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Copio ed incollo quello che ha scritto Michael Binger su 2+2:
Hello,
I'd like to add my two cents about what happened the other night in the 1500 euro side event here in Cannes. As you may have heard/read, I was at the table when a controversial hand was played, the floor was called, all hell broke loose, a horrible decision was made, and I got kicked out of the tournament.
Let me start off by saying that yes, I think that very bad decisions were made by the PPT floor staff, and they should definitely look at improving their decision making protocols and floor staff training to eliminate some of the intrinsic biases and inconsistent decisions that have been alluded to in other posts. However, I do not think that there is systematic "cheating" going on by the PPT.
Before getting into the details of the incident, I would like to point out that the PPT people have been very helpful and welcoming to foreigners: they have negotiated great discounted hotels, organized car rides both from the airport and from the hotels to the event. In fact, the "incident" notwithstanding, they have provided one the highest levels of hospitality and friendliness of any foreign tournament I have been to. They even have attractive "PPT" girls who are fluent in French, English, and other languages, and are supposed to serve as translators to help facilitate communication. In addition, my experience with the people in Cannes has been overwhelmingly positive, and I very much appreciate the relaxed French culture, the food, the wine, and the beach. It is really a shame then that many peoples view of this event will be tainted by these incidents.
Now regarding what happened:
There was an appetizer controversy involving Ruben, the main course which involved blatant cheating, and then dessert, which involved me getting kicked out.
Appetizer:
At my first table there was a contentious hand involving Ruben, which he explains in detail in a post. Basically, on the river, his (French) opponent bet 1500 using 3 500's, Ruben raised to 3k using 3 1000's, which are very similar color to the 500's, the French player tabled his hand face up, but over the line which is supposed to kill your hand according to local rules. I don't think this player was trying to angle shoot at all... I believe he thought he was called and was showing his hand. I wasn't paying that close attention, so he might have been open mucking but I don't think so. Chaos then ensues, with the player wanting his cards back and and Ruben loudly insisting that his hand was dead since it crossed the line. In midst of the controversy, Ruben flashes his hand (a bluff) to the other side of the table, which I thought was ill-advised. This just made the other player more adamant in wanting to be able to call (he had top pair).
In most places your hand would not be dead just because you turn it over and push it forward to the center of the table... it is dead when the dealer touches it to the muck. But here, apparently, they have a strict betting line. If you release the cards from your hand in front of this line your hand is dead.
As Ruben describes, initially two different rulings were made in favor of the French player. It was a bit of a circus watching them trying to figure out what to do: nobody seemed to know what was going on and it was not clear who was in charge. At the time I didn't know what their rule was on folding, and I thought it was a tough decision. But in the end, one of the head floor guys came over and ruled against the French player: his hand was dead and Ruben got the pot. Given their rules, this is clearly the right decision, despite the objections of the French player who understandably was upset b/c he didn't see the raise.
Main course:
I was moved to a different table, where soon another controversy developed. On the turn the board read 2248r, a French guy had bet, and an Italian guy (sorry I don't know their names) was tanking. The clock was called, and as the floor was almost at 'one', the Italian guy moved all-in with his big chips. The French guy clearly saw this, and mucked his hand. He pushed his cards past the betting line and released them. The Italian guy then shows his bluff (A7o), at which point the French guy grabs his hand from the center of the table and wants to call. It was very clearly an angle shot, and deserves to be called cheating. He claims that he thought the floor finished his countdown and declared the Italian's hand was dead. I don't believe him. I didn't hear the floor say anything after the Italian moved in, and I was 3 feet away. Moreover, the Italian clearly made his all-in (just) before the countdown had finished.
What happened next was astonishing. For around 15 minutes, about ten floor-men congregated around the table, mainly talking amongst themselves, and also asking the dealer and the French guy what happened. The Italian guy didn't speak French, and only some English, so he had a lot of difficulty telling his side of the story. At this point, I inserted myself in the situation and tried to explain what happened, from the point of view of an impartial 3rd party who was at the table and watched the whole thing. The floormen were very quick with me, telling me it was none of my business! Pretty astonishing, considering I was dealt in the hand, and obviously it affects me if there is cheating going on at my table. Some of them spoke to me in English at first, but after a while, they claimed they didn't understand me and that they didn't speak English!
