Post by jdaddy on Apr 12, 2008 15:01:05 GMT -4
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Saturday, April 12, 2008
Debate flares over WPT Ladies Championship
By Jason Kirk
When the World Poker Tour return to Las Vegas next week for its big finale, the $25,000 WPT Championship won't be the only tournament taking place at Bellagio.
The WPT Ladies tour, which officially kicked off this January at Borgata in Atlantic City, will also conclude with a $1,500 championship event at the famed Las Vegas poker destination. What the event lacks in buy-in compared to the big tourney is already being made up for in controversy, thanks to a chunk of the prize pool being set aside up front for charity.
What's wrong with charity?
For the inaugural WPT Ladies Championship, the WPT chose to partner with Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK), a breast cancer charity which the WPT has supported in the past. While the charitable cause is a good one, the method of donation has raised some eyebrows: rather than soliciting donations from the players, the WPT chose to withhold 15% of the prize pool for a donation to SGK.
The WPT's decision to use the prize pool as a charitable trust has upset some players so much that they have decided not to play in the event at all.
Former WSOP Ladies Event champion Susie Isaacs was one of the first to step forward and declare that she would not play in the WPT Ladies Championship. In a post on her blog titled The World Poker Tour Ladies Championship Controversy, Isaacs said:
"As a working player who would gladly have donated 5% of any win I may have taken, I am very disappointed that this event is no longer on my schedule. With the 15% and the juice I don't believe it is playable from a financial point of view."
Lisa Adams, poker player and host of the radio show Poker Talk America, has joined Isaacs in boycotting the event because of her perception that withholding charity funds from the prize pool is unfair to players.
Both women have made it clear that they feel any event with part of the prize pool withheld for charity should be advertised as a charity event, not as a championship.
"No good deed goes unpunished"
For his part, WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb says his company is just trying to do a good deed.
"We're trying to promote women in poker and promote a good cause," Lipscomb said on the Wednesday episode of Poker Talk America, where he appeared as a guest along with Isaacs.
Lipscomb placed great emphasis on the fact that WPT Ladies was designed to give women poker players something that their male counterparts don't have - an exclusive event - and that the WPT hoped to encourage women to play poker by airing the Ladies Championship on television.
He said that the WPT would realize no monetary gains from hosting the Ladies Championship, even claiming to have faced angry opposition from shareholders to his decision to run the event. With his ladies tour now facing new opposition from part of the women's poker community, Lipscomb said on Poker Talk America that "no good deed goes unpunished."
Add it up
While nobody is questioning that the WPT has partnered with a good cause or that it hopes to encourage women to play poker, Isaacs and company are concerned over the equity of the situation.
In addition to the 15% being withheld for SGK, an additional 3% of the WPT Ladies Championship prize pool is being withheld for the tournament staff. Another $25,500 is being withheld to provide the winner of the tournament with a seat in the WPT Championship, according to the tournament structure posted on the WPT Web site.
If the tournament were to draw 300 players, that would add up to a whopping $106,500 being taken from the $450,000 prize pool before a single card had been dealt.
This week Jesse Jones, founder and chairman emeritus of the World Poker Association, wrote a letter to the WPT in support of the women choosing to boycott the Ladies Championship. In it, he said:
"I believe you are taking advantage of women, especially novice women who have no idea about prize pools and their equity in an event. I don't believe for a second, as Steve denied on air, that there is some long or short term gain for the WPT in offering a WPT Ladies Championship."
On Poker Talk America, Lipscomb said that the WPT would reconsider the charity element of the Ladies Championship next season - if, in fact, the WPT decides to bring it back. That decision won't be made until well after this year's tournament is finished.
Meanwhile, the tournament is still on track to proceed as scheduled. The WPT organizers said they are "thrilled to move forward with the 15% donation to benefit Komen to help end breast cancer forever."
That makes it the only championship event in poker to donate part of its prize pool to charity. However, the WPT is taking into consideration all the feedback their getting to consider for future events.
One such suggestion comes from Jones, who brought up the idea of the WPT making a donation to the Foundation from its own coffers for each player entering the tournament, while also asking the players to make a matching donation.
