jontm
Coles for the TLDR to come. As published in Poker Pro Canada June 2011 edition
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‘Canadian Poker Tour’ at a Crossroads
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Cardrooms Are Doing Fine Without the CPT Brand, and Winners Are Asking: ‘Where Are Our Rings?’
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Pull quotes
‘I felt pretty let down as the months kept passing and I didn’t have my ring for winning. It would have been nice to wear it, or at least have it for the November Nine’
– Matt Jarvis
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With casinos quitting the CPT, is the concept of a Canadian-based poker circuit just doomed to fail, or is it just not being done right?
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By Jon Harnish
Oh where, oh where, have the “points sanctioned” medium-limit live tournaments gone? Canada is supposed to be going through a poker boom, isn’t it? We have the world champion, a record WSOP showing last year, and online poker – what more could be in our corner?
Perhaps a good look at what has been happening in our own backyard will help explain a few things...
Just one year ago, hundreds of tournaments, with a decent amount of them medium-limit, were hosted by casinos across Canada, even in a down economy. Now, with things in the money world recovering and long before poker’s “Black Friday,” the medium-limit event scene seems to be making a bit of a shift. The traditional stand-alone Canadian stops like the British Columbia Poker Championships and Fallsview Poker Classic continue to be hosted by the casinos that have built their own events’ reputations.
But meanwhile, many of the “mini-series” that had previously been advertised as “tour sanctioned” events are gone. Some say the action is simply drying up, but that doesn’t explain why some new events have emerged: Manitoba Lotteries introduced it’s first large prize pool poker series in April, while the Montreal poker scene in general looks to be experiencing strong poker growth in terms of new events and player attraction. McPhillips Station Casino, Casino Montreal, Playground Poker Club and Four Aces Poker Club didn’t appear inclined, however, to co-brand as “CPT” (Canadian Poker Tour) events and yet still have held some of the country’s most successful tournaments of 2011 thus far.
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Jettisoning the CPT
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On the flip side, starting after the “Canadian Open Poker Championships” held last August, some noticeable changes in the Alberta tournament scene have been happening. While Calgary has been one of Canada’s most competitive poker tourney hubs over the past few years, as well as the home base of Canadian Poker Tour major events, that began to change when Cash Casino announced that while it would be continuing with its major series schedule, it would be doing it without the CPT. *
As part of the same ownership group, Cash Casino Red Deer, located about halfway between Edmonton and Calgary, also pulled out of the CPT, taking away at least four of the most heavily weighted and fattest prize pool “points qualifying” events for those competing for “player of the year.”
In the end, the impact on player attendance was negligible, and good money and great poker continued unscathed.
Though the loss of these “tour stops” didn’t impact everybody in the “points race” immediately, things got worse when another of the most popular Alberta poker room groups made a similar announcement. After their “sanctioned” Alberta Poker Championship in late February, Casino Yellowhead and Casino Edmonton started posting signs in their poker rooms and let players know that future series would no longer be CPT events.
With the departure of these four major venues, months of combined poker days and millions in points-eligible prize pools were out of the picture.
Looking out of Alberta, while Manitoba Lotteries has had previous relationships with the tour, its first major was absent from the promotional company’s website schedule. All available information appears to show no relationship between the events held at the McPhillips Station Casino and the CPT.
Casino Yellowhead was the most recent major series held without the tour umbrella and like at Cash Casino, the casino drew some of the best numbers of 2011 so far.
