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Newcastle SPT Seats.
There was a meeting this morning, during which we discussed Newcastle SPT.
A number of things were dicussed, & I'll try & put on here what I can. Which will be most, if not all of it. (Some of it is, by necessity, private).
First up, it's wonderful that the Event has filled so quickly, with 5 or 6 weeks to spare. Extraordinary. Wearing our APAT hats, SPT Rich & myself, others too, are quite used to the problems associated with Events where demand far exceeds capacity. We use very simple rules - try to be fair, & right, to everyone, & never do things which may embarrass us if & when they become public. Sky Poker embrace these values wholeheartedly, so this morning's convo was fairly easy, really.
Comments
It was agreed that, all things considered, which includes, but is not exclusive to, last night's Semi-Final, Machka should be given the opportunity to purchase his Newcstle SPT seat (£110).
So I rung Aaron (Machka) & he agreed to the money being deducted from his Account to pay for the Seat, & he seemed most appreciative of this.
Machka therefore has his Seat.
Slightly more difficult is the situation of the alleged collusion.
Sky Poker do not discuss these things publically, they don't even tell me the outcome, either. This will not change.
I sent all the stuff I was made aware of up to Head Office, & replied to everyone who wrote to me about it. Quite simply, thats as far as I can take it - beyond that, it's completely outside my remit. Anyone who wishes to discuss that further is free to do so via the correct channels - i.e, Customer Care. I've done all I can.
In theory, & hypothetically, if one player was guilty of any improper play, that would generate one spare seat. And yet FOUR different players are writing to me about that seat, & some of them write daily. Please be patient, I can't keep up with them all. But please also remember that my role in the matter is now complete - there is no more I can do other than pass on your concerns. The daily incoming PM's are now getting a little aggressive. I'm sorry, but I've done all I can do, though I will reply to everyone as soon as I'm able.
However, please be aware. Nothing, to my knowledge, was proven to be improper, so some of the wording in the PM's to me was a bit ott. We cannot go round accusing people of stuff without proof, not in the real world, anyway.
More......
One player qualified twice.
Unbenown to SPT Rich & myself, (& it's actually none of our business), after he qualified on the second occasion, he was allowed to have the cash in lieu of the Seat credited to his Account.
The Rules do not say this is improper, neither do they say it is improper.
Some of the Posts by SPT-Rich & myself may therefore have looked disingenuous. They were not, we were simply not aware, but I apologise if I caused any confusion, & I'm sure that applies to SPT-Rich, too
So, in this morning's meet, the relevant Managers & Department Heads decided to look at tightenening up those Rules for future Events, so as to avoid potential conflict or argument. When demands exceeds supply or capacity, it's not really in the spirt of the SPT to double qualify.
In answer to the question that a "spare seat" had become available, & what had Sky Poker done with the money, there you have it. There is no spare seat, & the money was paid to him in lieu of his 2nd seat. Should any evidence exist, or be shown, that there was improper activity, this would be subject to review, of course.
Somehow - not sure how, in truth, given the individual concerned........Sky Rudolph won a Seat to Newcastle Seat, too!
Personally, & maybe with hindsight, I am not sure he should have entered. But he did, & once in it, he has to play to win, let there be no question about that. Tourney Poker is not a Team Game, & nobody here will ever be messing around in a Tourney.
The question therefore arose, what to do with the Seat he won?
It was quickly agreed this morning, this one is simple.
The Seat will be added to "Santa's Sack", & will be given out to a player "as & when", just as everything else in Santas Sack will. I don't know the Santa Sack details, to be honest - my toes curl at the very thought of Christmas -but that's how it will be sorted.
The Seat CAN be for Newcastle, but in reality, I suppose it could go for any regular Leg. If it goes to any Leg other than Newcastle, all well & good, that's a spare Newcastle seat. Getting rid of that (should it be necessary) won't be a problem, I fancy.....
Sian (Yorkie74) who plays a lot of live poker and would challenge any speech play like this was obviously confused and challenged them claiming they were colluding, looking at the situation like that it certainly seemed at the time that they were.
