This week during the G2E gaming conference in Las Vegas, Dan from Pokerati tweeted "These are all over @G2Evegas every 100' or so. Hope to see more in poker rooms in effort to clean up the game. pic.twitter.com/tLmh56qh"



Although Dan's reference was to cleaning up germs that are readily spread through the communal play of poker, after reading about the latest poker world scandal I wish that cleaning up the game of poker could be handled similarly. The poker world is no stranger to scandal. I spent the last couple weeks detailing the Full Tilt Poker scandal aftermath. This particular scandal I'm referring to is the International Stadium Poker Tour's (ISPT) lying to the public about having advertised and promoted a $30 million, then a‚¬20 million guarantee for the 2013 Wembley stadium live poker tournament billed as the largest in the world.

The ISPT first announced the event for mid-2012, moving to September 2012 and now formally promoted and scheduled for May 31 - June 6, 2013 at Wembley stadium in London. According to PokerStrategy, one of the main backers, Laurent Tapie of GBT's attempted FTP purchasing fame, confirmed in 2011 that the prize pool of $30 million was guaranteed and reserved in a bank account.

As promotions and marketing for the ISPT event has picked up in recent months, there has been massive backtracking in light of estimates that they will fall far short of their original hopes for 30,000 entrants.

The clear purpose of advertising a guarantee is to draw players who see value in an event that they might not otherwise enter. As the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event recently learned, poker players don't take kindly to being defrauded. The benefit of drawing players in under false pretenses can be wiped away quickly, massively undermining your reputation when you don't deliver. Unfortunately, the same methods of explanation for the changes are occurring with the ISPT as their Chief Executive Prosper Masquelier denied the guarantee existed and when pressed claimed that the guarantee was more of an estimate. Unfortunately for the ISPT, their 'modification' efforts have been poor as their own website has previously advertised the guarantee and their own ISPT press conference in Paris clearly announced a guarantee 40 seconds into the video.

To a skeptical poker audience familiar with other bait and switch tactics, this is the worst possible news if they plan to capture even half (15,000) the players they originally envisioned. Trust is a major issue with players who already have issues with ISPT's massive rake on their buy-in, having to bring their own laptop when initially it would have been provided, weather issues for an outdoor tournament as well as timing that will likely coincide with the start of the 2013 WSOP.

I would pass on some words of advice to those associated with the ISPT or anyone putting on a poker tournament.

1. Don't be creative with the truth. There are many ways to promote, market and advertise a tournament, especially one as unique as the ISPT is suggesting. But the word guarantee can't be misinterpreted. A guarantee in any language is a firm absolute promise to deliver exactly what you say. If you can't deliver, don't ever use the word guarantee at any stage of your promotions. While a business project can evolve and change, the underlying identity and ethics shouldn't.

2. Be true to your word. Nothing devalues your brand than blatantly lying and then covering up for previous lies.

3. Caution to those that sign their names to promote this event. Popular and well liked poker players Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Liz Lieu, Michael Mizrachi, and Sam Trickett have all signed deals to be ambassadors promoting the ISPT event. As Prahlad Friedman, Joe Sebok, Annie Duke, and Phil Hellmuth learned from promoting UB, and the entire Full Tilt Poker pros learned, taking a check and promoting a site links you to the activities of that company. Your reputation should suffer greatly if that company is defrauding players.

As federal and state authorities struggle to push forward legislation to regulate and legalize online poker, it is essential that the poker world self-police itself to offer the most upstanding fundamental rules of fairness for its promoters and players. Don't ever use the word guarantee unless you can 100% deliver. You are only setting yourself up for failure and inevitable discredibility. Poker players are savvy enough to see through your deception and it only brings further disrepute on an industry in desperate need of a thorough "cleaning up."