Polishing the Bracelets: Striving for Perfection with the WSOP

In a recent interview with Agent Marco on QuadJacks, Jack Effel said, “If we don’t continue to strive for perfection, we’re never ever going to get close.” In that same vein, I’d like to bring up a few issues that have come up so far this series, and my imperfect suggestions for how to improve upon them.

After Jon Aguiar tweeted a few complaints about how his final table was run, primarily about the new announce every action policy at final tables @WSOP official twitter retweeted the following:

Endorsing a customer being called a nasty word is unacceptable. Furthermore, WSOP’s retweet of this reflects poorly on the poker industry as a whole—that the holy grail of our profession can hurl a sophomoric insult when a person complains.

Suggested Fix:

Unretweeting the tweet was a good first step. Have someone high up in the company personally apologize to Aguiar, and have the WSOP account also tweet the apology and that they’re interested in hearing ways to improve the series for players. Inact a firm policy for the WSOP twitter account, including the effort to respond to all criticisms politely, even if this requires additional staff. This suggested solution will help players keep their comments more constructive and less angry about any errors in the future.

Big names tweeting that they are unhappy with things in the series is likely to hurt the turnout—which is just another reason why it’s imperative that the WSOP handles complaints well, and continually looks to improve the series. I don’t think anyone expects a tournament series of this scope to be perfect, but everyone wants to feel that their complaint was noted and that the WSOP is striving for perfection.

Back to the issue behind the controversial retweet: the policy of having to announce every action, including folding at final tables. Jack Eiffel explained in the above interview that the reason for the new policy was to make actions clear and for the live stream, and that they will continue to encourage players to verbalize actions but not issue penalties for failure to do so.

Suggested Fix:

Apply more effort into making a solid live stream, with higher video quality and more cameras that make it easier to see the action. For novices watching at home, this additional expense could easily pay for itself in terms of more players coming to play at the WSOP, and growing the game as a whole.

Another complaint for the WSOP that bears mentioning centers around the quality of the dealers. Hiring new and inexperienced dealers is bad for both the players and the dealers. One female dealer I had in the $1,500 on Monday, said she had never dealt a tournament before. She kept making small mistakes, and though I was frustrated by the tiny number of hands we were able to see during her time at our table, I also felt horrible for her. She was clearly out of her element and miserable. It isn’t fun for someone that’s hired for a job that they aren’t yet prepared for.

Suggested Fix:

Institute higher try-out and experience requirements for dealers. Also, create a WSOP dealer leaderboard, in which players vote for their favorite dealer in the series, and the top 10 receive bonuses that escalate up to the top spot. Taking this amount from the dealer pool would amount to a very small percentage devoted to the leaderboard overall, yet would create an incentive (both in terms of money and prestige) for being the best dealer.

As the series goes on, I hope that both players and the WSOP can remember that we have the same common goal of trying to grow the game of poker —and we can best accomplish this by working together.