I happen to be home in California this past weekend and I heard that the Pechanga Casino was holding a $550.00 buy-in tournament that had not only a $150,000.00 guarantee but also was awarding a $15,000.00 package to the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. This is the same event that Jerry Yang won last year and parlayed into 8+ million. So off to Pechanga I went.

I knew that this was the first time in awhile that they ran a big event because they were remodeling their ballroom. It turned out to be beautiful and I was glad I went. They started us off with 5000 in poker chips and 40 minute rounds, which seemed fair for the 10% juice we paid.

I was running along fine and when we got past the 50/100 level they went to 75/150, a great in-between structure that allows the skill to play out and gives the ability to build chips. After that level we went to 100/200, normal; but then we skipped the 100/200 with a 25 ante and went to 150/300 with a 25 ante. I was surprised at the jump. Going from 300 per round to 700 per round is more than double. I’m not sure why I let these things rattle me as a player. I guess being a tournament director whose goal it is to give the poker players every break at the table by giving them the most chips I can and coupling it with the best structure leaves me wondering why things are done this way.

So we go from 45 tables to 30, then 30 to 20 and at 20 I ask ‘when do we go 9 handed”?

The next answer rattled me a little more; that answer was never. I ask why and every casino I talk to says “Staffing Issues”. Here’s something that really gets me crazy. I can’t seem to get TD’s or Casino Managers to understand 3^rd grade math. Nine handed tables break down faster than 10 handed tables. Here’s the logic.

Blinds come around faster, If you lose a player at that table and you’re 8 handed till it balances, blinds come around even faster There’s less dilution of the cards so you end up getting more big hands that bust each other You’re in position more often, so you make more moves and thus there’s more action and players get busted sooner.

Oh and lest we forget, this is a nine handed game at the poker tables built for nine players, so the players prefer the comfort. Make them comfortable and they play looser and bust out sooner, but hey what am I thinking we only pay 10% juice. Ok so now that rant is over and I’m still doing well. When we get to 40 players and they are paying 30, we are at 1500/3000 blinds with a 500 ante, I happen to look up at the clock and I see the next level is 3000/6000 with a 1000 ante. What? WHat? WHAt? WHAT?

We have to go from putting in 9500 per round to 19000 per round. A pure double exactly when it matters, so now no one has enough chips to play!!; and because it goes to 4000/8000 after that the skill is gone and it turns into a crap shoot.

Here’s the logic:

After 10 hours of tournament play, players aren’t headed over to the live table, so why not let them play at the same skill level you’ve created all day. When you’re at 4 tables or less, you only need 5 dealers or less. Players bust themselves at the same rate pretty much anyway. Because you’re at 4 tables or less, you can handle the room with less floor staff.

On the other hand, you can say; the hell with the players, I’ve had a long day how do I get home sooner? But, why, you’re day is based on salary and tips. Make the players happy, pissing them off can’t be good for you, your staff, your dealers or your tip cup, not to mention the good will from the players saying “Great Event”.

So I’m still in when we get to one out of the money and here are the announcements (don’t forget it just became a crap shoot). The announcement is Pechanga doesn’t allow any player not in the money to be paid, shuffle up and deal. Now in a WSOP paying 680 players or so, I can see this as correct, but in a small event like this, if everyone agrees to pay the 31^st player I’m all for it. Hand for Hand play with a crap shoot structure is devastating because you’re not getting any hands out and by the time the bubble bursts you might be at an even higher blind. Also, I mean hey, it’s out money right? Uh, NO I guess not.

Then the bubble bursts and we’re into the top 30 and we’ve made at least $450.00, so what now? Well it’s time for another announcement of course. It goes something like this:

Pechanga will now allow you to make a deal, the even chop is about 6300 or so and this will be the only time we’ll stop the clock and let you discuss it. If you want to discuss it later, be advised that we will not stop the clock and the dealers will continue to deal. So I ask do you get many 30 way chops. Here it comes: “We’ve had a chop every night of this event so far, including a 12 way chop in the 250.00 buy-in yesterday”

Is it any wonder, with the structure jump, you ended the tournament when you went to 3000/6000! What happens to the seat and the final table jewelry? “You can split it any way you want as long as someone gets the seat, the jewelry you can high card for”. I kid you not folks.

One guy was complaining loudly and I asked him, where do you normally play? I play here he said and its bad dude he continued, especially when they take a dollar even if there’s no flop. I told him that he can get it changed himself. How, he asked. Play somewhere else, I said. He told me that no place else was close and that the games were good. So I told him if he wasn’t going to try to effect change, that he should stop complaining. That’ was when I thought of the title for this column; “why are we so dumb” meaning let’s not take it anymore and the only way to say its wrong is to stay away.

After this article, I’m not sure they’d let me back in, but I’m not sure I’d go to play an event there anyway. I would however council them for free if they’d like, it is what I do after all. It’s such a nice place and they had every chance to make this event into a commercial for their poker room.

Not that anyone cares, but I finished 22^nd in the poker tournament and because I’ve been traveling and running events this year instead of playing in them I was very happy with my play. I was on my A game till the structure took the skill out of the event.

Hope That Helps!!