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Dwindling
A Calgary casino among those that have stayed with CPT hosted the “CPT Finals and 2011 Kick-off” earlier this year, along with several side medium-limit tourneys. Some of the top players on the leaderboard for 2010 decided to pass on the subsidized buy-ins for the $2,200 main event, which only drew 70 players even with staggered entry fees that depended on the leaders’ points finish rank. This time, however, only $50,000 in sponsorship money was added, a far cry from the $225,000 in combined packages put up for the similar event the previous year. *
With a first place prize of a $25,000 sponsorship to be used in dwindling sanctioned events to go with $14,000 in cash, most agreed they could make this much in almost any medium-limit tournament for less trouble than finishing in the top 50, or much cheaper than a $2,200 buy-in. *
Then again in April, another co-branded event, the Chrome Classic, drew a measly 33 entries for the $1,320 main event, and logged some of the country’s lowest recent numbers in comparable buy-in side events. For example, a week later, Casino Yellowhead had almost four times the turnout, with 120 total entries for its $1,100 and 300 for the $500, while the Calgary-based series had only 58 runners for its $400.
Shortly after, another casino event series disappeared from the CPT website, as the Grey Eagle Casino axed more co-branded poker, cancelling*its multiple-day $450 “Road to the WSOP” series that had drawn 300-400 players in previous years. At the time of this article, the CPT website has been down for five days, so it’s difficult to say if more of the CPT events at the Grey Eagle Poker Room have been removed, though several phone calls to Grey Eagle confirmed the event is history.
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Decline
While for obvious reasons those casinos that have moved on to greener pastures are not looking to comment, the promotional efforts of CPT events are definitely on a decline. A press release from parent company “Heads Up Entertainment” in early January stated that they had launched an “online version of their magazine (Canadian Poker Player) to supplement the current distribution model” and that it is the “exclusive magazine in nine of the major poker rooms and casinos in Canada,” also going so far as to say “Despite competitors’ attempts to send their products to these casinos, this approach has been effective in creating a barrier to distribution for other poker magazines.”
The facts, however, point to quite the opposite. Competing magazines, Poker Pro Canada mostly, continue to be prominent in Canadian poker rooms across the country, with new issues every month that are giving advertisers a good bang for their buck. The last new printed CPP magazine appears to have been printed four to six months ago, with the latest issue being exclusively online. Visits to a dozen poker rooms and talking to many players who frequent them reveal that it has been around six months since anyone actually held a new copy, and this includes players keeping a sharp eye out for them on their cross-country travels.
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Where Are the Rings?
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Why the magazine promoting the few remaining CPT-sanctioned events isn’t reaching the players in the poker rooms is anyone’s guess, but there have been significant delays in fulfilling other obligations as well. For instance, each winner of the events at the 2010 Canadian Open Poker Championships was to be awarded a championship ring, the design showcased prominently in advertisements for the series. *
Eight months later, after having spoken directly with at least five of those winners, they were still waiting. While I was playing a poker event in mid-December, one winner I hadn’t met before turned and bluntly asked, “So, do you think I’ll ever see my ring?” He then gestured to a table where, ironically, the prototype of what he was waiting for was being proudly displayed on the CEO’s hand. Another player who had also won a ring – and was willing to pay for it himself if need be – mentioned that he had even phoned the jeweller, who had not yet received the order, now several months after COPC ended.*
Not even Matt Jarvis, who won the signature Championship $5,000 Heads Up Event, with tons of press time ahead of him as one of the 2010 November Nine, wasn’t high-profile enough to be given the ring he won. Rather, he was lent the showpiece long enough to snap a few shots for the CPPM cover.
As far as proudly displaying his just dues to the rest of the world, well, that would have to wait. Matt commented recently, “It felt amazing for my confidence to come in and win CPT’s $5k Heads Up event the first time I played it. Especially right after making the WSOP’s November Nine. It was as gruelling a battle over those four days as the WSOP Main was over the eight, because of the intense action of heads-up. But I felt pretty let down as the months kept passing on and I didn’t have my ring for winning. It would have been nice to wear it, or at least have it for the November Nine, especially. The whole situation really hasn’t sat well with me for months and would make me definitely reconsider returning to defend my title this year.”
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Part of the Deal
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Also in limbo and disappointed, well-known pro John Agelakis had made a deal in his event, leaving him with the ring as part of his take.
