The Partouche Poker Tour has been around for five years now, increasing the presence of poker all across Europe substantially. Last week, however, a huge debate began regarding the prize pool at the PPT Main Event, which ran from Sept 3-9. That debate finally came to an end when owner Patrick Partouche addressed the field on Thursday, then released a statement on the following day. The guarantee will be honored, but the 5th Season Partouche Poker Tour Main Event will be the ultimate finale for the PPT.
The whole debacle began when promoters for the main event released statements, advertisements and campaign banners alluding to a €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. I use the word “alluding” very loosely as anyone who has seen the multitude of screenshots of these ads knows full well that they clearly displayed a €5M GTD poker tournament. When registration closed for the PPT Main Event, it was a whole different story.
A total of 573 entries brought the prize up to nearly €4.3 million, and that’s exactly what the managers of the Partouche Poker Tour said would be paid as the overall prize pool. Needless to say, players were up in arms. PPT marketers had guaranteed a €5 million prize, and the player’s had every intention of battling it out on the felt for the full amount. Poker pros blew up Twitter last week demanding the guaranteed prize, but organizers of the event said time and again that the prize was never “guaranteed”.
It all came to a head on Thursday, September 6, when Patrick Partouche stood before an incensed field and crowd of on-lookers and addressed the issue. All heads turned towards the owner of the tour, expecting an apology and, at the least, the €5M prize pool to be honored. Instead, they were told that the PPT never guaranteed €5M, and the prize pool would stay at €4.3M. Even more shocking, Patrick Partouche announced the end of the Partouche Poker Tour, stating this would be the final event of the PPT.
The story would not end there, however. It is highly likely that Partouche spoke to an attorney, because his tune changed very quickly as the evidence stacked up against him. Not only was there visual proof of a €5M GTD prize pool posted all over the internet by PPT’s marketers, a video surfaced from last year’s tour where PPT’s own Jean-Jacques Ichai promoted the 2012 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event as a “guaranteed prize pool of €5,000,000”.
The next day, Patrick Partouche submitted a letter, altering his stance from the previous day’s announcement. In his statement, translated below, it is obvious that Partouche made every effort to admit no guilt or wrong-doing.
“Ever since my somewhat controversial announcement concerning the end of the Partouche Poker Tour, it has come to my attention that there has been a certain amount of disruption in the media which may have led our players to be convinced of the existence of a guaranteed prize pool.
“While the official rules show clearly that the only guaranteed sum was that of €500,000 to the overall winner, I do acknowledge that there may have been some misunderstanding caused by the way this event was promoted in the media. I have therefore asked the Partouche Group to bear the consequences and make up the difference by adding €736,880 to the prize pool.”
In the end, the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event winner, Ole Schemion, became the last poker player to ever win the PPT Main Event. He received €1,172,850, his deserved share of the honored €5M prize pool. Patrick Partouche would not reverse his decision to close the tour, stating, “I cannot go back on my word and my decision stands that the PPT will be no more.”