weeks, a trend that tends to make rebounding less important. I’m leaning toward thinking the Wildcats have a small edge as tip-off nears, but who knows?

Amid the lead-up came a diverting quote from UNC head coach Roy Williams, something that gave the sports talk shows something to focus on today. It came after the win versus Syracuse on Saturday night during the postgame presser, and it kind of reminded me of some of the poker-related jibber jabber from last week.

Williams actually started the press conference in a bit of an ornery mood, early on cutting off any questions about whether or not the 65-year-old coach plans to retire any time soon. (The answer is no.) Later, after the players took their questions, it was Williams’s turn, and the first question came from John McCann of the Durham-based newspaper The Herald Sun.

McCann began by saying “we love to second guess you, coach,” then asked kind of a pointed question that if you think about it more or less challenged the idea that the coach has has any idea at all about the decisions he makes.

Noting how Williams had “stuck to [his] guns” as far as line-up choices went this year, McCann asked “How much of that during the season was total confidence in your guys versus a coach hoping that his guys would get it together?”

“Well, John, take this the way it’s intended,” Williams began. “Not to be as critical, but I’m a hell of a lot smarter about basketball than you guys are. I mean, I’m serious. What do you do after basketball season’s over with? You cover baseball. What do you do after baseball’s over with? You cover football. I don’t take any breaks.”

From there Williams stepped back to add a more general observation about the media’s relationship to the sports they cover, in particular with regard to college hoops.

“This year more than ever I heard announcers and writers question things... more than I’ve ever heard. And one of the other guys said ‘you know, we’re not in the locker room, we’re not at practice every day....’ If you asked me if I’m as smart a sports fan as you, I’d say probably not, ’cause I don’t work on those other sports. But I do see our guys in the locker room every single day....”

From there Williams pointed out how the team has had 98 practices this year, and after polling the room he determined a couple of the reporters had each been to one of them. “I would never criticize somebody about something that they know a heck of a lot more about.... But it is, it’s journalism to a certain degree today.”

“So it wasn’t stubbornness,” he concluded, alluding back to the larger question about line-up decisions. “It was intelligence.”

As a UNC fan, I find myself questioning Williams’s coaching decisions plenty of times. A lot, even, and certainly a lot more than I questioned Dean Smith when he was on the Heels’ bench. But all fans do that, especially when it comes to the teams for which they root and therefore (likely) have a kind of inherent bias affecting their judgment. It’s part of what makes following sports fun to do.

I do like his point, though, about the sports media tending toward “hot takes” and angrily forwarded criticisms that more often than not aren’t based in well intentioned argument supported by good reasoning and supporting evidence, but rather just designed to “stir the pot” (and perhaps gets some extra clicks online).

I say Williams’s response got me thinking a little of some of the back-and-forthing from last week regarding the so-called “poker media” and its relationship to those they cover. That’s a discussion I couldn’t care less about, really, and not just because I consider myself a guy who writes about people who play cards (to again evoke Benjo DiMeo’s line) and not full-fledged “media.”

No, I don’t find the topic that meaningful because I instinctively adopt the position of humility being recommended by Williams, at least when it comes to reporting on poker players and what they do at the tables. One of the detours in last week’s convo had to do with the relative poker knowledge among those reporting on tourneys. I’d agree it’s a requisite. I’d also agree that possessing something less than the knowledge of those being reported about should automatically suppress the impulse to “second guess.”

Not only do I not second guess, I don’t guess anything at all. Doing so would be more akin to reporting on yourself than someone else.

Photo: “Roy Williams at a Press Conference for the University of North Carolina Tarheels” (adapted), Zeke Smith. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Partouche Postscript

“They paid it!”

So tweeted Matt Savage, serving as tournament director for the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes, France this week. Savage was caught in the middle of this week’s controversy over the failure to honor a purported €5 million guarantee for the PPT’s Main Event.

Yesterday PPT’s CEO Patrick Partouche confirmed that from the organizers’ point of view there never had been such a guarantee, and thus the prize pool of about €4.26 million would stand. Partouche further announced that this fifth year of the PPT would be the last, a decision seemingly prompted by distaste at players’ negative response to the news there would be no overlay.

Today we learn the decision has been made by the PPT to add the more than 700,000 Euros to make the prize pool €5 million after all. Such was the news tweeted by Savage.

Again the announcement of the change was made by Patrick Partouche prior to his delivery of the charge to “shuffle up and deal.” A letter including his comments has also begun to circulate, including being posted over on Two Plus Two.

There Partouche reiterates that the tournament’s official rules never included anything about a €5 million guarantee, although he acknowledges some were misled “by the way this event was promoted in the media and the confusion that since followed.” He then notes that he’s “asked the Partouche group to bear the consequences and make up the difference” and add €736,880 to the prize pool.

There is a French law, apparently, that limits the amount of money a casino can add to a prize pool in this way, so that will have to be sorted out somehow. (That law also makes the whole idea of a “guaranteed” prize pool theoretically hard to fathom.) In any event, players are glad -- especially those who have now made the money, as the cash bubble has already burst.

Just like yesterday’s announcement that the PPT was finished, today’s news caught most by surprise. My friend Benjo -- who like Savage was also kind of caught in the middle yesterday in his role as a reporter -- tweeted when he arrived for Day 4: “Just got in the Cannes casino, got welcomed with the news that Partouche is actually honoring the €5M prize-pool. #wow #rewow”

The letter containing the announcement continues, with Partouche (pictured at left) adding a few more statements of support for his colleagues (or “troops”) and recognizing that all are prone to mistakes.

