World Series of Poker -- Tournament Director Jack Effel Talks About Ongoing Summer Series

Jack Effel is the Vice President of International Poker Operations for Caesars Interactive Entertainment and has been the Tournament Director for the World Series of Poker since 2007.

In 2013 he was added to the Tournament Directors Association Board of Directors. Effel is widely credited as being one of the key parts of the growth and development of one of poker’s most prestigious events, bringing the WSOP into the modern era.

Card Player will be checking in with Effel throughout the summer to bring you his thoughts on the poker world’s greatest tournament festival.

Beth Davis: The Little One For One Drop was a re-entry event this year. Is the WSOP planning to have more re-entry events next year or is this year’s event a re-entry simply because it was for a charity?

Jack Effel: We usually do one or two single re-entry events. In the past, we’ve had unlimited re-buy events, but there is a difference between re-entry and re-buy events. In a re-entry tournament, you leave the table when you are eliminated, can re-register and are assigned a new seat and table. In a re-buy event, you stay in the same seat and get handed more chips. The WSOP is against re-buy events because we believe they are susceptible to elements of collusion.

This year we allowed it because the charity had to have an unlimited re-entry component. We did it in hopes that players would want continue to play and raise money for the official charity of the WSOP, One Drop, which is a foundation that provides clean drinking water to needy countries. It’s a good opportunity to hold an event similar to the Big One for One Drop with a different price point to get more people involved in the charity and create more awareness for One Drop. All the proceeds for One Drop go to the charity.

I think poker players in general are very generous and charitable. They appreciate the humanitarian effort and give something back. This is what this event is all about. We had this event last year as just a regular $1,000 as an opportunity for all of us to do something good for a good cause. That was the whole purpose of it.

BD: There are three starting days this year for the main event. In the past, the last starting day has had a lot more players than any of the other starting days. What is the WSOP planning to do to balance the three days more evenly?

JE: The registrations are the way they are as a benefit for players to be able to pick their day. I don’t feel that the field sizes are going to be so unbalanced that it creates an unfair playing advantage. At the end of the day, the average chip stack is going to be relatively close because everyone is playing the same five levels. When you play five levels on each of the days and combine the day one players, day two players, and day three the average stack is still going to be the average stack. Everybody still plays the same amount of time. It’s still one big tournament. It’s just different starting days and nobody is playing any additional time. One benefit of choosing your day is the fact that a lot of people are working and they can’t come on day one or day three. It’s obviously the largest participated in event at the WSOP, so we aim to accommodate as many people as possible.

BD: Can you talk about some of the extra events that will take place after the main event?

JE: Once the main event starts and players start to get eliminated a lot of players don’t have anything to do before they go home or back to work. I want the players to know that there are still more tournaments that will be going on at the Rio throughout the end of the WSOP. Starting on Monday, July 8, we’re going to have a number of Carnivale of Poker events. The preliminary events will consist of $300, $500 and $1,000 buy-ins as well as a $1,800 main event and a $5,000 Open Face Chinese. We’re giving away $100,000 for the top ten players with the highest points. The daily deep stacks will still be going on as well.

For complete coverage of the summer poker festival, check out our WSOP landing page.

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