“The only reason I made a chop was that the other players were willing to concede the win. It potentially cost me $5,000 that I felt I could have easily won, but I travel a lot and knew I would be proud to wear that ring at events around the world,” he said. “I was happy to make the deal if that was the case. I’ve sent texts and emails. At first I was reassured, now I don’t even get a reply. I’m not really a guy who gets ripped off, but it’s starting to look that way and it’s a damn shame.”
All of the casinos that have since carried on without the tour have had their bracelets and rings on hand to award at the completion of each of their own championship events, many made by the same supplier as the rings promised by the CPT last year. In Canada, it is an exclusive club for the poker elite to sport their rings, a status symbol equivalent on our felts to what bracelets mean to the WSOP.
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What’s Wrong?
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So, is the concept of a Canadian-based poker circuit just doomed to fail, or is it just not being done right?
The first attempts go back over a decade. As far as any major televised series go (that would boost attendance and interest), there are fine lines to follow with gambling regulators in this country, especially regarding online gaming sponsors. Since most TV poker is advertiser-funded programming, it seems far-fetched given the current situation to believe that the recent online poker crackdown in the south will make us the next big option. The bottom line is that producing television is expensive and there just isn’t that much room in most provincially regulated casinos’ budgets. Is it just that we are simply too “population challenged” to sustain a major tour, with so much available across the border? *
I personally don’t believe so, but things need to get a lot more organized and anybody stepping up must fulfill any commitments they make. Tournament results are important to those who compete, as are prize pools that are worth the trip. No one area alone can sustain the amounts of money that have become standard, so in this way we don’t have the numbers of the States.
Spreading the word well ahead of time needs to be a top priority. If the series or venue has a good track record, players will come. An estimated prize pool is important and must not be inflated, or expected attendance exaggerated, just to create hype. Plus or minus 20 percent is a rough number that seems to leave those making the trip feeling that they got the opportunity advertised. If an estimate isn’t offered, it might be a sign that the confidence just isn’t there.
Plenty of satellites help a ton. If casinos are going to commit to an event, they must do so wholeheartedly and give those outside the top 10 percent another way of getting into the event. If a company is hired to help promote, they also have to be fully dedicated and aim for nothing less than a series players can’t wait to come back to.
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Tips for Organizers
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On the other side of the felt, organizers need to make money too, but those that go above and beyond are most successful in the end. Loyal players like a bit of pampering; it comes in the form of lots of play, a free meal, trophies or championship jewellery – and a gift or comp here or there doesn’t hurt. Players spend a ton of money when they travel to play poker, both in and out of the casino, so they need to have a good time and know they are valued customers, not just a quick buck.
Championship events shouldn’t be cheapened or discounted by saturating an area either. Expecting players to skip a series in their favourite cardroom to come play another conflicting event in the same Canadian area is poor planning and in the end both fields suffer. Supply and demand is a simple concept, the fewer events there are the more they are worth, and there is always a balance.
While online and live poker have very different agendas, brick-and-mortar organizers and promoters still need to be conscious of the fact that a great deal of the poker economy circulates on the Internet felts, so they should avoid scheduling across major series like FTOPS, WCOOP and SCOOP. It won’t make or break an event, but definitely will bring in some extra players who will choose online over live if the events clash.*
I am probably one of the biggest fans of social media and the information age out there, but not everybody else is. Professional poker players spend a great deal of their time at the felts, and this is the only place to reach them. This means being where they are, quite simply put, and the magazines distributed to cardrooms across the country do have a major role in spreading the word, and can’t ever be replaced by web alone. One only needs to look at the fields of events that were advertised in print compared to those that were not to find the common denominator. In the poker world, print is still extremely effective.
While every player is happy to see his or her name on website leaderboards, it can never fully replace the feeling of holding a record and snapshot of your successes in your own hands, or knowing that friends or fans in other poker rooms will read about it.
That, and mom or dad still don’t have Facebook. *