“That being said,” he adds, “I cannot now go back on my word and therefore my decision stands and the PPT will be no more.” That reaffirmation remains sad news for many, including staff and media for whom the PPT provided not insignificant employment opportunities.

As I concluded yesterday, it is difficult to judge or assign blame here, although there was obviously a lot of miscommunication regarding the terms of the tournament and that led to significant problems with how it has proceeded this week.

Some are reacting to the news by citing the many other recent examples of miscommunication and/or false (or misleading) “guarantees” such as exemplified by online sites like Full Tilt Poker, UltimateBet, and Absolute Poker, the debacle that was Epic Poker League, and countless other scandals involving various companies and individuals. I don’t really think this incident belongs in the same category of those other egregious failures, actually, although I can understand the inclination to step back and once again talk about poker as a whole being plagued by such.

Just as money is a crucial element of the game -- as some insist, the game is meaningless without it -- perhaps that very fact ensures that conflict and (sometimes) controversy will necessarily ensue. After all, the game itself is a kind of fight over money, one the very rules of which encourage combatants to mislead one another with false promises and deceit.

No PPT For You!

Am waking today to somewhat dramatic news from the Partouche Poker Tour. After a day’s worth of simmering from players regarding the apparent failure of the PPT to honor a guarantee for this year’s PPT Main Event, the tour’s CEO Patrick Partouche has announced there will be no more PPTs going forward.

News of yesterday’s controversy filtered over the intertubes via forum postings, tweets, and eventually a few articles.

While certain details are disputed, the PPT had apparently been advertising a €5 million guarantee for this year’s Main Event for some time, with print ads, website banners, and statements in interviews suggesting as much.

Ultimately 573 players entered the €8,500 buy-in tournament, with some re-entries as well. When it was announced the top 57 finishers would be dividing prize money totaling €4,264,580, many players vented their displeasure that there would not be an overlay and the supposed “guarantee” wouldn’t be honored.

Lots of back-and-forthing (or tête-à-tête-ing) ensued, much of it sounding as though it involved PPT officials characterizing the “guarantee” as merely an “estimate.” One player, Peter Jetten, even tweeted that “One of the head Partouche people told me ‘this was not a guarantee but a marketing trick.’”

Posters in a thread on the Two Plus Two forum helped document what appeared to have been changes to website banners occurring after the final prize pool had been announced, taken by most as further attempts to remove evidence of earlier claims of the guarantee.

There was much speculation about what might happen next, including some entertaining ideas of the PPT switching course and honoring the guarantee. But I don’t believe I saw anyone anticipating PPT CEO Patrick Partouche announcing that the PPT would be shutting down altogether at the conclusion of this week’s Main Event, meaning Season 5 would be its last. A tweet from Jonathan Duhamel expressing his surprise is indicative of many of the reactions I’m seeing in my timeline.

Benjo is at the PPT reporting for Winamax, and he was there jotting down notes as Partouche made his announcement. In his report on the announcement, Benjo quotes Partouche describing the past success of the tour, his dismay at suggestions that his family was dishonest in any fashion, and delivering the message that this would be “la dernière édition du Partouche Poker Tour.”

Partouche also added some complaints about young ego-driven players fueled by a need for recognition while noting further that “la cagnotte de 5 millions d'euros n'a jamais été garantie où que ce soit dans notre communication” -- i.e., the PPT had never made a €5 million guarantee part of its promotion of the Main Event.

The PPT started in 2008 and over five seasons had grown into a well-known and (for some players and media) a well-liked stop on the professional tournament circuit. A few controversies have arisen at Partouche over the years, most notably the disqualification of the German player Ali Tekintamgac from the Main Event final table two years ago following cheating accusations. One gets the sense those earlier incidents helped provide significant context for this week’s conflict between players and tournament organizers, causing some to be less patient with the PPT than they might have been otherwise.

From afar it certainly sounds as though a promise was broken, or at the very least many were misled. Of course, here in the U.S. we’re up to our necks in a presidential campaign at the moment, with “guarantees” being delivered left and right. And unfortunately many of us instinctively understand such promises to be mostly “marketing tricks,” evidence of the ever-widening divide between image and reality in politics.

We like to think that in poker, the meaning of one’s “word” has a special significance. Talk of tournament “guarantees” -- in any language -- is generally understood to mean exactly what it sounds like it means. And in the majority of cases, it does.

To pursue the comparison further, entities like the PPT or other organizations might be said to create their own private realms over which they preside. And players “vote” or at least make known their positions regarding those organizations in various ways, including by putting up buy-ins and in some cases broadcasting their pleasure or annoyance with how the events were governed.

That said, these entities are hardly to be thought of as democracies. Patrick Partouche’s announcement shows that.

(EDIT [added 12:40 p.m.]: A video of Patrick Partouche making the announcement has been posted on YouTube. The first four-and-a-half minutes are in French at which point he switches to English.)

J’Accuse! Tekintagmac at WPT Championship

Day 4 of the World Poker Tour’s Championship event, a $25,000 no-limit hold’em tournament that once upon a time stood out as one of the few events on the calendar with a greater than $10K buy-in, gets underway later today at the Bellagio. Heading into today’s play, 52 of the original 220 players are still with chips.

Sam El Sayed is the current leader, with Nenad Medic close behind. There are a number of other familiar names left, including David Williams (gunning for a repeat of last year’s WPT Championship triumph), Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Doyle Brunson, and several others.

