'Casinos always considered poker like a doorstep child' Part II, Jack McClelland Interview

In Part I of the interview long-time tournament director, @Bellagio legend, and 2014 Poker Hall of Fame inductee @Jack McClelland talked about the 'perfect storm', the rise of televised poker and the 'lottery mentality', and the subsequent down cycle.

Poker was traditionally a gambling game, where an amateur could beat any pro on a given day. Then there was a stage when the focus was on poker as a competitive sport, or mind game. And now it feels that it has become too exclusive and less fun, and that it should perhaps go back to being a game again, a fun activity with social interaction. You played professionally yourself for a little while. Was money the main aspect, were you looking for something else?

Poker is a great game to judge a person’s character and their heart. And their competitiveness.

I’ve always loved the competitiveness about tournament poker. Tournament poker is a lot like chess in the sense that you have to think not just one or two steps ahead, but sometimes as many as 5 or 10 steps ahead. While cash games would be like checkers, and if you lose your chips you can always reach in your pocket for more. You can't do that in tournament poker. That;s why there are very few players who can successfully switch back and forth from cash games to tournament poker and do both.

But poker is also the only game where money is how you keep score. I’m not a super technological guy that can play three games and type and chat at the same time. So I’d rather sit in a poker game talking abut whatever we want to talk about - football, or politics, the world... I definitely like the social interaction also. But in the end, the way you keep score in poker is by the money. It’s the only game that’s not played for fun.

Affordable buy-in tournaments are on the rise everywhere. Same for high-rollers. Meanwhile the 5/10k range is in trouble, despite re-entries and other format innovations. Are reentries good for poker in the long run? 

I dont like reentries myself but I understand why. Basically, here in Las Vegas, and pretty much everywhere, you’ve got two types of players now. The $300-500 buy-in, or smaller players, on the one hand, and then you’ve got the guys who are looking for TV and the high-rollers and super high-rollers, and all that stuff. Outside of the World Series, all those events with $1,5000-2,000 or $5,000 buy-ins are gone. People are either playing lower stakes or they are following the TV.

Do you think that the players themselves have a role to play in supporting the industry, is there something they can do? 

It’s very hard because the casinos have complete control over what happens in their casino. And in Las Vegas, for instance, the casinos always considered poker like a doorstep child, because they don’t make good money out of it.

I mean, when we had a really good year at the Bellagio, we still couldn't make as much as they made from the minibars of the hotel…

And that’s when we were booming. It’s just insane, there I am, running tournaments with hundreds and hundreds of players paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, and I can’t compare with the minibars!..And that was in my good years. In the bad years, I couldn’t compare with the vending machines..

When I first went to work at the Bellagio, everybody treated the poker employees like they were third-class citizens. Then we began with the tournaments and the TV, and they got their shoulders up and felt proud. There were no slot tournaments or crap tournaments or anything like that, it was all poker. So, publicity-wise, it did a lot for the hotel.

Likewise with the World Series. Who wants to be in Vegas in July?.. Yet they're all here because of the World Series of Poker. 

And the people who sign up in tournaments, if you ask how many of them played in the casino, not one in a hundred would say they play. But at midnight, if you take a look at the crap tables, there’s nothing there but poker players. They just don’t want to admit they have a weakness.

Is there anything else you'd like to add in conclusion, any thoughts about the game and the industry?

I’d like to congratulate @Bruno Fitoussi on his Hall of Fame nomination. I know he should be in the Hall of Fame, hopefully he’ll make it next year. As for myself, before I was first nominated in 2011, it had never once crossed my mind that I would ever be selected for something like that.

I wanted to be the best and outside of my family, I’ve devoted my whole life to poker. If that made it even a little bit better over the years, then I feel like I’ve had a successful career.

Poker is just like lfe, you’ve got good guys, yu’ve got bad guys...you’ve got everything. And you have to do the best you can, and move on...

Right now, in Las Vegas, the accounts are running the casinos. And accounts don't want to hear about you making 1 million dollars last month, they want to know why you didn't make two million, or why you gave away a steak dinner to this person, or that person... And it's like that everywhere.

They've taken personal service out of poker and personal service is really what poker is all about.

Someone would come in after 5 years and I’d greet them by their name and people would be so surprised and feel so good I’d remembered their name. It was hard and took a lot of practice but it was one of the things I learned - if you don’t know your customers, you can’t take care of them.

And those people have more value, they should be treated better. And if they want a lobster dinner, they should get it. Because they're not going to just play poker, they will play other games, too. And they will bring in other regular customers. But now, the way the casinos are run, everyone is equal. And it doesn't work out that way. Not if you want to be successful.

The way I see it and what made me successful is, I looked after the casino first;  I looked after the customers second; I looked after the employees third; and I myself came fourth.

And everyone who changes that rotation - after a couple of years they're gone. Because if you don't take care of the casino, they don't need poker anymore; if you don't take care of the customers, they're not going to come back anymore; and if you don't keep your employees happy, they're going to moan to the customers and drive them out. As long as you stick to that order, you're going to be ok. Everybody that's come along and has tried to change that order have been failures. Kind of like Obama :)

From Perfect Storm to Down Cycle and a Whole Different Ball Game. Poker Interview with Jack McClelland - Ranking HeroOur #WeeklyHero @Jack McClelland is a man who has seen it all in his 37 years in poker and who has helped shape the industry as we know it. He talked to @Nicolas Levi about the 'perfect storm', the rise of televised poker and the 'lottery mentality', and the subsequent down cycle.www.rankinghero.com

2014 Poker Hall of Famer Jack McClelland Bio and Poker Profile - Ranking Herowww.rankinghero.com
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