Friday, April 24, 2009

WPT Championship, it's not the economy stupid.

"It's the economy stupid" was a phrase that Bill Clinton used on his way to becoming president in 1992. When I first started playing poker no one ever thought about being a poker professional it was just something that you may have seen in a movie.  Around the time of the movie "Rounders" it was becoming obvious that a few elite players can and did make money playing poker professionally.  Surprisingly those people still make most of the rules as if playing poker was some exclusive club and no matter how much you win or lose the only way in is to be invited.  You could not for instance PAY your way in. Which is of course what makes the World Poker Tour Championship failings so intriguing.  In theory the event is so prestigious that even serious hobbyists would pluck down the 25k to play.  Yet they are not and have not for some time.  This years event attracted a little over 300 people and the first thing out of people's mouths were "obviously the economy has caught up to poker" (people like things in a nice bow, easier to sell to stock holders that way).  There is not just one thing that has caused this downfall.  

Six reasons why the WPT Championship (and the WPT) is failing

1) Woeful mismanagement on the part of the World Poker Tour.  Let's face it, they have had more business models than the american auto industry with similar results.  Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman chose to fight with poker players early on causing a distrust that still lingers today. 2) No one cares to be on FSN.  Or GSN and now that we bring it up the travel channel was just a bad choice.  Players would rather put up 40k or 50k to play on ESPN and I think that will be proven out when the first event is played this year at the WSOP.  My over under is 500 and that would be real strong for a 40k event. 3) Feuding with online poker has proven to be bad business.   The WPT has a pact now with Full Tilt but it is too little too late.  When your players are suing you (silly lawsuit brought by many prominent members of FTP ironically) things are going real bad.  When those players own the company that could be sponsoring your shows it is a disaster. 4) What ever happened to all the debates about the big backing syndicates (Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Sheets/Bax)? I will tell you what happened they either cut off the fat, went broke or just decided it was not worth the hassle.  When times are bad the first thing you tend to do is look at what is costing you the most in terms of time, energy and money.  Backing people is intense you need to treat it like a job.  Babysitting degenerates is -EV for your life. 5) There are too many non-prestigious events taking money out of the poker economy. 6) The biggest reason of all though is that there is no light at the end of tunnel.  Take David Chiu as an example, he actually won this event last year.  He won it wearing Full Tilt Poker gear, when it was time for the heads up event did Full Tilt make it a priority to get him in?  It does not appear they did.  Yet somehow one of the automatic bids goes to the EPT Championship winner (wtf !?!).  Which seems to point to the fact that PokerStars has infinitely more influence on this event than they should.  But the person that pays the bills often gets to have some say.

We have seen the enemy and it is us

So while everyone else is telling you that it is the economy that has caused this sudden decrease in popularity do not believe them.  A very big reason why fewer and fewer people are showing up to these events is because even if you win it will not matter.  The fame and adulation that you would hope for from winning a major event just is not there.  While TV executives often lament the fact that not enough known pros show up at final tables the WPT Championship is a shining example of how even when that happens it does not matter. By the way PokerStars recently signed both Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov, apparently even winning the World Series of Poker is a bit iffy now.  If the organizers within poker want to know who is killing poker all they need to do is find a mirror, no one is exempt, not Full Tilt Poker, not PokerStars and certainly not the World Poker Tour.
Tags: Articles   wpt championship   world poker tour championship  

5 responses to WPT Championship, it's not the economy stupid.

Leave a reply

	Name (Required)
	Mail (Will not be published) (Required)
	Website (Required)