However one player in particular, returning today to a short stack (45th of 52), has gotten an inordinate amount of attention over the first three days of play. I’m referring to Ali Tekintagmac, the German player who was disqualified just prior to the start of the final table of the Partouche Poker Tour Grand Final last November after being accused of cheating.

If you aren’t familiar with Tekintagmac’s story, I gave a summary of it here -- “No Cannes Do: On the Disqualification at Partouche” -- which was in fact a rundown of Benjo’s comprehensive report on the situation. Not only did Benjo cover what was alleged to have happened at Cannes back in September (when the Grand Final played down to a final table) and the disqualification of Tekintagmac in November on the eve of the final table playing out, but he also gives further background on earlier suspicions of Tekintagmac having cheated at events in Europe, too.

At Cannes, Tekintagmac was accused of having collaborated with a couple of faux bloggers during the event in order to gain a competitive advantage. After examining video evidence, PPT officials determined the reporters had been catching glimpses of Tekintagmac’s opponents’ hole cards, then signaling to the German. Many suspected a similar method had been employed by Tekintagmac at earlier events, stretching back (at least) several months into the spring of 2010.

Following his disqualification at Partouche, Tekintagmac filed a lawsuit in February against the PPT for €1.5 million, an amount representing first-place prize money plus damages. A French court first considered the case on April 1st of this year, and Benjo was there to report on that preliminary hearing. Here’s his full report (in French), or you can click here for a list of highlights from Benjo in English.

The upshot of what happened at the preliminary hearing was that the PPT has to try to prove once and for all that cheating did occur before anything else can happen. If that can be done, the slander case gets dismissed; if not, it will proceed. Benjo surmises that it will probably be difficult for the tourney officials to prove the cheating, but he also thinks Tekintagmac isn’t likely to win his case either. They’ll be returning to court on June 24th to see how the investigation into the cheating has gone.

As I mentioned, there was a lot of suspicion surrounding Tekintagmac prior to Partouche, which likely led to his receiving closer scrutiny at Cannes. I haven’t seen any tapes or photos from the PPT event, although there have been other items -- such as this video from the final hand of the €3,200 WPT Spanish Championship in May 2010 (won by Tekintagmac, which, not incidentally, earned him his seat in the WPT Championship) -- that have drawn a lot of attention by those interested in what might have happened at Cannes. Players and reporters have shared anecdotes and photos, too, as they’ve considered the likelihood of Tekintagman’s guilt.

The allegations most certainly led to the somewhat altered guidelines for media for the 2011 WSOP which I mentioned last week. I’m guessing they also caused the WSOP to be even more vigilant with regard to handing out credentials, too.

Anyhow, over the last few days it sounds as though Tekintagmac’s appearance at the WPT Championship caused quite a fuss among some of the players and others who believed the “cheater” shouldn’t be allowed to play.

Daniel Negreanu, for one, appears to have embarked on a bit of a campaign at the Bellagio, tweeting about Tekintagmac’s presence, reporting how he’d “called him out,” and suggesting to those running the event that “he should be banned.” Negreanu even took a photo of Tekintagmac, sending it out with the note “This is a picture of the cheater.” Kid Poker then tweeted that he was going to talk to the WSOP officials to try to ensure Tekintagmac wasn’t going to be allowed to play at the Series this summer.

The outrage appears to have died down a bit since Sunday, although I imagine if Tekintagmac were to score a double-up or two early today and somehow make it deeper in the WPT Championship, it will probably revive.

Benjo decried the “mob mentality” being shown by Negreanu and others regarding Tekintagmac, and I tend to agree with that view. It’s definitely a lamentable situation, one that has succeeded both in increasing players’ discomfort and making the business of reporting on tourneys more complicated, too. But it seems to me that it would be even more lamentable to see officials at one event refuse a player’s entry based on yet-to-proven allegations that he cheated in another.

What’s your judgment? (No rushing!)

No Cannes Do: On the Disqualification at Partouche (2 of 2)

Picking up again today on the topic of the cheating that occurred during the Grand Final of the Partouche Poker Tour.

Yesterday I shared details of the story, primarily provided by Benjo (in his article for Winamax), of how a player had committed “fraudulent actions” in order to gain an advantage in that tournament. Those actions involved having a couple of accomplices who posed as tournament reporters. These individuals stole glances at the player’s opponents’ hole cards as they stood near the tables, then somehow conveyed information to the player about the hands (by way of signals, I imagine). A review of video recordings confirmed for officials that cheating had occurred, and thus the decision was made to disqualify the player just prior to the start of the tournament’s final table.

While any form of cheating or attempted cheating in a poker tournament certainly would be of interest to media covering the event, this particular story and variety of cheating especially grabs the attention of those of us who report on live events, given the way it employed a couple of “faux” bloggers/reporters in the execution of the scheme. It didn’t work here, but many suspect the player had successfully used the method to cheat in previous tournaments. And since the method depended in part on both the way media credentials are conferred as well as the access reporters are given when covering tournaments, some tourney reporters wonder if perhaps there will be repercussions going forward affecting how they currently do their jobs.

Today I wanted to address the way credentials are handed out as well as the amount of access reporters generally are given when reporting on events. I also wanted to add a word or two about the “ethics” of tournament reporting as I understand them and as I think most conscientious reporters do, too.

Most of my live tournament reporting has been at the World Series of Poker, although I have had the chance to report from EPT and NAPT events as well. In each case, I had to apply for and receive a credential in order to report on the event. Being identified with a particular publication or site is generally mandatory for one to receive a credential. I believe the WSOP will sometimes grant freelancers a one-day pass or provide other, special accommodations, but I’m not sure of the details there.