It was an idea the WPT said it would certainly consider for future events, and it would also "absolutely" be open to withholding part of the prize pool from one of its other poker tournaments, such as the WPT Championship in order to make a donation to an affiliated charity.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Debate flares over WPT Ladies Championship
By Jason Kirk
When the World Poker Tour return to Las Vegas next week for its big finale, the $25,000 WPT Championship won't be the only tournament taking place at Bellagio.
The WPT Ladies tour, which officially kicked off this January at Borgata in Atlantic City, will also conclude with a $1,500 championship event at the famed Las Vegas poker destination. What the event lacks in buy-in compared to the big tourney is already being made up for in controversy, thanks to a chunk of the prize pool being set aside up front for charity.
What's wrong with charity?
For the inaugural WPT Ladies Championship, the WPT chose to partner with Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK), a breast cancer charity which the WPT has supported in the past. While the charitable cause is a good one, the method of donation has raised some eyebrows: rather than soliciting donations from the players, the WPT chose to withhold 15% of the prize pool for a donation to SGK.
The WPT's decision to use the prize pool as a charitable trust has upset some players so much that they have decided not to play in the event at all.
Former WSOP Ladies Event champion Susie Isaacs was one of the first to step forward and declare that she would not play in the WPT Ladies Championship. In a post on her blog titled The World Poker Tour Ladies Championship Controversy, Isaacs said:
"As a working player who would gladly have donated 5% of any win I may have taken, I am very disappointed that this event is no longer on my schedule. With the 15% and the juice I don't believe it is playable from a financial point of view."
Lisa Adams, poker player and host of the radio show Poker Talk America, has joined Isaacs in boycotting the event because of her perception that withholding charity funds from the prize pool is unfair to players.
Both women have made it clear that they feel any event with part of the prize pool withheld for charity should be advertised as a charity event, not as a championship.
"No good deed goes unpunished"
For his part, WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb says his company is just trying to do a good deed.
"We're trying to promote women in poker and promote a good cause," Lipscomb said on the Wednesday episode of Poker Talk America, where he appeared as a guest along with Isaacs.
Lipscomb placed great emphasis on the fact that WPT Ladies was designed to give women poker players something that their male counterparts don't have - an exclusive event - and that the WPT hoped to encourage women to play poker by airing the Ladies Championship on television.
He said that the WPT would realize no monetary gains from hosting the Ladies Championship, even claiming to have faced angry opposition from shareholders to his decision to run the event. With his ladies tour now facing new opposition from part of the women's poker community, Lipscomb said on Poker Talk America that "no good deed goes unpunished."
Add it up
While nobody is questioning that the WPT has partnered with a good cause or that it hopes to encourage women to play poker, Isaacs and company are concerned over the equity of the situation.
In addition to the 15% being withheld for SGK, an additional 3% of the WPT Ladies Championship prize pool is being withheld for the tournament staff. Another $25,500 is being withheld to provide the winner of the tournament with a seat in the WPT Championship, according to the tournament structure posted on the WPT Web site.
If the tournament were to draw 300 players, that would add up to a whopping $106,500 being taken from the $450,000 prize pool before a single card had been dealt.
This week Jesse Jones, founder and chairman emeritus of the World Poker Association, wrote a letter to the WPT in support of the women choosing to boycott the Ladies Championship. In it, he said:
"I believe you are taking advantage of women, especially novice women who have no idea about prize pools and their equity in an event. I don't believe for a second, as Steve denied on air, that there is some long or short term gain for the WPT in offering a WPT Ladies Championship."
On Poker Talk America, Lipscomb said that the WPT would reconsider the charity element of the Ladies Championship next season - if, in fact, the WPT decides to bring it back. That decision won't be made until well after this year's tournament is finished.
Meanwhile, the tournament is still on track to proceed as scheduled. The WPT organizers said they are "thrilled to move forward with the 15% donation to benefit Komen to help end breast cancer forever."
That makes it the only championship event in poker to donate part of its prize pool to charity. However, the WPT is taking into consideration all the feedback their getting to consider for future events.
One such suggestion comes from Jones, who brought up the idea of the WPT making a donation to the Foundation from its own coffers for each player entering the tournament, while also asking the players to make a matching donation.
It was an idea the WPT said it would certainly consider for future events, and it would also "absolutely" be open to withholding part of the prize pool from one of its other poker tournaments, such as the WPT Championship in order to make a donation to an affiliated charity.