The 2016 WSOP has come to a close. The main event concluded today with Las Vegas native Qui Nguyen winning the WSOP main event, and capturing just over 8 million dollars (before taxes) in prize money. This was the first time I covered the WSOP events and there were plenty of note worthy happenings that occurred over the two plus months of tournaments.
Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the event was the reemergence of two black sheep of the poker world Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. For those who don’t know Lederer and Ferguson were embroiled in the Full Tilt poker debacle that defraud all but a very few top players out of several millions of dollars some years ago. Ultimately, Lederer settled the “Fraud” case with the United States Department of Justice and was forced to give some restitution to most of the players that had their money stolen.
The move back into the public eye was telegraphed by Lederer when he issued a public apology where he took full responsibility for his actions. Well no kidding Howard, who else’s fault is it? In my opinion it is a likely scenario that the fraud that occurred goes a lot deeper than few that were publically shamed.
I spent only a few weeks around poker players this past summer and after only this short time I am not surprised by the perpetrated fraud. Players spend their time taking money from their friends. Sometimes they out play them and sometimes they skew the outcome with less than legitimate practices, and whatever time they are not playing, they are usually indulging in mood altering substances, both uppers and downers. Some even openly flaunt this on their twitter accounts.
While walking by some of the major poker rooms on Las Vegas Blvd this summer, I personally witnessed some of the nefarious activities by players. But despite bringing it to the attention of senior executives at a major casino resort, nothing was done. This is most likely because it is not the houses money that is at stake in these nefarious endeavors.
Just in case my own eyes couldn’t be believed there was the alleged cheating scandal in the 2015 heads up event, and then there was the follow up investigation. Also, there was what I believe to be collusion between the 1 and 2 place finishers in the 2015 main event. This time the WSOP was pretty keen on keeping up at least the appearance of clean game. I didn’t catch anything this time around but that doesn’t mean nothing happened.
The appearance of impropriety on play wasn’t the only thing that reached the national news in the last year. Nolan Dalla was accused of sexual misconduct and assault shortly before the start of the WSOP in May. Dalla is no stranger to inappropriate comments and public displays drunken foolishness. High profile criminal defense attorney Linda Kenny Baden who always goes all in for her clients, as long as their checks don’t bounce(metaphor for getting paid), was retained by Dalla and others to defend the accusations. No lawsuits were ever filed despite Baden threats to do so. For all practical purposes the situation has subsided and no one really cares about it anymore.
Over all my impressions of the poker world is not flattering. On an intellectual basis I’d take James Grosjean over Phil Ivey any day of the week. My insight on this is that the variance is so high in tournament play because of the goofy payout structures. The money differences between 9th and 10th place could vary by 10’s of thousands of dollars. There is no real dependable EV model that one can adhere to. And if you want to apply variance to your models well good luck with that.
I find AP’s to be much more disciplined than poker players. It’s pretty much impossible to find a player at the Blackjack Ball who would engage the indulgencies I’ve seen at some of the poker parties I’ve been too. Perhaps it’s because most APs have been doing it for years and most poker players tend to be younger and unaware of the long term. These are brief insights on WSOP, and given a choice between taking or leaving them, I’d choose to leave most of them.
Nicholas is the Managing Director of Alea Consulting Group, a casino gaming consulting firm with a player centric philosophy. It is staffed with world class players, gaming authors, mathematicians, top legal minds and a variety of industry professionals.
Follow Nicholas and Alea on twitter @byth3numb3rs
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Stick to blackjack, you clearly no little to nothing about poker. Please take your righteous attitude and stick it under your hole cards while you are counting, hole card peaking, card shifting, card marking, computer in the shoe using, bet topping, false shuffling, and other “advantage” plays used at the blackjack table as cheating is much more common in casino blackjack then in casino poker (not saying that none happens). As far as Phil Ivy let’s start with a 1,000,000.00 bankroll let both play 10 hours of blackjack and the 10 hours of poker and see who has more money. To get anyone to bet against Ivy you would to give atleast 10-1 odds
I debated whether or not to approve the rather aggressive comment but ultimately I decided to allow it because I respect your right to have an opinion even though it doesn’t agree with mine. Which is all I was offering My View Point.
Reject it accept it doesn’t bother me.
The point of my comment (which I respect you for posting) is that to compare blackjack to poker and claim the blackjack is cleaner then poker is misguided but I will agree to disagree
Nicholas, is it possible you could expand upon your statements of perpetrated fraud in Las Vegas poker rooms and by the top two in the 2015 main event? I’m not implying you’re off base, just curious as to your reasoning.
Whereas, blackjack as its cheats and methods of improprieties, Peter is out of line to include hole carding in that list. In addition, most of the computer usage was performed when it was entirely legal. If he’s going to take an argument that blackjack is just as nefarious as poker then at least be factually accurate.
There are several methods of Fraud for a complete overview check out Steve Fortes dvd series available at the UNLV gaming research center. A few obvious methods were the marked cards using tinted contacts to know what cards your opponent has ( depending on where the UV ink is placed) This is why sometimes players ask to see your stacks so you put your cards down and they get a clear view of the cards. Also card mechanics are used for player dealer collusion another common method is where for or 5 players are at a 10 -20 game and are signaling each other with their card values. These are only a few.
As far as 2015 collusion (MY OPINION) there was such a big $ difference in place 1 and 2 that players for example if 1 and 2 get 7 and 4 mill ion respectively the players can pull the money so a total of 11 mill and the $ is split based on each person relative chip count so if player one has 40% of the chips and player 2 has 60% of the chips that’s how the money split will occur.
Some times people get emotional and over look obvious inaccurate thoughts so I gave peter a pass on this .
Ok so Joe McKeehen the decisive chip leader is going to risk it all in getting caught colluding with another player? I have been playing poker for 4 decades and no of no player that would risk loosing about 8 million dollars to help another player move up a spot or two on the most closely watched poker game on earth and where they know that every hand is being taped and every card is being recorded. Please provide one piece of evidence of this said cheating. As far as being out of line about hole carding and the use of computers I stand by my statements and can provide evidence
Opinions by definition are not evidence dependent. Let’s say I have some information most are not privied to. I will not elaborate any further on this aspect.
Accept it reject it doesn’t bother me.
I know Ed Thorp who invented the wearable computer for roulette and by extension the blackjack wearable computer. And he used it without fear of legal action for sometime.
Hole carding was determined to be legal by the Nevada Courts in Grosjean and Russo vs Imperal Palace and Caesars Entertainment.
Can you elaborate more when you typed this, “While walking by some of the major poker rooms on Las Vegas Blvd this summer, I personally witnessed some of the nefarious activities by players.”
What did you actually see? Can you go into details?
Some players that I know were barred from other poker rooms for cheating were there. Card Mechanics for sure player collusion using signals for sure. Likely marked cards. Review Fortes DVD series at unlv it will open your eyes. This should not shock any serious poker player.
As a blogger myself, I do not understand why you would have to debate whether or not to approve any comment, as long as it is relevant to your post. You should not pat yourself on the back for approving Peter’s comment; nor should you be necessarily respected by Peter for doing so. To me, ignoring comments simply because they are critical or aggressive is a disservice to your readers and an evisceration of the blogging process.
One more thing: you act as if a conclusion come upon based strictly on your opinion and one based on inside information are the same thing–they are not. Even if you cannot reveal your source, the very fact that you have inside information brings the accusation of collusion at the 2015 WSOP to life and gives readers at least a little satisfaction. However, you do not reveal this in your post but afterwards in the comments only after being pressed. It should have been mentioned in the post, there is a difference.