While working alongside colleagues representing other sites, I haven’t personally experienced much that would suggest to me that the vetting process for handing out credentials is not adequate. That is to say, it has seemed to me that those running these events have practiced due diligence for the most part when it comes to giving out credentials. However, this story did make me recall one incident from a couple of years ago in which I was covering an event at the WSOP and noticed a couple of reporters representing a site I’d never heard of before.

The tournament had gotten down to the final three tables, and as I recall it was just myself and a colleague from PokerNews, a few folks from other known sites like CardPlayer, PokerListings, and others, then these two fellows.

Eventually we figured out they were there covering just one player -- in fact, if I’m not mistaken, the website they represented was named after the player. They didn’t seem to be taking many notes or leaving to write on laptops, though, and so it mostly appeared they were just there to support their friend. It seemed awkward to me, though I had no reason to suspect these two were helping the player in any fashion whatsoever beyond simply being there to cheer him on.

Of course, that in and of itself is inappropriate -- that is, for a player to have a couple of “fans” (essentially) right at the table with him while he played -- and I think the WSOP eventually took note. I recall this year hearing frequent announcements to media that they were not permitted to “sweat” players during events. The fact is, there are many, many examples of folks in the poker media who are friends with players. Realizing that it could very well make some players uncomfortable to have reporters in close proximity to the tables who were outwardly supporting one of their opponents, the WSOP took steps to prevent such from happening.

As I say, I think the vetting process is generally fine at the WSOP (where I’ve had the most experience), and while I know this is handled differently from tour to tour, tournament directors obviously need to remain wary of whom they allow access to their events. One imagines the disqualification at Partouche will highlight that necessity going forward.

Speaking of access, it has been my experience that up until the final table -- which is often either removed to a special stage or set aside in some fashion so as to create different conditions for reporters -- those of us charged with writing about events are generally allowed to walk freely between tables and stand wherever we wish nearby so as to record the action.

That said, there are a number of “unwritten” rules most conscientious reporters follow when reporting. Things we can and can’t do, you might say.

We maintain a reasonable distance from the table when watching, remaining as inconspicuous as possible. We move around a lot, not standing behind a single player or at a particular table for too long. We generally do not speak to players, dealers, or anyone else out on the floor, other than perhaps to ask about a previous hand (during a break in the action). We don’t “root” for players, even if we have friends or favorites among them. And we never get involved when a dispute occurs, even if we might know the answer to a question that has arisen.

It’s crucially important, really, for reporters to do everything possible to avoid having any influence whatsoever on the action. I remember once during a WSOP Main Event noticing (along with a couple of other reporters) that at one particular table they were playing with incorrect blinds. If I recall, they had accidentally moved up a level at the one-hour mark rather than playing the level for two hours as scheduled. But we kept it to ourselves; it was an error those running and participating in the event had to figure out, and those of us reporting could not help them do so.

There’s one other “unwritten” rule that I follow, and I think most other reporters do as well. Don’t look at a player’s hole cards. Just don’t.

Most players are good at protecting their cards, but there are some -- a lot, in fact -- who are not. If you’ve ever played live poker, you’ve probably sat next to someone who can’t seem to keep his or her cards hidden properly. Inexperienced players in particular (whom one encounters quite often at the WSOP) will tend to have trouble keeping their cards covered.

Even so, as a reporter following the action, it is usually a relatively simple matter not to look. Like everything involved with tourney reporting, it takes a bit of training. But after a while it becomes instinctive, and you just don’t look.

Think about it. You see someone’s holding. Then comes the action, and when the player whose cards you’ve seen check-raises big, you know he’s bluffing. Now you, too, better put on your best poker face, not allowing anyone to see by the look in your eyes that someone is trying to pull something here.

As another of my reporter-colleagues noted on Twitter last week, he does “everything humanly possible to avoid” looking at anybody’s cards, because “nothing good comes out of it.” He speaks for me there, and probably for just about every other tourney reporter who has had even a little bit of experience on the floor.

I’m hopeful that since it is presently the case that the great majority of tourney reporters do have ethical standards which include being very careful to avoid influencing action, the cheating that occurred at Partouche does not inspire TDs to reduce reporters’ access going forward. And if the incident perhaps causes those managing events to become more careful about giving out credentials in the future, well, I think that would be a positive development that would in fact decrease any need at present to restrict reporters’ access.

Have to add, though, as intriguing as this PPT story is, I hate that it happened.

Maybe it is because of my experience as a reporter and familiarity with the scene, but when I watched that video of the earlier event -- the one in which it appears cheating is taking place -- I felt a little sick inside. Was like watching some sort of accident caught on tape or something, the kind of thing that fills the viewer with dread. (I can’t even bring myself to show a still or embed it here.)

As Benjo noted, the video doesn’t necessarily prove anything, but knowing what we know about the player and what was judged to have happened in Cannes, it indeed looks “un peu étrange.” More than un peu, actually.

I hate the fact that this incident could cause players to become suspicious of reporters, though would completely understand if it did. But I do believe good will come from it, primarily in the form of greater diligence by all to help ensure the integrity of these events we love to play, cover, and follow.

No Cannes Do: On the Disqualification at Partouche (1 of 2)

You might have heard something about some cheating having occurred during the recently-completed Grand Final of the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes, and a player who made the final table being disqualified before the tourney’s conclusion as a result. Then again, maybe you didn’t -- the story first broke last Friday (November 5th), and so was understandably eclipsed somewhat over the last few days by the conclusion of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Needless to say, the story definitely got the attention of those of us who have been involved with reporting on live tournaments. Any form of cheating in professional tournament poker cannot be tolerated, obviously. But here we have an incident which apparently involved a player being aided by faux “reporters” (i.e., accomplices) in order to gain an unfair edge on his opponents. In other words, what happened at PPT not only should affect how poker tourneys are managed going forward, but has the potential to affect the reporting on those tourneys, too.

