Anyway, we don’t see this happening again. They’ll figure it out next year.

Erm, I digress.

I have no argument on your points re: public relations and the additional revenue. Your points are sound. However, if the WSOP had already stated that (officially) there would not be alternates allowed, then I can’t fault them for sticking with their policy. And I realize that the Diamond Harrah’s members, VIPs, and so forth will get special accommodation on this day. For many business reasons (customer service, ESPN recording them playing) they should. So, I have no issue with that, either.

The question, I think, is with regard to how to address this issue in the future at the WSOP. Faced with a room full of upset people, I think Mr. Pollack was trying to be sincere in the moment, but I don’t think he’s accurate to say this “won’t happen again.” I understand why he made that statement in THAT room (been in a similar spot before, not fun, just like high school), and by almost all accounts I’ve read the WSOP improves operations every year, but I’m not sure how this WON’T be a problem again. Because, how does the WSOP solve the would-be participants from themselves and their own procrastination?

Physical space and manpower IS limited, and allotted for a finite number of days over 2 months of events. I think it’s extremely impressive that they could deal 3,000 players today. Which means they could have conceivably done a main event of upwards of 12,000 people this year, IF the entries had been spread out over the four days. So, I think the answer cannot be to add additional Day Ones, because what’s to stop this from happening again on the last Day One every year?

For now, I suggest two options for the future. The first would be to allow alternates each Day One of the main event. That does lead to a question of how many each day and for how long does the WSOP accept them on that day, and the chance seems likely that some people would still be shut out. on the last day.

The second suggestion I have is to allow preregistration and walk-ups for all Day Ones EXCEPT the last one. The last Day One would be designated as walk-up registration ONLY, open the morning of the tournament at a designated time, and once that day is sold out, it’s sold out. That way, everyone on that last day would KNOW it is a first come, first serve, gamble. Also, it might avoid the incident with the PartyPoker qualifiers who were supposed to be preregistered on the last day, only to have a snafu that cast doubt as to whether they could play. Under this arrangement, they wouldn’t be registered on the last Day One available.

I don’t think the habits of the would-be participants are going to change much, even after what happened today. Poker players still like to sleep in and procrastinate, especially when it comes to entering tournaments. (I’ve run a home one for some time, I deal with the same stuff on the obvious smaller scale.) I still think the “shut-out” players are in the wrong here, given the ample opportunity to play the last few days. Of course, the WSOP is going to take this into consideration in planning for 2010, but I find it silly the tempest in a teapot this is a bunch of should-be adults acting petulant for their own lack of planning. The customer is NOT always right (e.g. if they ask to alter the entire schedule of the next two weeks by “simply adding a Day 1E”), and sometimes customers should be “fired” by a business, especially if said business has been fair in how it offered its products and services.

Poker is a gambling game — a fascinating game, yes, and one I enjoy personally, but not exactly the most “noble” of pursuits. It’s a shame that these would-be participants had to crystallize an example of that in spades.

Who loses in that scenario?