17
The 46th Bracelet
So for all those keeping track… First, Harrah’s (I am using the title of the corporate entity because I honestly don’t know who is in charge around here and I’m not sure “they” know either) turned this morning’s $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament into a re-buy event with less than 24-hours notice. And then this morning, after getting an earful from all those who had signed up to play in that event but didn’t have the bankroll to keep re-buying, they changed it back into a regular pot-limit Omaha tournament.
Having made it apparent that all it took was a little bitching to get a tournament’s structure changed, those players who were actually excited about having a re-buy tournament today started voicing their complaints about the change to the change (or is that re-change?). So what did Harrah’s do? They added an entirely new event to the schedule this afternoon, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-Buys event, with less than four-hours notice for the players the players to prepare. Confused? I am too.
Remarkably, I think they’re going to pull it off. It’s poker, after all, not rocket science—526 players entered this morning’s event; 117 this afternoon’s—but the lingering aftertaste left in the mouths of all the players is a sour one. Sure, there’s one more gold bracelet and all the attendant prestige that goes with it to fight over, but the sense that we’re all heading straight for an iceberg is growing by the second. Harry Demetriou supposedly got kicked out of the Rio yesterday for complaining about the last-second changes to one event’s structure. More players would be joining him on the street if the Rio’s Secret Police were ever to overhear some of their conversations. Mike Matusow, never one to hold onto an opinion, has loudly lambasted the Rio’s management for the way it structured the HORSE tournament, and his opinion was seconded by, amongst others, Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, Steve Zolotow, and Doyle Brunson.
At this point in the Series, I get the sense that the tournament staff doesn’t quite know what they’re doing, which isn’t a good sign, seeing as the main event looms just around the corner.