And -- for those among us who also enjoy a good detective story -- well, this here is the cat’s pajamas.

I wanted to say something about what happened -- in particular to comment on how it has drawn attention to poker reporters’ methods and standards -- though I realized some may not know all of the particulars of the story. Today’s post, then, will provide a summary of that, and tomorrow I’ll come back with a few observations about poker tourney reporting.

To be more specific, what I’d primarily like to do today is share with you what my colleague Benjo wrote last weekend about the cheating that occurred at Partouche. Benjo frequently reports on the European circuit and was there covering the PPT final table last weekend. Thus he has a lot of first-hand knowledge of the details surrounding the disqualification of Ali Tekintamgac, a German player whom I believe has been on the European scene for about a year.

Benjo wrote a long account of the “Affaire Tekintamgac” for Winamax last Saturday in which he reviewed all of the “facts, rumors, and opinions” with which he was familiar. It’s the most comprehensive overview of the incident I’ve seen, made all the more valuable because of Benjo’s own high journalistic standards.

French is actually the one foreign language I have some hope in following. I studied it in the same, non-intensive way most Americans study foreign languages (a few years in high school and college). I also once got to live in France for a year, by the end of which I finally was able to communicate my desires at the Tabac, the pâtisserie, and the TGV station. All of which is to say I can muddle my way through Benjo’s report, the highlights of which I’m sharing here. (Goes without saying, any mistakes in the relating of what Benjo has written are mine.)

The PPT Grand Final was a €8,500 buy-in event that began in September and -- very much like the WSOP Main Event -- played down to a final nine before pausing until November to finish. A total of 764 entered, and Vanessa Selbst continued her fantastic 2010 by winning the event when it was finally concluded last weekend.

On the eve of the final table getting started, it was announced on Friday that Ali Tekintamgac, one of the final nine, had been disqualified for having made it that far through “fraudulent actions.” Eventually it was disclosed that tourney officials had reviewed video recordings of the earlier action and determined that a couple of reporters could be seen viewing Tekintamgac’s opponents’ hole cards, then signaling to Tekintamgac. On his disqualification, ninth-place prize money was then distributed proportionately and added to the top eight spots. Also, I believe that fraud charges are now being pursued against the German player.

Benjo begins his article by referring to an incident at the EPT Talinn event in Estonia in which two German reporters were ejected for apparently having been caught peeking at players’ cards, then aiding one or two other players in some fashion by relaying what they’d seen. That was what folks were saying, anyway, although there wasn’t any official announced reason for the reporters’ ejection.

Benjo actually played at EPT Talinn, which took place back in August. He says he’d noticed the two bloggers before they had been ejected. Neither of them were known by other media, and to Benjo they did seem a bit conspicuous, often standing together at a single table. Benjo also says that among the many rumors that were swirling with regard to these two reporters, the name of Tekintamgac kept popping up. Tekintamagac finished 36th in that event.

A couple of weeks later, Tekintamgac was playing in the Partouche Poker Tournament. The two bloggers who had been ejected from Talinn were not present at the Partouche event. (EDIT [added 12:15 p.m.]: Actually, one was present; see Benjo’s comment below.) Tourney officials at the PPT were made aware of what happened at EPT Talinn, however, and so were perhaps therefore more alert to the possibility of an attempt to cheat. As we know, Tekintamgac survived to make the delayed final table at PPT.

A few weeks after that, in October, Benjo read reports of a tournament in Belgium where three more reporters were ejected, and Tekintamgac’s name was mentioned in that article, too. Thus ends what Benjo knew or had heard about prior to the disqualification of Tekintamagac from the PPT last Friday.

In his conversations with other reporters, Benjo learns that allegations of Tekintamgac’s cheating date as far back as EPT San Remo (April), where apparently it was the player himself who was said to have taken the role of reporter, helping out another player. There were also suspicions of his cheating at the Cyprus Poker Classic (August), and reports that he’d been banned from a couple of German casinos for suspected cheating as well.

In other words, there was a lot of suspicion surrounding Tekintamgac for several months prior to his DQ at the PPT, although reporters weren’t wanting to make those suspicions public just yet. In some cases, there wasn’t enough concrete evidence to do so, thus making it imprudent to report anything. Benjo also mentions how some German reporters might’ve been worried about some sort of retaliation from Tekintamagac should they publicize his being a cheater. (Benjo is careful not to insinuate anything here, but rather is just sharing what others had told him.)

Benjo makes reference to Shaun Deeb’s carefully worded post on Two Plus Two from late August in which Deeb noted an incident had occurred at a European event -- he didn’t say which -- and that the media who were involved were ejected for having helped a particular player. Deeb didn’t name names in his post because his primary purpose was to be constructive -- i.e., rather than sensationalize what had happened and get everyone up in arms about the people involved, he just wanted to make sure those who ran tourneys going forward would be more careful about giving out media credentials and watch for this sort of cheating.

Deeb also was warning players to be more aware of their surroundings and to be more careful about protecting their hole cards. One the PPT story broke, Deeb came back into the thread and confirmed that yes, indeed, it was the Talinn incident in which the two reporters were ejected that he was referring to in his original post and that Tekintamgac was the player being helped.

