Resignation after $2.5m overlay

Ray Stefanelli is rumoured to be parting ways with Seminole Gaming having managed the unsuccessful 2014 campaign.

Following the embarrassment of this year's Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open main event, Seminole Gaming's Ray Stefanelli is rumoured to be resigning from his post as Director of Poker Marketing.

The festival made the headlines for all the right reasons in 2013 when it first put up its ambitious $10m guarantee, attracting an incredible 2,384 players to Floria and generating a prize pool just shy of $12m.

In 2014 however, only 1,499 players anted up the $5,300 buy-in, leaving the hosts footing the bill for a massive $2.5m overlay - arguably the biggest flop in tournament poker history. Dan Colman took full advantage, scooping the $1.4m first prize.

Stefanelli had helped Borgata establish itself as one of the best poker rooms in the US before joining the Seminole Gaming team in 2013, and he may well be on his way back to Atlantic City next, where the promising growth of poker provides a good opportunity for him to recover from this experience.

Why did it fail?

Word around the poker community is that the threat of clashing with EPT Barcelona led to a massive backlog of tournaments in the US at the end of August.

The WPT Legends of Poker in California, the WinStar River Poker Series in Oklahoma, the Colorado Poker Championship, the Labour Day Deepstack in Ohio, the Poker Open Summer Series in Pittsburgh and the Playground Poker Festival in Montreal all surrounded the SHRPO this year, which could've had an effect on attendance levels.

Additionally, Benton Blakeman, a US based grinder who played in the event, noted that Seminole had been far less aggressive with its satellite schedule in comparison to 2013, and that he'd noticed "many players only shooting one bullet rather than 3, 4, 5 or 6 like last year."

Why do you think the SHRPO failed this year? Do you think one individual should be considered liable for cases like this? Let us know in the comments box.