Silver coins instead of cash at the Midway Poker Tour
The newly-launched Midway Poker Tour has become embroiled in a bizarre payout scandal at its very first tournament, players in the money being paid out mostly in over-valued silver coins.
Meanwhile, two of the men behind the MPT have been branded as ‘scammers’ by other poker players.
The inaugural Midway Poker Tour event is ending in disaster as details emerge regarding payout process. Payouts combination of small amount of cash & silver coins/gold/etc. to meet Illinois state charity regulations. Player alleges shortage. Thread here.https://t.co/b8Z0slN1gn pic.twitter.com/g0f57RKTIE
— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) October 4, 2020
The OP in the 2plus2 thread relates how he made day 2 of the $1100 buy-in, $100k GTD tournament but upon arriving to play again was shocked to hear what was going on.
“I start hearing people in the hallway talk about how they’re going to pay people out in gold. I think it’s obviously ridiculous as it wasn’t mentioned anywhere, either when signing up or in the advertisements or on PokerNews, which is reporting on the event. Pokernews listed all the prizes as USD.”
The actual payout
“So I ended up busting pretty early on and got what they call a “$2,600 cash”. So they pay me out $1,600 in cash (in $20s for some reason), and give me 28 1oz silver coins, which they tell me is worth $1,000.”
It transpires that because of Illinois charity laws – the tournament run partly to help out 4K.I.D.S Sake Inc – only $600 above the buy-in amount can be paid in cash.
With officials from the state Attorney General’s office turning up to ensure compliance with this aspect, the organizers had paid out more than $200,000 to buy silver coins to cover the difference.
That, however, led to claims that the buying and selling price of silver was seriously short-changing the players. The OP claimed he was shorted by $700, which is 30% of his win.
“I looked up the price of silver and it’s $24/oz. I assume I can sell these coins for around $25, which would be $700. So they’re stealing $300 from me, which isn’t the biggest deal but that means everybody is taking a big cut.”
Chad Holloway was on hand to cover the inaugural event of the MPT for PokerNews and managed to provide readers with an insight into just how badly the tournament payout part of things was run.
Players debating what to do. No one from the Midway Poker Tour nor owner Danny Bekavac on-site. The charity partner is not experienced in poker and have been left to deal with the shit show. pic.twitter.com/G7MSCumZde
— Chad Holloway (@ChadAHolloway) October 4, 2020
The Midway Poker Tour organizer
This then led to several players on Twitter alleging that the main organizer, Daniel Bekavac, was well-known for previous shady behavior…
— Jerome Meyer (@mmanpoker) October 4, 2020
Highstakes pro Chris ‘BigHuni’Hunichen also passed on some anonymous inside knowledge of the men behind the new MPT…
I was told Bryan Moon is a silent partner (who is obviously a huge scammer and scum of the earth), and this guy Danny Bekavac, that founded Midway Poker Tour, is also a known scammer. @ToddWitteles
— Chris Hunichen – OTCtrade.com (@BigHuni) October 4, 2020
Bekavac, as well as the bullion dealer who failed to turn up to buy the coins from players, and many others, were soon being named in the 2plus2 forum. Many insisted that the entire Midway Poker Tour setup was a scam from the word go.
Bekavac’s response
Bekavac eventually responded to the ‘scammer claims’ using the MPT Facebook account, stating that he had spent “upwards of $55k of my own money getting this set up.”
Adding that he “will not receive one single penny back” and that there was “absolutely nothing I could have done differently”, Bekavac also offered his apologies to the players, as well as his fellow organizers and staff.
https://www.facebook.com/MidwayPoker/posts/112565937278587
The same Bekavac statement was shared on Twitter by Chad Holloway, but the responses to it fell far short of acceptance of the dire payout situation…
What a fucking stupid statement. It's not the job of Illinois gaming regulators to approve a workaround designed to evade the very regulations that those regulators are tasked to enforce.
— Haley "Aunt Eefah" Hintze (@Haley_Hintze) October 5, 2020
This is a dumb statement. Among other things, it is not the problem of the players if Dan made a bad deal buying the silver to pay out. What if he bought it at 10x markup? Do players only get paid 10%? He needs to eat the losses from his own bad deal, not the players.
— Todd Witteles (@ToddWitteles) October 5, 2020
lmao if that isn't the biggest bullshit statement ever… if he paid 55k out of his own pocket maybe he should pay back the people he owes money too that he has scummed in the past
— Chris Hunichen – OTCtrade.com (@BigHuni) October 5, 2020
Whether or not the Illinois authorities will now become involved is unclear, but there will certainly be ramifications of some kind, and yet another black eye for poker.
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