Benjo then refers us to a couple of highly curious items, one of which is a video showing the final hand of the €3,200 WPT Spanish Championship won by Tekintamgac. Benjo directs us to watch the behavior of the media member with the camera standing behind the eventual runner-up, Robert Garcia Santiago, who does appear to be looking at Santiago’s cards, then perhaps even signaling to Tekintamgac.

Benjo is careful to point out that the video doesn’t necessarily constitute evidence of anything untoward. Even so, it is quite eyebrow-raising, given the surrounding context.

The rest of Benjo’s article concerns the possible repercussions of Tekintamgac’s disqualification and the revelation that he used fake “reporters” to cheat, particularly with regard to the functioning of the poker media.

As I said, that’s what I plan to take up tomorrow.

2010 WSOP, Day 29: Fun and Games

Day 2 of Event No. 44, the $2,500 Mixed Limit/No-Limit Hold’em event, was shaping up to be an especially short second day yesterday. We began mid-afternoon with just 69 players, and well before midnight had already gotten down to just 11. But then came a two-and-a-half hour stretch during which there were no eliminations, and it ended up being about 2:30 a.m. before I’d made it back to the home away from home.

Lost both Eli Elezra and Jim Collopy yesterday, but we have a final table with Gavin Smith (looking for his first WSOP bracelet) and Dwyte Pilgrim -- both friendly, likable characters (in my opinion). There are others at this final table, too, who have some personality and aren’t hard to root for, so it ought to be a decent final table to follow.

You can check in on the coverage today over at PokerNews, but can also watch this one streaming sort-of-live over at ESPN3. After a month of back-and-forthing over various issues, we finally are going to have a few WSOP final tables available online, and this one for Event No. 44 just happens to be the first. Here’s the link for that (I think).

Like Thursday, yesterday was actually one of the more pleasant days working I’ve had this summer. A number of factors affect how the days go, obviously, but yesterday just seemed to be one in which most everything went the way it was supposed to go, and there were a lot of grins along the way, too.

With such a manageable field size -- just 69 to start -- it wasn’t hard to keep track of folks and know who everyone was pretty much from the start. The pace was quite rapid at times, thus creating a little bit of stress on the reporting side, perhaps. But it felt like we stayed on top of things reasonably well as the field shrunk down to three, two, and finally one table.

And like I say, there were some grins along the way, too, such as occurred during the last break of the evening, a little after midnight.

I had started that break counting chips and was entering the remaining players’ totals when I noticed little paper balls landing on either side of me there on the lower tier of the media press box. Looked up and saw that class clown Dr. Pauly leading others in an impromptu game of paper toss. They were aiming for a small plastic cup to my left, and no one was coming close.

My chip counts entered, I decided to do a little trash-talking -- “You guys are pathetic!” I chimed -- and made my way up to the upper tier to show ’em how it’s done. Alas, I wasn’t any more successful than they had been, and ended up providing Benjo an opportunity to deliver the line of the night:

“Shamus!” he cried. “Your balls are too small!”

After what seemed like hundreds of attempts from at least ten of us, Timothy of Bluff Magazine finally hit the target, earning the respect and admiration of all. (That’s a picture above of his winning shot -- and just a few of the many, many misses.)

Probably a “had-to-be-there” kind of scene, but as play resumed everyone had big grins on their faces and that feeling that it ain’t such a bad gig to be there reporting on people playing games. And to be working alongside others who love games, too.

Like I say, check out PokerNews today to follow our coverage of Event #44, and perhaps look in over at ESPN3, too.

Don’t expect to see me tossing paper balls at a cup in the background, though. Unless everyone else is doing it, that is.

2010 WSOP, Day 1: Exile on Hotel Rio Drive

Tap, tap, tap. Is this thing on? Ahem. Welcome, everybody!

It’s the 41st World Series of Poker... actually the 40th anniversary this time, as the first one took place in May 1970. Just seven people gathered around one table at Binion’s Horseshoe for that one. This year there were more than 700 in Event No. 1 yesterday. And there might be 7,000 in the Main Event.

Once just a sideshow, the WSOP is now a full-blown spectacle. A curiosity become a circus. And here I am, among the performers, witnessing all the actors and artists doing what they do once again.

I’ll be here for the first three days this year, then next week am taking that quick trip down to Lima, Peru for the LAPT event. As I’ve done the last couple of summers, I’m planning to keep a running journal of sorts here at Hard-Boiled Poker to go along with my reporting elsewhere.

I’ll be over on the PokerNews’ live blog later today, reporting on Event No. 3, the $1,000 no-limit hold’em event which sounds like it’s gonna attract more than 6,000 to play these two Day Ones today and tomorrow. Will be parked there in the massive Grand Pavilion ballroom, then, for most of the day.

Figured out yesterday that in terms of square footage, the Pavilion is almost exactly the size of a U.S. football field (no shinola). Which means I’ll probably be feeling like I’ve been running back kickoffs for 12-plus hours later this evening when the shift ends. Definitely looking forward to the action starting, though -- to get that ball and go!

Even though I wasn’t on the schedule yesterday, I ended up spending a good portion of the day at the Rio, getting there around 11-ish and not getting back to the home away from home until early evening.

The last two summers I’ve rented a car while here. This time around I’m holding off doing so until after the trip to Peru. Even after I return I may resist renting one until Vera comes to visit, as there are shuttles to the Rio as well as a driver on staff for PokerNews who is around to cart us to and fro if needed.

Without wheels of my own, then, you could say I was kind of “exiled” there at the Rio. Although it was certainly an enjoyable exile, full of things to do and see.