In the end, they made one of the worst decisions I've ever seen, and ruled that the French guy had the option of calling the raise, which he heroically did with his ATo, knowing his opponent had A7o. The river changed nothing and he won the pot, which was huge. They may have later decided that the turn bet didn't go into the pot, but the main pot was already large anyway... I am not sure since I wasn't around for very long.
Dessert:
During the incident, at one point I was standing 5 feet from my seat and frustratedly trying to talk to the floor people. Another gentleman, who I did not know and was not dressed like a floor staff, told me abruptly to get back to my seat and it was none of my business. To this, I unfortunately replied, "Who the **** are you?" As it turns out, who he was is the boss of everyone there; he ran the show. When I said that to him, all the floor guys started freaking out and yelling at me... saying that I couldn't talk to him like that. They then escorted me out and said I was disqualified. I demanded my buy-in back, and they at least did give that to me. Although that is a bit odd, since they didn't even know how many chips I had. I might have only had 2k left from my starting stack of 20k, in which case they'd be doing me a huge favor and also shorting the players remaining in the tourney. It turns out I had 22k so they were shorting me a little bit in chip-wise equity. Anyway, during all of this I asked what rule I had broken to get disqualified. I was only told "You cannot talk like that," or some such thing.
Now first of all, I was definitely rude. I shouldn't have used the language I did, and I apologized to the man a few minutes later. However, most everywhere I've played poker this would not be grounds for disqualification, rather just a penalty or warning. It may be the case that they have a strict "bad language" policy here and that one offense is grounds for expulsion. If so, I could accept their ruling. However, they would not show me any rules or explain to me in any detail. It seems clear to me that they were overly eager to penalize me because I was insulting to their boss and because I was arguing with them about their bad ruling. Again, I admit I was out of line, but the way they handled the entire situation made me feel that they were making up the rules as the pleased.
Summary:
Clearly there is a lot wrong with what happened in the incident(s) in question. But I hesitate to say that it is solely due to an explicit French bias by the tournament staff, as some have claimed. The similar situation involving Ruben was resolved against the interests of the French player (although before the correct ruling was made, two previous floormen at first made wrong decisions that might have looked biased).
However, there were too many cases where bad and possibly biased decisions were made, and that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. (Many have been mentioned: the bumping of several online players from day 1A to 1B to accommodate bigger name pros is one example of the biased and unfair decision making that was not for the French, but rather for certain American players.)
I think it comes down to this:
Some (but not all) of the tournament staff are incompetent, do not know the rules, or do not care. Further, they make no effort to overcome the language barrier, and so in a contentious situation are more likely to listen to the viewpoint of the French speakers than non-French speakers. This mystifies me, since they hired translators for this purpose.
Further, the attitude of some of the floor was unprofessional. They would not explain the rules or why they made a ruling, nor would they take the time to listen to other viewpoints. They basically had the attitude that I should sit down and shut up. Rather than addressing what I was saying, they would reply, "Why are you talking, this doesn't concern you. You weren't in the hand." Which again is ridiculous, since I was dealt into the hand, and in any case that shouldn't matter. If a player in your tournament has serious concerns about the integrity of the game you should take the time to listen to them, not brush them off and then pretend not to speak English.
The PPT needs to address these issues to preserve it's good name in the international poker community. They need to work on getting better training for their staff, possibly bringing in some international Tournament Directors (these problems would never arise in tournaments run by Matt Savage or Thomas Kremser, for example). Moreover, they need to have a more formal set of rules, which are clearly posted, and are followed rigorously by all of the staff. This will help eliminate much of the perceived, or actual, favoritism and incompetence that has tainted this otherwise great event.
best,
Michael
Global Alias : Flaviorm
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