Sian did not report this to customer care and took a fair bit of abuse over on the NPF over what she said to them, she was accused of not understanding their banter and having the personality of a brick! As it happens Sky looked into the "set" hand and the player in question did not hold the hand he claimed. Therefore if he didn't have a set he wasn't colluding, just clever speech play, personally I think it is really bad etiquette.
I know Sian had a chat with the NPF guys and they are all looking forward to meeting up, having a laugh and enjoying the event, alas Sian failed to qualify but she is looking forward to the side events.
Tony also offered to stake a SNG between the NPF and team Knightplop as a gesture after this game, Sian quite rightly believes that is way above the call of duty and has told TK so.
The Newcastle guys brought their unique style of banter to our tables and a few misconceptions were made, hopefully these answers draw a line under it all
Thanks to Tony for being UN peacekeeper - sterling job grandad!!
That still leaves a few issues. I cringe at some of the peurile name-calling that was directed at one of our most loyal players, it was just not necessary. Somehow, I am trying to make that good.
I'm not going to discuss here & now how we try to square that equation, but it remains on my wish-list, or to-do List. I tend to get what I want in life & I'm 100% confident that I can sort the thing I need to.
The people concerned know me well enough to trust me to handle this fairly, & correctly, & I will.
I was grateful for the PM from Sian as to my gesture, (on the list to reply to) but as far as I am concerned, the offer remains in place. I hate aggro like I cannot tell you, & this whole thing was not at all in the spirit of myself, or Sky Poker, & so I can only settle my mind about it by making the personal gesture that I did. I believe that the NPF Boys, & Plopper (truly the worst poker player I've ever met, bar Daiboot I suppose) has also offered to chuck a few bob in. A lot of fence-mending is going on here, which is really terrific, but it only takes one player to upset the newly-righted applecart......
As a sidenote, I cannot keep up with the incoming PM's because I'm being bombarded with "please Post on the "Longest Thread Thread"" PM's. I estimate over 150 so far & counting, they keep sending "round-robin" PM's, so my Inbox is creaking. Marvellous.
ffffsssssss
So sorry that Sian didn't qualify, but hey i'm sure the early exit from any of the Rochdale crew (probably me) will ensure she gets at least a few sng's at Newcastle
Looking forward to seeing you both
Anne
X
Nice one Aaron...don't forget your toothbrush ;o)
xx
Here's what I Posted earlier in the Thread........
".....It was agreed that, all things considered, which includes, but is not exclusive to, last night's Semi-Final, Machka should be given the opportunity to purchase his Newcstle SPT seat (£110)......"
And that sums it up, really. Last night's Semi - capped at 10 runners, & long sold-out - had the misfortune to have a player withdraw due to personal reasons some 15 seconds before the Tourney started, so there was no time for anyone else to Register, so that in itself was a bit unusual.
But that was only a small part of the reasoning, overall it was much wider than that. (As you will realise when I get round to replying to your PM reply of late last week).
I have a small allocation of Seats for each SPT for various purposes, & if I have any spare seats I allocate them as I see fit, wholly mindful of Community & commercial reasoning. In this & some other cases, the Seats are paid for by the player, other times, where appropriate, Seats may be given away.
I do not see any precadent here, & if anyone finishes runner-up in a 9 seat Semi, that will not bring any pressure to bear to allow them to buy a seat.
Been some long day today, but I'm done now.
yet on a different night 5 seats are advertised and only 4 get given!!!!!!!
am i the only one who thinks this is not quite right ??????
5 seats were given except as tikay said above
"
One player qualified twice.
Unbenown to SPT Rich & myself, (& it's actually none of our business), after he qualified on the second occasion, he was allowed to have the cash in lieu of the Seat credited to his Account "
the seat was still won.
It subsequently emerged (to myself and tikay) that one of those seats was exchanged for cash though, as has been explained above.
To be honest I can see EL_HORNO’s point, last Thursday as has well been well documented a player despite already having won a seat played in another semi –final, & won another seat
After I spoke to customer services asking what would happen in this circumstance.
