By Jon Harnish
In a very recent announcement, PartyPoker has announced it will sponsor the new “Montreal PartyPoker Classic” charity poker tournament in the ballrooms of Le Windsor from March 25th to 28th, 2012. The $275 (with re-buy and options) event will be held to help raise money for the Jodi Lazarus Fund for Hereditary Breast Cancer.

Those familiar with the poker events previously hosted at Le Windsor will remember that 2011 marked the 6th Annual Full Tilt & Miriam Foundation Montreal Poker Open, also a charity event but in support of those with Autism. Much like PartyPoker has planned for their own 2012 version, online satellites on Full Tilt Poker helped cap the 1500 player field and reports indicated that in excess of $700,000 was ultimately raised for the cause. The events of poker’s “Black Friday” had a snowball effect however, and it wasn’t all sunshine and flowers for all of the players, practically the biggest winners, after that…

In the previous format, all winnings had to be paid out through a players Full Tilt account; this included the ten top prizes of WSOP Main Event packages. In addition, a some of the prizing was “entry into the 2012 Montreal Poker Open”, which of course now doesn’t technically exists. Players started the tournament in Montreal for “qualifying rounds”, then the top thirty received airfare and accommodations to fly to Las Vegas over Victoria Day weekend and fight it out for the majority of the cash in the prize-pool.

This did go forward as planned; unfortunately for the players though, just a few weeks later the AGCC made the decision the pull Full Tilt Poker’s gaming licenses. As most know by now, the site shut down and players could not access their funds going forward. Others who also won money and packages over the same period as the Montreal Open “finals” were unable to “cash-out” in time for the WSOP Main Event. Whether or not special arrangements were made to accommodate these accounts is yet to be confirmed.

Using www.wsopdb.com, a tool that searches all available WSOP official reports and had proven to be extremely accurate, it appears less than half if those players who were supposed to have won Main Event packages didn’t play. Several did, but along with other events and could have very well bought in on their own dime. What is most interesting is that the first place winner, who was also supposed to receive “Red Pro” coaching as part of the top prize, did not play the $10,000. Several others in the top ten did not play at the WSOP at all. ”

In the mean time, what we do know is for sure is that later in the year, the official site of the event (www.themontrealopen.com) went “down” for several months. Full Tilt Poker does not appear as a sponsor and reference to a “7th Annual with Future Dates to Be Discussed” now appears. Several attempts for comments and clarification from the Miriam Foundation have been made regarding FTP and last year’s prizing, though several months later no “official statement” on the subject has yet to be returned.

The pressing questions now are; Did the players get paid? Should the beneficiary of the event, the Miriam Foundation, be on the hook if not? Will PartyPoker step up and honor the prizing that was awarded as entry into this year’s event, or will there actually still be another Montreal Open with the Miriam in Montreal this year? Is any of this in bad taste, given that at least a few players are sure to have winnings they won in a live charity event inaccessible and in limbo.

It’s a touchy subject. Taking away from the charity and it’s budgets isn’t necessarily the best option or even reasonable, as technically everyone has “been paid” and they really are not the bad guys here. They may not be able to cash out now, but how would the charity recover these funds if and when they do. The same holds true for PartyPoker. The bottom line is that this type of situation is not normally encountered with events held in licensed Casinos, so why do we need the extra risk with online sponsors?

PartyPoker is expected to do things a lot differently here, to rebuild the confidence in the playing community that this can’t happen again. You can be sure, future press on the event will include just how.

The truth is, online satellites help to build a bigger prize-pool, provide a cheaper alternative and attract players who might ordinarily pass. Playing in an event that is “branded” by one of the big guys also carries a certain “prestige” for some and the larger marketing budgets and resources can also really help. All in all online involvement usually does more good for the player and the event than the opposite.

This year, the top finalists in the PartyPoker Montreal Classic will play it out at the Bellagio and compete for World Poker Tour packages instead of the WSOP packages previously offered in the Montreal Open.

Hopefully, when everything finally does settle, this will all come back to a great cause and players having a good time competing at the felts.