Tim Lavalli and I were hardly the only reporters who noticed. The entire media room was buzzing when the final chip counts on Day Seven of the 2006 World Series of Poker were announced. The fact that the count was two million too high escaped almost no one. Yet Tim and I were the only ones to follow up. There are a number of reasons why it happened this way.

Tim and I didn’t have day jobs, so we had time. We also didn’t have a conflict of interest. Because of the WSOP’s media model, many of the reporters directly worked for WSOP sponsors and/or other online poker sites that had a vested interest in maintaining a constructive relationship with Harrah’s. Compared to most of the poker media, Tim and I were “veterans” in 2006. We had more time in the field and had forged useful relationships with tournament staff and professional players. Both Tim and I are skeptical and have graduate school backgrounds in science and math. And Harrah’s initial explanation of the count anomaly just didn’t add up — and we couldn’t leave it alone.

In a nutshell: We were old, had time on our hands and had nothing to lose.

In the years that I covered poker, there are a number of articles that I look back on fondly. Some of them were just fun to write because they focused on some of poker’s more entertaining players. In retrospect, a few articles were even well written and composed. The following articles were neither fun to write nor particularly well written. But they ended up improving the integrity of the game I love. And for me, the old adage proved true. I didn’t care who won or lost. In the end, I cared how the game was played.

The following three posts contain the poker articles I am most proud of.

Two Million Questions: Will Poker Answer (Part 1)

by Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli, originally published September 8, 2006

As Poker seeks and gains more respectability with each successful tournament, each new television program and each lucrative advertising deal, the ‘powers that be’ within the growing poker community have more responsibility to ensure the integrity and fairness of the game. Poker has emerged from the dark, smoke-filled back room and has entered the mainstream of world culture and popular sports enthusiasm. Much of poker’s growth is coincident with gambling’s new consolidated company structures which bring more marketing resources and corporate respectability to the game. But just as poker has outgrown Benny’s Bullpen, the former setting of the WSOP, it also appears to have outpaced the control processes and security measures once designed to ensure a fair and honest game. Read More »

Two Million Questions: Will Poker Answer (Part III)

by Amy Calistri and Tim Lavalli, originally published September 8, 2006

In Part II, we dismissed the possibility that two million extra chips found their way into the 2006 WSOP Championship Event through the normal processes of blinding off dead stacks and chip race-offs. We also noted that the vast majority of the chip increase occurred between the end of Day Five and the end of Day Seven. Before we investigate the two remaining explanations of cheating or an error, we wanted to narrow down the time frame when the increase occurred. If we could better determine “when” the increase took place, it might help us determine “how.” Examining available media reports we honed in on a specific time period during Day Seven.

Twenty Two Minutes:

Day Seven of the 2006 WSOP Championship began at noon with twenty-seven players. At approximately 1:14 PM, Eric Lynch was eliminated in 24th place. At 1:36 PM, twenty-one remaining players started their first break of the day. We believe, with the supporting data, that the increase in chip count can be attributed to this twenty-two minute period. It was during this time period that the $5K chips were colored up. Day Seven would play on until approximately 2:00 AM, when Fred Goldberg became the final table bubble boy. It would be sometime after that when the official end-of-day chip count confirmed the increase. Here’s some of the reported data from Harrah’s and Pokerwire from Day Seven that support this claim:

Time Reported

12:00 PM Starting chip count by Harrah/s (27 players) 88,256,000
12:29 PM Chip count by Pokerwire (25 players) 88,011,000
12:33 PM Chip count by Pokerwire (24 players) 88,011,000
1:14 PM Eric Lynch is eliminated in 24th place
1:14 PM Chip count by Pokerwire (23 players) 88,061,000
1:23 PM Rob Roseman is eliminated in 23rd place
1:35 PM Lee Kort is eliminated in 22nd place
1:36 PM First Break
1:36 PM Chip count by Pokerwire (21 players) 90,200,000
2:06 AM End of Day Seven chip count by Harrah’s 90,140,000

NOTES:
– The End of Day Five chip count by Harrah’s was 87,775,000
– The End of Day Seven chip count was verified by WSOP tournament officials with a physical count at the start of the final table.
– The total chip count reported by ESPN when Jamie Gold and Paul Wasicka started their heads-up play was 90,150,000 chips.

Chip Count Data Discussion:

In Part I we discussed some of the problems with chip count data accuracy. As Day Seven progressed past the first break, there was a lot of variation in the reported chip count data. Performing a rough mathematical analysis, this variation straddled a mean approaching the 90,000,000 chip mark; well above the day’s official starting chip count and approximating the officially verified end-of-day count.

It also should be noted that the 500K increase reflected in the official end of Day Six count didn’t raise too many eyebrows, even when compared to the “near perfect” count of at the end of Day Five. The media had become used to the over and under variation of the end-of-day counts, commonly plagued by self-reporting and recording errors. For instance, the official end of Day Four chip count was $86,752,600; almost a million chips too low. But Day Seven’s end-of-day chip count, verified before final table play, raised more than eyebrows.

However, on site at the Rio in the tournament room, media did not have the luxury of the careful examination of the multiple tournament reports and chip counts we have analyzed over the past several weeks. Once we had honed in on the critical 22 minutes, then the only other plausible explanation for the huge chip increase became easy to dismiss. Let’s dismantle the cheating explanation right now and then we will explain what exactly did happen during those 22 minutes. Read More »