The WPBT is NOT Schrodinger's Cat
Last week I was lucky enough to be in the offices of the WPBT, and I dropped in on the current President/CEO to ask him about the state of affairs. He seemed very upset and under a large amount of stress, probably caused by the fact that THE WPBT DOESN'T EXIST, NOR IS THERE A PRESIDENT/CEO.
The WPBT was created as a joke name for a bunch of goofballs who wanted to get together and throw some cards around, exchange an insignificant amount of cash, and most of all try to put each other on tilt by dropping the hammer as much as possible. The overall consensus was that the point of the WPBT events was to HAVE FUN. PERIOD.
As with any organized or disorganized event, there are people that are unhappy with the way things are organized, or unhappy with the lack thereof. But the overall theme, that these were NOT SERIOUS POKER GAMES was almost universally agreed upon.
But the saying is true, you cannot please all of the people all of the time. Somebody must have decided that people were not taking the WPBT games seriously enough. Maybe they had the hammer dropped on them one too many times by someone who didn't give a shit if they got knocked out on the first hand. (I plead guilty your honor!)
So they decided that they would start tracking the results of the WPBT games, awarding points to those who finish high in the events. As far as I know there is no prize associated with this "Player of the Year" tracking, but the assumption seems to be that if people are being tracked and the results are displayed publicly, the players would start playing more seriously. Some people seem to care about POY standings, some don't.
So you have a situation where some players in the field are playing seriously, while others are just having fun, playing wilty-tilty. The serious players try to ruin it for the fun-lovers, and the crazy/tilters are trying to ruin it for the Serious Sams/Samanthas. Just what you want in a poker event, isn't it?
What's worse is that POY points are not just awarded for WPBT events. They have been available for other tournaments, like the DADI events. But not all DADI events. What determines if another tournament like a DADI qualifies for POY point status? Nobody knows. It seems dependent upon whether the person who organizes the POY standings is available to play in the DADI event.
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We asked Byron if he would like DADI to be a part of the WPBT points for that one event since it was for a WSoP seat. It seemed like the thing to do at the time and I think it worked out well. The WPBT and DADI are not competition for each other and I hope it showed during that event.
That said, we mutually decided not to involve DADI with WPBT points going forward as we just didn't see the need.
You make a good point in your post...
It's not worth taking any of this stuff seriously. We are amateur poker players. We are ameteur writers. When it's no longer fun, it's done. I enjoy the WPBT events and I don't mind the POY points, though I don't care if I'm 1st or last. It's not about the points. Hopefully everyone can see it is ridiculous to take any of this too seriously.
Neverbluff is my hero. Go Champ!
Oh great, now online poker is the equivalent of boxing's alphabet soup. The WPBT, DADI, FWALG, G-Vegas tours will all have their own championship belts and declare their own champs.
Wow dude, sorry to dissapoint you by making the effort to set up a bimonthly series of events for WPBT'ers to play in.
It must be burden for you to know that the WPBT-POY points system is on my page and mirrored at the wpbt.info site.
I don't mind your effort to set up events. But I don't think that's why you're doing it.
What I mind is your effort to control how people play in what started out as fun events by adding this "POY" scheme.
I don't care if the POY points is on your page. I care about the attempt you are making with it to try and force people to play more seriously as if they mean anything.
So the POY leader gets nothing except bragging rights? He can brag about playing seriously in a tournament that half the other players weren't? Not if you get your way, and more people start taking them seriously. Which would ruin them, IMO.
There are tons of serious poker tournaments at every level every day. Why try to make these the same, when they used to be so much more?
Jeez, I was just sure this post was all about me!
I was going to whine that you were picking on me again.
Now I see it's all about champ and biggie, dang!
You're right that I'm assuming a lot by accusing you of trying to control people's behavior.
But I cannot see any other purpose to it. Like you said it's a lot of effort, and since there's no other reason I can think of that anyone would go through all that work.
Especially since you have vented your frustration with how people like Kat aren't playing seriously, you exposed how you really feel.
Maybe I'm reading way too much into these facts, but they seem to make your motivations seem obvious. If I'm wrong, I take it back 100%.
But I really don't think I'm wrong, because I cannot come up with any other plausible explanation for your actions. The "I wanted to follow how people did in these events, just for myself" doesn't wash with me.
Then why all the hassle over "This event deserves to get points and that event doesn't deserve to get points?"
If you are just wanting to follow how everyone plays, shouldn't every event that involves more than a dozen bloggers be included?
I know at least one person who was pissed off because an event wasn't included in the POY points.
That seems like conclusive proof to me that this system that you have created "just because you enjoy manipulating data" is making people take these things much more seriously than they deserve to be taken.
Maybe it wasn't your intention, but that seems to be the result.
If someone was pissed off because they played a game that was not advertised as a POY game and did not give them POY points, then they are just angry at something else and using the POY system as a scapegoat.
This person was upset before the event even took place. The difference between this event and others are totally indistinguishable, at least to him. Since the single deciding factor seems to be your opinion, I can't find fault with his reasoning.
Duggle... the blogger events that have POY points seem to be just a full of hammer dropping and fun chat as non POY events.
I personally like the POY idea and think biggestron does a great job sorting all of the data for us. Having a record of our results is a good thing and hopefully people can have fun and also attempt to improve as players.
All I care about is Biggie's use of brackets and parens. Top notch.
I don't let POY determine if I join an event. It's strictly an availability issue - I'll play if I have time [and because I enjoy hammer dropping and the (semi)witty banter]. I like the idea of POY - but it's more of a novelty thing to me than a trophy. Kind like having a 300lb stripper. Only there for entertainment purposes...
Get over yourself...
The WPBT events are fun... I'd kinda like them to be earlier in the evening (nudge, nudge), but that's no big deal.
I don't think there's one there... but who the fuck cares if there was an alterior motive? Don't play if it bothers you that much!
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