Among the day’s highlights was getting to reunite with several other media types like Dr. Pauly. The good doctor -- in mourning over the death of Gary Coleman (Dr. P’s longtime avatar on Stars) -- brought a copy of my novel, Same Difference, for me to sign. I told him I’d used up all the words in writing the sucker, but eventually came up with a few more to add to the first page. I should mention that Pauly’s book, Lost Vegas, will be surfacing in mid-June. I'll be keeping an eye out for that, and plan soon to challenge him to come up with something witty to write on the first page of my copy.

While spending time there in the media room I also enjoyed hanging out with fellow PN scribe Snoopy, Matt Waldron (of WPT Magazine, Life’s a Bluff, and more), Pokerati Dan, Jon Katkin (writing for Pokerati this year), and others.

Later on I’d visit a bit with Benjo, here again to write about the WSOP on Winamax, Wam-Poker, and on his own blog, “Las Vegas Off the Record.” Benjo and I primarily discussed Exile on Main Street, a fave of his and in fact the only Stones record I presently have on my iPod.

I’ve covered this before here (more than once, actually) -- in the Beatles-versus-Stones battle, I early on went in the direction of the former, although did always like that stretch of Stones records that began with Between the Buttons (in ’67) and culminated with Exile, with Exile being really the only Stones album I’ve consistently revisited over the years.

If you can read French -- or at least have enough to muddle through like me -- you can check out Benjo’s breakdown of the recent reissue of Exile in which he advances a persuasive thesis for why he thinks Exile is the “best rock ‘n’ roll record of all time,” one he would carry “to the proverbial desert island... or at least in the car when driving to the Rio all the days and nights for the next seven weeks.”

Chatted some as well with California Jen and few other PN peoples, including our photographers Flipchip and Jonathan Boncek. Saw Joe Sebok, sitting at the PokerRoad tables, and we talked about the recent end of “Poker2Nite” and his future endeavors. And I got to meet and visit with some other folks for the first time, too, such as Bernard Lee (of ESPN and Foxwoods).

Lee and I talked some there at the start of the $50,000 buy-in Player’s Championship. That’s Doyle Brunson on the big screen, talking some about his good friend David “Chip” Reese for whom the Player’s Championship trophy is named. Last year’s winner David Bach preceded Brunson with a short speech as well, and he, too, said some nice things about the much loved and respected Reese and how honored he was to have won the trophy bearing his name.

The setup for the $50K was actually quite ideal, given the new layout at the Rio. While the Casino Employees event continued over in the Pavilion, they had the entire Amazon to themselves for the $50K. And since there ultimately weren’t more than 15 tables needed for the event -- a total 116 players entered that one -- there was a lot of space available for the players and all of the media there to cover the action.

As I say, I got back to the home away from home by early evening and rested up for these next couple of days. You can follow the action over on the PokerNews site, or, alternatively, check out the WSOP.com site where the live updates are also appearing, linked from the Tournaments page over there.

Okay, it’s time to go rip this joint. And round and round and round we’ll go.

Travel Report, NAPT Venetian: Day 3

Long, long day yesterday, it turned out. Didn’t get out of there ’til 2:30 a.m. or thereabouts, as we tracked the field going from 147 down to 24 in the Main Event. For a general recap of the day, you can read my wrap-up and/or peruse the Day 3 live blog.

They made it down to the money somewhat quickly. About an hour to get down to 129, then another half-hour as hand-for-hand took about a half-dozen hands or so. A rapid exodus followed, but things slowed down big time once we reached 60-odd players left. Was noticing the average stacks creeping up toward the 60 big blinds level then, which helped explain the slowdown, I think.

Players also took a lot of time with decisions, something Benjo -- who follows tours regularly -- told me has become a trend of sorts over the last year or so. “First level of tournament, the button raises for 3x and the big blind thinks and thinks and thinks,” said Benjo, indicating how the brooding seems to happen with every decision, no matter how (relatively) routine or standard.

As we waited for more eliminations, I asked Benjo about his progress translating into French Dr. Pauly’s forthcoming Lost Vegas, which sounds like has been a fun but challenging task for him thus far. Lots of vocabulary for which the French equivalent is a bit elusive, it sounds like. I’m sure Benjo will figure out how to say “pharmies” in a way that successfully captures intended connotations.

A couple of other extracurricular items from yesterday to share. Brad and I had a long discussion about the future with the entrepreneurial (and friendly) Teddy “the Ice Man” Monroe. I say “conversation,” although I’ll admit I didn’t contribute much. I’m a listener, see. A learner. I also focus far too much on the near term, whereas the Ice Man is thinking big, with multiple projects currently, and plans for several more.

Joe Sebok happened by and we gabbed a bit as well. He’s in for the High Rollers $25,000 Bounty event that happens today. I’ll be covering that one with Macon Marc. Seven sit-n-gos, all with seven players each. Winners move on to a final table on Thursday. Plus, everyone gets a $5,000 bounty for eliminating another player. And PokerStars.net is kicking in an extra $100,000 to the player who collects the most bounties overall.

The line-up for the event is nuts. Gonna be like seven episodes of “Poker After Dark” going on all around me today. In addition to Sebok we will be seeing Justin Bonomo, Joe Cada, Annie Duke, Peter Eastgate, Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G, Phil Galfond, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Isaac Haxton, Phil Hellmuth, John Hennigan, Phil Laak, Dario Minieri, Sorel Mizzi, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Andrew Robl, Vanessa Rousso, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, J.C. Tran, and David Williams. And that’s just half the field... many more big names among the rest, too.

