Following a wave of discontent from the poker community, the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) summit has been moved from the Venetian to the Aria.
At the end of March a tweet by Matt Savage, the head of the TDA, sparked a mass debate across the community after he announced the conference would be held inside one of Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas venues.
However, owing to Adelson’s longstanding feud with the online poker community (he’s one of the main supporters of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act which would outlaw online poker on a federal level), many felt it wasn’t in the TDA’s best interest to hold its summit at the Venetian.
Backlash from Community
Forum debates and Twitter comments from pros, amateurs and the likes of the GPI’s Alex Dreyfus quickly filtered back to Savage who initially defended his position.
Stating that the Venetian had previously accommodated the event for tournament directors without any charge, Savage explained that finding a similar venue without any funds would be almost impossible.
This revelation promoted an offer from Mason Malmuth of 2+2 who explained that the TDA could host the event at the company’s office in Henderson, Las Vegas.
Writing that 2+2 has a warehouse that could accommodate “a fair amount of people”, the venue looked like it could be the perfect alternative to the Venetian.
Unfortunately, after learning that the conference usually hosts “way more people than the [2+2 warehouse] could accommodate,” Malmuth politely withdrew his offer but said he was “hopeful” the venue could still be changed.
That hope, combined with help from the Aria, Las Vegas, resulted in the TDA now moving away from the Venetian and Adelson’s gaze. Informing the community of the shift over Easter weekend, Savage also announced that the event, which will take place on June 26 and 27, will be streamed live on Twitch.
Running throughout the conference, the online stream will give the community a chance to hear the topics discussed by some of the leading tournament directors in the industry.
Praise for the TDA from Poker Players
In response to the news, many players were keen to know if Mr. Savage had taken up the offer of funding from Alex Dreyfus.
Quick to confirm he wasn’t involved in bringing about the change, Dreyfus was nonetheless pleased with the result and thanked the Aria for stepping up to help.
As well as wave of appreciation from the community, many players, including Twitter user Buddy V, are now predicting that this year’s TDA summit will be a record breaker thanks to the change of venue.
“TY @SavagePoker for excellent location & date change. Hopefully @pokertda will have record attendance. Then @WPT 500 @AriaPoker for me,” tweeted Buddy V.
About the Tournament Directors Association
The Tournament Directors Association (TDA) is comprised of poker personnel from around the world. Founded in 2001, the organization has the aim of standardizing the rules for tournament poker and creating a better all-round experience for players of all levels.
Today, the TDA has more than 1,300 members in 39 countries and every two years its summit attracts hundreds of officials, casinos managers and players.
Among the topics discussed at the two-day conference is how to make live events better value for players and, to-date, the TDA has agreed on and implemented 44 new rules as a result of the biennial discussions.
