PokerStars Typo Costs Them €12,254

It may be a drop in the ocean for the world’s biggest online poker site, but there was a little bonus in the post for players this week as PokerStars corrected a ‘lost in translation’ error.

It was German pro and Natural8 ambassador Henri Buehlero who spotted the mix-up, as he head-hunted his way to a fine payday in the 6-max PKO Galactic tournament.

The PokerStars’ admission that they’d messed up the English language version on one of their ring-fenced Spanish and French event meant an extra €12,254 handed out, Buehlero likely to take about €1600 of that for his win.

This summer also saw partypoker forking out much more than they expected when the late registration capability failed in a New Jersey online event.

That resulted in just 79 players chasing a $75k guarantee, all for the princely sum of $320, and partypoker decided to just let it ride!

The total cost? A $47,396 overlay, with almost half the field cashing for more than the buy-in – the payout structure also unchanged.

It is human -and sometimes computer – to err, but not all mistakes are created equal!

Sometimes it’s a deliberate cash-grab by the poker room that hits the headlines, last year seeing the Venetian facing a player boycott because of their dubious ‘small-print rake-grab’ tactics.

The Venetian’s ploy was spotted by popular poker pro vlogger, Jeff Boski, who pointed out the tournament series small print:

“100% of all funds collected will go to meet the $150,000 Total Prize Pool. Any funds collected above and beyond the total prize pool will be the sole property of The Venetian Poker Room.”

Ben Lamb described it as: “One of the dumbest things I’ve seen in poker," while Doug Polk tweeted:

‘We need to stand AGAINST terrible poker formats that harm the poker playing community through excessive rake. The $150,000 MAXIMUM buyin event from the @VenetianPoker is a disgrace. If you care even a little about the future of poker, DO NOT play this event.’

The terrible decision cost the Venetian an eventual $27k+ in overlay as the players voted with their feet.

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