Not sure at the moment of the exact schedule today just yet, but I do know there will be two “flights” -- one at 11 a.m. and the other 7 p.m. (PT). Check Brad’s post from yesterday for the table draws, and check out the NAPT site for live streaming television coverage today, too. The event will be filmed for ESPN2 as well, so that’ll come at some point down the road.

As I say, Marc and I will be on this sucker today, and so I better sign off and get prepared. ’Cos you know, the future... there’s a lot going on there. Better be ready. See you later over on the PokerStars blog.

Travel Report, EPT Kyiv: Day 1b

Good morning from Kyiv! It’s yr buddy, Short-Stacked Shamus. Or, should I say, SHФЯT-STДCКЗD SHДMЦS?

The second day of play at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Main Event in Kyiv, Ukraine -- the second of two scheduled “day ones” -- attracted 167 more players, bringing the overall total number of entrants for the event to 296. I know those running the show were hoping to hit 300, but I think that had been considered a somewhat unlikely goal, so 296 ain’t bad.

There are 33 different countries represented, too, which is kind of amazing to consider, especially given the fact that players only had a couple of weeks to arrange to come to Kyiv. We’ll never know, of course, how many would have been there had this event been played in Moscow as originally scheduled. I think in fact there might have been some who came to Kyiv who might not have come otherwise, given the stricter visa requirements over in Russia.

As happened on Day 1a, there were seven one-hour levels played yesterday with no dinner break. For those of us on the reporting side, that basically translates into approximately ten consecutive hours of work -- a bit of preliminary prep, blogging through the eight hours or so it takes to play the seven levels, then doing all the recap stuff afterwards (getting final chip counts, writing wrap-ups, etc.). A long day, then, though not as arduous as some of the days we had at the WSOP.

The press area is located right next to where the tourney is being played, which I’m told is a more convenient set-up than sometimes occurs at these non-WSOP events. Actually we’re all in the same cavernous arena that is the Kyiv Sport Palace, with huge amber-colored curtains hanging down from the ceiling separating the rows of tables at which the media works from the poker tables on the other side. So FerricRamsium and I are continually walking back and forth -- about 50 yards (?) -- between our laptops to the tourney as we gather hands and other items to report throughout the day.

Without question, the most memorable moment yesterday came when a construction crew working near the Sport Palace accidentally cut through the main power line, suddenly plunging the entire arena into darkness. At the time I was on the floor, standing in between two tables and trying to record the action at both.

On my left was Dario Minieri’s table. The Italian had been playing his usually aggressive game, opening most hands with preflop raises and watching his stack go up and down wildly. After more than doubling up early, he’d slipped up and was down around 10,000 or so (from the starting stack of 30,000), and so I wanted to keep an eye on him just in case he happened to bust.

Meanwhile, to my right I had become engrossed in a huge hand developing between another Italian player, Pier Paolo Fabrietti, and a fellow named Alexander Rykov. On the turn the board read . Rykov bet 7,500 into what had already become about a 20,000-chip pot, and Fabrietti called. The river was the , and Rykov again made a bet. Fabrietti responded by pushing all in, and Rykov thought a bit before finally making the call. Fabrietti had Rykov covered by about 10,000, and the pot was now over 100,000.

Somewhat surprisingly, the moment Rykov called Fabrietti tossed his cards to the dealer. He’d obviously missed a draw on that river and had nothing, although it was odd to see him mucking without waiting to see Rykov’s cards. (I ended up chatting about this hand some time later with one of the other players at the table, who said he most definitely would have waited to see what Rykov had before giving up like that.)

It was at the precise moment Fabrietti tossed his cards -- I want to say they were still airborne, in fact -- that the power went out. All of the players at the table instantly pulled out their cell phones and shone the meager bit of light they provided on the table. The dealer leaned forward, anxiously extending both hands out over the chips in the middle. Rykov turned out to have pocket kings, giving him a set. Wild stuff.

At other tables hands had been interrupted midway through, and so those were finished one at a time with the tournament director shining a flashlight. My buddy Benjo snapped that nifty photo pictured above, chronicling the action as we awaited the return of power. Backup generators were cranked up, and after about 20-25 minutes of darkness we were back in business.

Minieri busted soon thereafter. As did Gus Hansen, who arrived very late. He’d apparently bought in earlier, but didn’t take a hand until the middle of the fourth level, and was out at the start of level seven. There were 110 players left at the end of Day 1b, meaning we’ve got 203 total coming back today for Day 2.

The tourney is scheduled to go four more days. No idea how many levels they’ll play today or from this point forward. I did hear that the tourney will be played eight-handed from Day 3 onward (all EPT final tables are eight-handed, btw). Also, there will be television crews on hand for the last two days of play, as I believe they’ll be showing this event in Europe at some point in the near future. There’s also some sort of “EPT Live” feed available online, I think -- I’m sure I’ll learn more about that as we go.

To this point Kyiv has basically been a lot of back-and-forthing for me -- from the laptop to the poker tables and back, and from the hotel to the Sport Palace and back. So not much sight-seeing, but I’m having fun, for sure. Am still struggling to find a good night’s sleep, I’m afraid. Am usually in bed by midnight, but as my body clock still thinks that it is late afternoon, it has been taking me a few hours to shut down the brain altogether. But all in all, so far so good.

Talk at you tomorrow. Meanwhile, you can check in on us over on the PokerNews’ live reporting page. Also, Gloria, Jeremy, and John are doing some location shooting in the city this morning, so there should be some cool video from Kyiv on the site soon. Go over to tv.pokernews.com later in the day for that.