Another controversy has struck the Partouche Poker Tour after this organization failed to cover an alleged €5 million guaranteed event. There were 556 participants who bought into the €8,500 tournament in hopes of winning a piece of the €5 million prize pool. However, the actual pool only hit €4.25 million, and the PPT didn’t want to cover the €725k overlay.
Claims were made by PPT chairman Maxime Masquelier that this French Riviera tournament was never supposed to offer a €5 million guarantee. But Justin Bonomo showed some evidence that suggested otherwise when he tweeted:
Good thing I posted screenshots instead of links. @partouchepoker is actively deleting instances of the word guarantee. Very incriminating…If @partouchepoker fixes the prize pool I will forgive. Otherwise I will never play there again and I will keep spreading the word.
Because there has been so much controversy surrounding this debacle, Patrick Partouche decided to close the tournament series indefinitely. Here is his explanation on why:
For forty years I have dedicated my life, my name, my family, to gaming, including poker, my passion. And now I hear that what we do is not enough, is not honest. The Partouche Poker Tour bears my name, that of my family. I will not accept, my staff will not accept, that people can say ‘Partouche are thieves’, ‘Partouche are cheats’. As a result, this week you attended the last edition of the Partouche Poker Tour.
Partouche seems to think that there was no miscommunication on the website, and they had no intention of deceiving players; however, some pro players have provided pictures off the PPT website clearly stating that the money was guaranteed.
There have been really good past events hosted by the Partouche Poker Tour, including last year when Sam Trickett won a €1,000,000 prize in the Season 5 Main Event. Unfortunately, we won’t get to keep seeing these great tournaments since Partouche seems bent on canceling the series.