WSOPE Schedule Change Causes Tension Among Pros

October 19th, 2015 | by Greg Shaun

Jack Effel and Terrence Chan exchange harsh words after a WSOPE schedule change. (highstakesdb.com)

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time: that’s the phrase WSOPE Tournament Director Jack Effel was probably muttering recently.

Despite pulling off the seemingly impossible and organizing mass participation events such as the World Series of Poker without a hitch, Effel has to sometimes make a tough call.

One such instance of Effel having to make a big decision at the risk of alienating some players took place over the weekend just before Day 1B of the €1,100 turbo event.

A Big Call Elicits a Big Response

According to the WSOPE schedule, the tournament was due to start at 12pm local time; however, after some confusion among some of the players wishing to play, plus a poor turnout just before the start of the action, it forced Effel to make a last minute alteration.

Announcing the news via Twitter and other social media outlets just before the original start time, Effel stated that the action would actually begin at 4pm local time instead.

Although the three hour delay wasn’t a massive divergence from the planned start, it did frustrate a small group of players, including Terrence Chan, who’d already planned their day around the 12pm start.

Unhappy not only because the time had been changed but because the news came just a short time before things were due to kickoff, Chan decided to air his frustrations on Twitter before taking things to his own blog.

Chan Calls Out Effel

Outlining the situation from his perspective, Chan wrote that making such a decision was a bad move by the WSOPE’s organizers.

“I think making a last-minute change to the start time based on a guess that players simply misread the schedule is a terrible idea,” Chan explained.

Because he felt aggrieved by the situation, the traveling pro stated that he wouldn’t be taking part in the tournament in question because he didn’t want to be a hypocrite.

Fortunately, Chan’s absence from the WSOPE was merely a temporary protest against the change, but that wasn’t the end of the situation.

After stepping inside Berlin’s Spielbank the following day, Chan found himself facing a frosty reception from the man he’d publically criticized in his blog.

“@tchanpoker: So Effel just called me a liar, told me ‘do me a favor and don’t talk to me’. That’s how they take criticism here,” Chan wrote on Twitter.

Fortunately, however, cooler heads prevailed later in the day as Chan and Effel had a conversation and sorted out their differences over the issue.

“@tchanpoker: Had 20min convo with Jack. He apologized for losing it on me in response to my needle + tweets; I apologized for said needle. #enddrama,” added Chan.

As it stands, the WSOPE has returned to a serene environment just in time for the Main Event.