Actually, though many of us have met and/or exchanged email with
Will Espin, I highly doubt he'd be willing to help out with a
future ATLARGE tourney. In the October 6, 1995 issue of Card
Player magazine (Will was still at the Taj at this point), he
wrote a highly inflammatory article against poker tournies.
I'm enclosing the text of the article here (without permission
from CP magazine). Personally, I disagreed strongly with Will's
views, but I'll leave it to you to decide what you think.
On second thought, I'll admit here that I more than just
disagreed with Will's article; in fact last October I wrote
a 3.5 page rebuttal (nearly complete) because I was rather
angry at the poor arguments he used in the article. I'm
not going to include my rebuttal here to save some bandwidth,
but if you're interested, I've posted it at the bottom of
the ATLARGE web page (http://www.Plainsboro.COM/~lemke/ac/atlarge).
I had intended to post the article to r.g.p., but at the last
minute decided that just writing the rebuttal satisfied my need
to say what I had to say.
--Kman
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October 6, 1995 article in Card Player by Will Espin, entitled:
"What About Tournaments?"
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Many people keep asking, "When are we going to have tournaments?"
I believe that tournaments are bad for the poker industry, and
that's one reason why I have not pushed to start them here at the
Taj. Well, why are they bad?
Most poker players have a very small chance of winning a
tournament. Ask yourself, "How many times have I entered a
tournament and how many have I won?" If you are like most, the
answer will lean toward a very low win-to-entry ratio.
Let's say that the tournament field is 80. Does this mean that
your chances of winning are 1 in 80? Absolutely not! The
probability of an average to poor player is much worse.
Depending on the strength of the rest of the field, it could be
in the neighborhood of several thousand-to-one against.
This makes entering a tournament a very poor gamble for most
players. Please note that I said "most players." The chances of
an experienced and expert poker player to win are much better and
offer much better odds than the price of a tournament buy-in.
The players who usually win are generally the most vocal
supporters of tournaments.
The average player has a much better chance to cash out ahead by
taking a buy-in and picking a single number in roulette.
Tournaments allow better players to win money from average to
poor players much more quickly tan in regular poker games. It is
an opportunity to win from a combined field of 80 players (in
this example) instead of seven or nine other players in a regular
game.
In addition, tournament buy-ins are an all-or-nothing
proposition. That is, if you don't finish among the prize
winners, you do not cash out any funds. The alternative of
playing in a regular game allows the player to cash out whenever
he wishes with more, less, or the same stake with which he began.
If you are among those who look at a tournament as an odds-on good
investment, think again. The average player would have to play
at a level *above his head* for the entire tournament, or be on a
four- or five- hour lucky streak in order to win.
Consider the amount of money invested in tournament entry fees
over a period of time. If you are a lower-limit player ($1-$5)
or ($3-$6) and were to enter 10 tournaments over a period of
time, and the entry fee was $50 (a $40 buy-in and $10 entry fee),
you would have invested $500.
Considering the chances of winning, this probably is a poor
investment. An alternative is to consider taking the $500 and
buying in to a larger-limit game ($10-$20 or $15-$30) in which a
one-hour lucky streak could win you considerably more than you
could reasonably expect to win in a tournament.
Tournaments interfere with the development of solid relationships
between players and cardrooms. Our philosophy revolves around
building a family-type relationship. Tournaments (and jackpots,
for that matter) create a base of players who constantly move
from place to place.
Some of you may be thinking, "He's just upset because it's
hurting Taj poker business when other places have a tournament."
Well, you're absolutely right. That's my point, exactly.
However, it's not just the Taj that can be affected, it's every
poker room and poker player as well.
Looking at the industry as a whole, what happens is this -- the
less revenue that is produced, the less service that can be
provided. Poker rooms can be negatively affected to the point
that staff is cut, tables are taken out, and, to cardrooms that
are on the brink, it can even mean closing down for good.
This does not server you, the poker-playing community. My belief
is that the best thing that we can offer you is good games, 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
Poker rooms should be concentrating on developing new players
instead of vying for the same player base already in existence.
This helps all of us. It introduces people to an excellent form
of entertainment, brings in novice players (good to any game),
and strengthens the overall poker industry.
Does this mean that the Taj will never have a tournament? Of
course not. There also is an entertainment value to consider as
well as the concept of major tournaments.
Major events, such as the *World Series of Poker*, have done much
to popularize the game at a national level. The professionals
who play in these games contribute a great deal to the poker
industry. The tournaments to which I am referring are the weekly
events held in many gambling venues.
Some players like tournaments for the entertainment value and
accept that they may have little or no chance to win. They
sometimes think that it is their only chance to compete against
superior players. This is like those golfers who play in
programs just to be able to say that they've rubbed elbows with
the greats of the game. They too, like outclasses poker players,
haven't a chance to win.
My experience in poker began in the early '70's in Las Vegas.
That was a time before tournaments and jackpots became
commonplace. Of course, the legalization of poker in California
had an effect, however, it cannot be disputed that many top-notch
poker rooms in Las Vegas suffered some ill effects from the
cutthroat competition due to tournaments. As a result, some
poker rooms no longer exist.
We are in a customer service business, and will give the customer
what he demands within acceptable and legal boundaries. What
this all means is that you can count on the Taj poker staff to
approach this issue in a way that is helpful to the poker-playing
public and Atlantic City poker.
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