It was going to be a good poker action. Instead, it turned out to be an emergency. Arizona had to cancel its State Poker Championship scheduled for Talking Stick Resort casino. However, a major storm forced hosts to reconsider and take a rain check on the event.
A Perfect Storm Hits
While hosts hoped that they can make it through the pow-wow without the need to shut down the whole event, they soon realized that the storm was pretty serious and the only way to deal with it would be shutting down the competition, at least temporary.
Citing security reasons, the company said in an official statement that it had been following the developing of the past 24 hours and had concluded that for the sake of people’s safety, it would need to shut down.
It had been a true disappointment for attendees, as the $1,100 tournament has been making a real difference and building legitimate following. It has taken the Arizona Championship over 10 years to reach its current level of popularity, but it has managed well.
The event originated back in 2015 and throughout the years it continued to add to its prize pool, reaching well over $1.5 million at its present-day levels. Not only that but contenders have often been above the 1,500th mark, making it one of the most frequented live poker events held locally, nation and worldwide.
Things Get Off the Ground
Scheduled for August 10 through 14, the event was doing rather well at first. Day 1 opened with 550-odd entrants of whom 90 managed to make it to the next stage. Despite their aspirations though, mother nature had other plans for the event and it released a monsoon-type of storm, which caused serious rainfall.
The storm caused a black out taking down the casino’s own back-up generator which couldn’t handle it any longer. In light of those events, the tournament hosts had to cancel two subsequent days and the tournament is now rescheduled for Tuesday.
The hopes remain that all of the remaining players would be able to come back to the competitive fray then and finish up what they had begun.
The Not Quite Graceful Handling of the Situation
The Talking Stick Resort could have done a much, much better job of handling the situation as it was. Most unpleasantly, the Talking Stick Resort wouldn’t allow the event to continue.
Players who have made it through Day 1 will be allocated part of the $530,000 amassed by the time of the cancellation, but that’s hardly a way to handle the situation. Instead, Talking Stick Resort should have been prepped to cover costs for competitors and let them compete.
True, it would have come at their own expenditures and even truer – seldom any casino business does that. However, at stake was the over-decade-legacy of the Arizona Poker Championships.
And that is worth preserving. With the latest upset, though the 1,500-odd players competing may become a far cry from the past. A storm may be unpleasant, but it’s ultimately humans who choose how to handle the situation.
