Editor
Last week, the World Series of Poker’s online site experienced a major malfunction during the second day of a particularly large, multi-flight online bracelet event, forcing its cancellation. Resolving the situation entailed a significant loss for the company, as it reimbursed all buy-ins, paid out all players remaining in the event, and awarded them a free $500 ticket for the inconvenience. Nonetheless, some players who were in an advantageous position when the glitch occurred feel they have not received enough compensation.
The event was a $250 Mystery Bounty, the seventh online bracelet in this year’s series. The affordable buy-in, popular format, and multiple starting flights meant the tournament was entering Day 2 with 1,100 players still standing.
Unfortunately, many users had issues logging in for the second day, which eventually had to be cancelled due to the disruptions. This caused more issues and questions about how the WSOP would resolve such technical difficulties and amend the situation in one of the 30 online bracelet events in this WSOP. Many players were upset at how it was all handled and waited to see what the WSOP would do.
The players who were impacted received an email from the WSOP Online team explaining how they would handle the situation.
- No bracelet awarded for the event.
- All buy-ins refunded.
- All bounties and cashes already paid out remained with their recipients.
- Remaining prizepool distributed among surviving players in a way WSOP said it “believes upholds the integrity of the game”
- $500 tournament ticket for all players who started Day 2, valid for one year.
- All above payouts to be distributed within 48 hours.
Some players believed this to be a fair way to resolve the issue and about the best the WSOP could do. But not everyone shared that view.
Players Complain Reimbursement Favored Those Able to Log In
One player who was unable to log in and play on Day 2 shared his experience with PokerScout on condition of anonymity:
I got some money back, but not as much as the players who were able to log in and play, so it’s like we were punished for being unable to get in. The communication was the issue. Good communication could have solved everything, but instead, it was like they were scared to explain anything to people.
This player said his main frustration was a lack of transparency regarding how WSOP calculated the payouts for surviving players. The independent chip model (ICM) would be the accepted standard in a normal event, but the bounty format complicates matters.
Another source of controversy was the decision to let players keep bounties that they won on Day 2, when 60% of the field was apparently unable to log in. That complaint jives with what our interviewee said about feeling “punished” for being unable to log in. Paying out those bounties — which included the $100,000 grand prize — meant much less money in the prize pool to be distributed to the other affected players.
The player we spoke to isn’t alone in feeling frustrated with how the money was distributed. Some of those who took to social media to complain had even harsher words, such as DJ MacKinnon:
It’s not clear how WSOP awarded payouts. However, based on such reports it does not appear that stacks were reverted to their size before the technical difficulties began.
Despite those frustrations, it doesn’t appear that the situation has taken a huge toll on other events in the series. Last weekend’s Bracelet Event #10 ($1,000 NL Hold’em 6-Max) drew a field of 1,107. The equivalent event last year got 1,233. Although that’s a bit of a drop, it’s too close to attribute it to anything other than random variance.
A better test will be this weekend’s $500 Mystery Bounty format, which comes with a $1,000,000 guarantee. Making or missing that guarantee may be an indicator of whether the WSOP is suffering any lasting reputational damage from the Event #8 cancellation.
