iNinja Poker Tour Clashes with Allen Kessler

09:05
17 Sep

Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler has clashed with the newly resurrected iNinja Poker Tour over extortionate rake and a $2,000 bonus that clearly invites collusion. Kessler is known for calling out poker event organisers for poor structures to the point where “Chainsaw Approved” is a common description for a decent tournament.

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Rake Out of Control

The iNinja Poker Tour has just returned after shutting down for a few years following a controversial wrapping up after Isaac “RunGood” Tucker was accused of misappropriating funds for his own use.

The firm is now under new ownership and soon found itself in the middle of a five-day Twitter argument with Allen Kessler at the head of it.

Kessler reckons that the rake displayed in the tweet above is the highest in history—or at least close to it—and seemed unhappy about using the $20 “Resurrection” chip as some kind of cheeky rake.

The reply claimed that there was a problem somewhere but they weren’t happy with Kessler’s tone.

“There was clearly a problem here and we're looking into it. Given the aggressive way you announced it, we won't thank you for pointing it out, but we're glad we know now and can fix it.”

In this tournament mentioned above, Kessler pointed out how easy it would be to collude to win the $2,000 for additional Day 2 stacks won from the four starting flights. This was enough for the organisers to allege that the Chainsaw has received multiple comps after his complaints in the past.

Chris “Fox” Wallace wrote:

“Is there any chance you want to list the comped rooms, buy-ins, meals, and free play you have gotten at tour stops with other tours in the last year? It seems like that would be good to know since you are silent on other tours best stack forward events.”

The iNinja Poker Tour account replied:

“We will never play the game Allen. You've criticized us while getting comps from our competitors before, even while they run similar events. Attack us all you want, we won't be extorted into comping you anything, and if it keeps up we will start exposing it.”

It’s unbelievable that this spat ran for so many days and might now be a topic of discussion on an upcoming Nick Vertucci show when Veronica Brill is a guest.

People might accuse Allen Kessler of being pedantic with all of this but, as was pointed out many times in this thread, he is only looking after the players and trying to make sure everyone has a clear picture of what is happening.