LAPT Mexico Mired in Quicksand
LAPT Mexico kicked off earlier today in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico with 232 players in the field. Towards the end of the day the tournament was suspended due to an inquiry by federal police. Details of what exactly went on are murky, but it looks like a shakedown by some folks who either didn't get a cut of the "licensing fees" or felt they didn't get a big enough cut. We've been told to expect a statement from the LAPT some time later today, but I'm guessing it will be sparse of cold hard facts.
The tournament was stopped late on Day 1. 89 players remained when federal cops shut everything down. Not only did they shut everything down, but the entire room was cleared -- players, media, dealers and all tournament staff. There is no way to confirm who was sitting where, or what any individual player's chip count was at the time of the shutdown.
Pretend you're LAPT President Glenn Cademartori or LAPT Tournament Director Mike Ward. Assume that play will not be able to resume as scheduled tomorrow. What would you do with the prize pool? How would you resolve this situation?
None of the choices are particularly appealing; most are downright impossible. You can't divide the prize pool by chip equity, and you can't complete the tournament online, because there's no way to confirm the chip counts. You can't divide the prize pool equally among the remaining 89 players, even though it would be the most most equitable solution, because you can't confirm who was still in and who was out when the room was cleared.
You could offer to re-run the tournament at another time, but there's no guarantee that the people who have entered will be able to set aside whatever block of time is required to attend a re-run (and they may not want to pay travel expenses again, anyway). Those people would be upset unless they were offered a full refund of their buy-in. A re-run would also be unfair to the 89 players left in the tournament, since their tournament equity is non-zero, whereas the 143 who busted before the cops busted in have zero equity.
It would seem that the only thing that can be done is issue a refund to anyone who entered. That's sure to anger the players who hadn't busted before the tournament was suspended. If play doesn't pick back up tomorrow, it will be an ugly mess for the LAPT.
Either way, this shakedown (assuming that's what it is) is a black eye for the LAPT and will certainly hurt the tour's reputation. It's a fair bet that there will not be any further LAPT Mexico events. Sad to say that although this turn of events was unexpected, it's not entirely surprising. Everyone knows Mexico is a shady, shady place that's full of corruption.