Scott Seiver in the Middle of SHRPO Super High Roller Controversy

If there is one thing that can be stated with almost an absolute certainty is that Seminole people had a bad week during this year's Hard Rock Poker Open. First the Main Event, which was eventually taken down by Dan Colman, tanked pretty hard, creating an overlay of $2.5 million, and as if that weren't enough, another controversy occurred during their $100K Super High Roller.

First of all, the event gathered a really small crowd of just nine players, which certainly was not the way organizers imagined things would pan out. But it wouldn’t be the first time that a super expensive tournament played out as a sit and go and no one would give it that much attention, if the tournament officials did not create a big mess of the payouts.

According to reports from Twitter and 2+2 posts of players involved in the entire ordeal, when the tournament first started, TD announced that top two players would be paid if there are under 11 players in the field, and three players if there are more than 11. Turnout was obviously going to be small so there was not much point discussing further payouts.

So the registration ends with nine players and when the play is later stopped for the day with five remaining, Tournament Director announces that a mistake has been made and that they will be paying three spots instead of two. At this point, Scot Seiver holds about 500,000 in chips and is an absolute chip leader and this decision sends makes him go bananas.

Was just told at end of day 1 @shrpo 100k that the payouts have changed and they're changing the format of the tourney. Beyond unacceptable
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) September 1, 2014

At the same time, Ryan Fee, who is also still in the event tweets about what is going down and how Scott is yelling at tournament staff and insists they revert to the original decision.

This is outrageous. @scott_seiver complains to #SHRPO staff and they change the payout structure of the tournament after it starts. WTF
— Ryan Fee (@fees88) September 1, 2014

Scott yells at them and they decide to change it to two player payout. Scott has like 550k everyone else ~100k.
— Ryan Fee (@fees88) September 2, 2014

Seminole people did get themselves in this position for no reason – once they verbally announced what the payouts were going to be, they should have just stuck to it and all the confusion and frustration would have been avoided. Instead, they’ve created a lot of negative energy without a real reason. In the end, they decide to go back to the original decision anyway.

After 2 hours, management decided to uphold initial payouts. This preserves game integrity and thank you @shrpo for listening to a complaint
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) September 1, 2014

Fee is clearly super frustrated with this, and Jake Schindler is not very happy either.

We are beating a dead horse here. Structure change is unfair to all remaining players except for you. Enough is enough.
— Jake Schindler (@Jake__Schindler) September 2, 2014

This just looks bad, even if it isn’t as bad as it may seem. Returning to the first, verbally announced decision doesn’t really strike as unfair at all, and the biggest problem is with the fact that the officials caved under the pressure coming from a player. Still, Seminole is cornered and they need to find a way to calm everyone down.

Wow! @shrpo@SHRHollywood just did an amazing gesture! They added $50k to third place! It's a step in the right direction
— Joshua Arieh (@golferjosh) September 2, 2014

Definitely not an ideal solution for the casino that is already out of $2.5 million from the Main Event, but, in comparison, what is another $50K? This did get them somewhat off the hook and bit deeper into the hole, but it is all about balancing, right?

Ironically, the man who was the most vocal about only paying two spots, Scott Seiver, actually finished in third and received $50,000 consolation prize – seems fair, as he played the main role in its creation. Ryan Fee and Jake Schindler faced off in the heads up battle and Schindler prevailed, taking home $570,000 while Fee got $307,000 for his runner up finish.

All in all, it was an exciting week, but not the one Seminole staff will remember with tears of joy in their eyes. They lost a lot of money and that’s not something casino owners take lightly.