veeRob’s Blog

So after my blog post and my tweeting about my displeasure with the World Poker Showdown not being up front with the fees they are taking, the Hard Rock poker room has been tweeting incorrect information in protest to my tweets.  Here’s the two tweets I take exception to:

ALL tournaments take 3% out for Mega Stacks. Line 1 of Mega Stack Poker Showdown payout SHEET DISCLOSES the 3%. Just read it~No SECRET

This comment is just blatantly wrong.  The “fact sheet” discloses the 3%, but the payout sheet and all of the promotional materials do not.

the wps tournaments take the same out as everywhere else maybe less! ever do the math on what they take out at the wsop? or the venetion?

Bad spelling aside, this is wrong as well.  In past “Deep Stack” tournament series, Venetian has taken 14.4% from their $340’s, which is $49.  $30 goes to the house, $10 goes to the staff add-on, and $9 (3% of the $300 buyin) goes to the staff.

As for the World Series, this year’s structure sheets show that they take anywhere from 6% to 10%, depending upon the buyin.  For the stimulus event, which was $1000 to enter (not $1000 plus some fee), they removed 10% total — 7% or $70 for the house and 3% or $30 for the staff.  For the $10,000 Main Event, they removed a mere 6% total — $420 (4.2%) for the house and $180 (1.8%) for the staff.  With a bigger buyin tournament with a bigger field, they’re making it up in volume, so they can afford to have a lower tournament fee.

To compare this to the World Poker Showdown at the Hard Rock, they’re charging $10 more than the Venetian did for their $300 events, which makes the tournament fee 16.9%.  To review, they’re charging $40 for the house, $10 for the staff add-on, and $9 (3% of the $300 buyin) for the staff.  On top of them having the highest fees for a tournament series here in Las Vegas, the Hard Rock seems to be missing the point that I am upset that they were not upfront and honest in what they were taking out, and their higher rake led me to believe they were not removing 3%, which would have made their tournament fee a much more reasonable 14.3% ($50 / $350).

Unfortunately, as I said before, the Venetian has posted their schedule for their upcoming Deep Stack series in November, and their $300 events have moved from $330 to $340, making their fees equal to what the World Poker Showdown is charging now.  Venetian seemed to influence the poker industry with its deep stack structures, so I am afraid that they may set a trend of getting away with charging $10 more for $300 events.

To summarize:

• WSOP = 6% to 10% withheld from buyin due to larger buyins & field size (fully disclosed on structure sheet)
  
• Venetian (past events) = 14.4% withheld from their $340’s (fully disclosed on schedule)
  
• World Poker Showdown = 16.9% withheld from their $350’s (not fully disclosed on structure sheet)