I was repeatedly informed that the player would NOT get a refund or the value of the seat or a seat at a future venue. As per your terms & conditions
· All seats won through satellites are non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for another leg of the tour. · Please be aware that if you un-register or cannot play in a tournament where you won your seat through a satellite, you will not be reimbursed with the value of the satellite seat, this includes any seats won to the SPT Grand Final.Although a player winning two seats seems not to be covered in your terms & conditions this is why I repeated asked via email & was repeatedly assured that gaining a second seat was the player’s loss & would not be given any type of reimbursement or transfer.
My point is customer care repeatedly told me one thing then you did the total opposite?
On that Thursday night SKY advertised 5 seats yet only awarded 4 & gave a cash prize of £110 to a player who should not have been playing in the event.
I have read the events of what happened on the last night of qualification & having moved the goal posts (BTW a nice gesture) my question is
Why can this gesture not be offered to EL_HORNO who finished on the bubble when deeiron won his second seat/£110 last Thursday.
I do know there has been a thorough discussion of the events in this instance and the terms and conditions to ensure this confusion does not happen again
I'll try to respond "up-to-date", but after this Evening I will be offline until Monday, I'm afraid, & not able to respond further until then.
I have now replied to everyone who PM'd me about this, or I think I have. Apologies if I missed anyone.
In response to the latest Post by Spudgun, although I have replied at length to all his & El-Horno's PMs, I'd reply as follows......
"....After I spoke to customer services asking what would happen in this circumstance. I was repeatedly informed that the player would NOT get a refund or the value of the seat or a seat at a future venue....."
You are correct. It would appear that Customer Services made the same mistake that SPT (Rich Prew) & I made. For my part, I apologise for answering as I did, it was in ignorance of the facts. But it was after the event, & so changes nothing. I'll try to explain the rationale as to why the Cash is awarded in a subsequent Post.
"...My point is customer care repeatedly told me one thing then you did the total opposite?..."
Same reply, again, apologies for mis-interpreting the rules, but as it was after the Event, it does not affect anything.
"....I have read the events of what happened on the last night of qualification & having moved the goal posts (BTW a nice gesture) my question is Why can this gesture not be offered to EL_HORNO who finished on the bubble when deeiron won his second seat/£110 last Thursday....."
As I tried to explain more than once, & with great care, that was NOT the sole reason the "nice gesture" was made, & it's a sad day if such a gesture was used to obtain leverage in another situation. Such "gestures" are made routinely by Sky Poker, but usually done quietly, on this occasion I fet the need to make it known, as it was bound to raise eyebrows & qustions when it became known.
The next paragraph makes certain assumptions - who knows if it might, or might not, yet be? I hope that, perhaps, it MIGHT be offered. But then, if it is, can you imagine what will happen? Others will say "what about me, then?"......
I sincerely hope your friend gets a Seat for SPT Newcastle, I really do, but apart from being told - after the Event - something incorrect, nobody has done anything wrong, & it is just unfortunate that your friend failed to finish one place higher. Had he done so, the Seat would have been his.
Let's hope it all works out right. Stranger things have happened......
I need to go into Rehearsal & the Live Show now, I'll make the other Post (as to the rationale) as soon as I am able.
Thanks for your understanding.
Why was cash awarded in lieu of the Seat?
It would seem that the software does this automatically, & always has! I was not aware of this, & in truth, there's no reason why I should, it's something completely outwith my remit.
Is it right? I'm not sure it is, to be honest, but it is what it is, & nothing can change history. On many Sites, it's "the norm".
I have requested that this be reviewed in future, & I think it will. However, it requires a software change, & as it is not of the highest priority - nobody actually loses anything - I doubt if it will be in time for this Season's Tour, even if it happens.
Players have some responsibility here, too. On a Community-based site, where Seats for an Event are at a premium, I'm not sure it's right & proper in a Community that people try to qualify more than once, to gain the cash. But equally, they are entirely within their rights so to do.
So many of these things depend where you stand.
I hope that answers all your questions, & to your satisfaction. I'm sure that you are aware that your friend has now written me a nice PM, gracefully accepting the situation.
Regards
Back
As soon as I know I will post on this board
Back
All the seats have been taken, but if Sky release any of their own seats(for celebs etc) they normally run some last chance qualifiers, usually in the last week before the event. If your local, then Aspers will be holding a live qualifying event. SPT Rich normally posts the details when he gets them.
col