WSOPC Crushing Poker Players & The Game

I recently wrote a blog post and created a petition against the high rake at the upcoming WSOPC event in Vancouver. For the most part it has been very well received and there are numerous signatures on the petition already. What it lacks though is “big poker name” support.  

1) The Rake/Juice structure at the WSOPC events is as follows

- $300+$65=18%

- $500+80=14%

- $1500+175=10.45%

2) A couple of people have told me that the “Race To The National Championships” justifies this rake increase… This line of thinking makes very little sense to me. At best it is self serving and it may just be plain stupid.

There are a maximum of 100 poker players who will qualify for this. The 100 are essentially made up of circuit grinders (Which perhaps explains why bigger names won’t sign on and support my petition) and a few lucky winners of the big events. However there were over 1000 players in the main event along at the WSOPC in Vancouver last year. Now don’t forget this is a circuit so basically we have 10,000+ players who are all paying extra rake so a few people can play in the “National Championship”?

Who is really benefiting? Two groups…

3) Caesars of course. They are hosting a National Championship which is helping to build the WSOP brand and collecting money from ESPN for broadcast rights. Is any of this money going into the prize pool? No, they have instead passed the cost of building the brand etc on to the average poker player at WSOPC stops around the country.

Also, most of the people who are putting up the money have no or virtually no chance of winning these seats. I am not just talking about weak players.. I am also talking about professionals. Many poker games benefit pros and generally cost amateurs money. This structure hurts almost everyone to the benefit of Caesars and couple of others.

The only explanation for how they are able to get away with it is because poker players are inelastic when it comes to the cost to gamble. They generally assume their edge over the game is larger than it is, and the large potential payout drives them to gamble. This enables companies like Caesars to prey on poker players and squeeze them for more and more dollars.

4) A very small handful of poker players that are getting to fund a freeroll on the backs of a very large number of poker players. This is thought of as really clever when the real victorious party is Caesars. You are paying for it when you have high finishes in WSOPC events and the prize pool is way smaller than it should be. Instead of getting a more frequent influx of money you are counting on winning or going super deep in a once a year “National Championship” that generates some nice broadcast dollars (none of which you will ever see). None of this helps to pay the bills or increase your long term EV as a poker player. What it is is taking away from hundreds of poker players and thousands of amateur poker players to the benefit of just a couple of poker players and primarily Caesars.

Lets look at the Math a bit and how this is horrible for poker players amateur and pro….

5) The 18% number is absolutely crushing to poker players. There is a great blog here by Noah Stephens Davidowitz that looks at the results of a highly successful poker players Shaun Deeb, his ROI, and his expected winnings. What is shows is that a 20% ROI player will be a loser over a 3000 tournament sample 26% of the time.

Even with an ROI of 40% your possibility of loss over 1000 tournament sample is 29%. Basically, that means If you are a live poker player and play 1 poker tournament every day for 3 years, and have a 40% ROI, there is a 29% chance you will lose!

Noah concludes in his post that life as a 20% ROI player really sucks….. He is exactly right and this is why 20% rake on a tournament is obscene. I think most poker players would agree that a 60% ROI is pretty solid in tournaments. However, if you are taking way 20% in juice that knocks you down to 40% immediately… Not looking so good anymore!

For the more marginal poker players who are falling from a 40% ROI to 20%, or 50% to 30%, or 30% to 10% this is devastating…. Its time to step up and stop this. Thanks again @NoahSD for this great data.

6) What have I done? I am trying to get the word out there to players and ultimately management that this kind of reverse robin hood rake structure that benefits Caesars and a couple of poker players is not acceptable to the thousands of participants at their events. Please sign my petition and

7) Tweet Tweet Tweet… This is key. Click here and tweet the following

“In support of @PokerCapitalist and his petition I want @WSOPC @WSOP To Reduce The Juice and increase the prize pool!”

Gl at the tables everyone!

-ThePokerCapitalist