Chips come in: Commissioner steers poker tourney toward success

Jeffrey Pollack has built a career working in industries he doesn't know anything about.

He founded the highly successful Sports Business Daily in the 1990s without any experience in publishing or running a company. He worked in marketing positions with the National Basketball Association and NASCAR, joining the sports leagues without any experience with either product.

So, it was no surprise that Pollack accepted a position with Harrah's Entertainment three years ago to oversee its expanding World Series of Poker franchise. What did Pollack know about poker at the time?

"Nothing. I played it a little bit, but that was about it," said Pollack, 44, Harrah's vice president of sports and entertainment who serves as commissioner of the World Series of Poker.

The tournament has grown under Pollack's leadership. This year, a record 58,720 players entered 55 events over the 47-day tournament. The prize pool was a record $180.7 million, almost $21 million more than a year ago. The tournament included eight different $10,000 buy-in events, including the Main Event World Championship that drew 6,844 players.

The poker tournament has several sponsors, including Miller Brewing Co., Corum Watches, Hertz Rent-A-Car, Kraft Foods and Hershey Co.

The tournament's biggest change this year was the four-month layoff between the run-up to the Main Event's final table and when the actual play takes place. The nine players who reached the final table July 15 begin play today and will conclude action in the early morning hours of Tuesday. ESPN will televise the final action on a same-day taped-delay basis.

Pollack said his willingness to try new industries comes from his days as a political consultant working on various initiative and issue campaigns.

"The firm I worked for had an unofficial saying that you can learn just about any industry in two weeks," Pollack said. "That was something that always stuck with me. It gave me the appetite to not be afraid in immersing myself in new industries."

The World Series of Poker, which Harrah's purchased in 2003, had grown somewhat stagnant despite the boom in popularity of poker thanks to the Internet. Pollack, who joined the franchise two years after Harrah's acquired the tournament, immediately saw the game's potential.

Question: How quickly did it take you to learn about poker?

Answer: After Harrah's called, I did some quick research. I saw that World Series of Poker had some interesting history and some great potential.

In three years, I have never tried to pass myself off as a poker expert. At the world's largest gaming company, we have plenty of poker experts. That's not why I or anyone on my team is here. We're here because of the way we look at the business.

Question: What were some of the changes that were made initially to the World Series of Poker?

Answer: We felt the way to take the tournament to the next level was to apply the best principles of sports business management. The World Series of Poker today is a league. We are the third-most watched sport on cable, we are the 11th most admired sports brand in North America among sport marketing professionals, and we are the biggest poker tournament in the world.

We understand we're not the NFL or the NBA, but that's OK. We're different and we're proud of what we are. We think there is still tremendous growth ahead of us, not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of the entire poker community.

Question: Was it tough to get Madison Avenue interested in sponsorships?

Answer: There was some apprehension at first because poker was and still is a tough sell. We believe, however, that because the tournament is about Las Vegas and it has a rich history, it can create a colorful platform to activate around for the right sponsors.

Some companies either don't understand us yet or don't want to understand us. We are still educating leading consumer-product companies about what we are.

There is still some work to do, but what we've had is a terrific start.

Question: How large can the World Series of Poker grow?

Answer: We're too big when our customers don't have a good experience, and I'm not planning to have that day come. The Rio is a terrific home for the World Series of Poker and it does the brand justice. We had a terrific tournament this year. I've always said about the tournament that we did better than we did last year, but not as good as it will be next year. We set the bar a little higher this year, so we have our work cut out for us next year. We're going to increase the footprint inside the Rio and continue to improve customer service.

Question: How has the new format for the Main Event final table been received?

Answer: What we're doing is brand new for poker but well established in sports, especially with the Olympics. Same-day taped events have no trouble attracting viewers. We'll see how it goes this year. We would like to have a few more people talking about us and the final table than we otherwise would.

If we can get a little increase in the buzz, and we can manage it so nothing goes wrong, that would be success in year one.

Our hope and plan is that if this is a success in year one, we'll bring it back and grow the idea.

The increase in awareness about the World Series of Poker from this delayed final table is not going to come in one year. It'll take time. People need to understand and get used to it.

Question: What future changes do you see in the tournament?

Answer: Going to Europe (for the recently completed World Series of Poker Europe) was a smart and natural move. Poker is tremendous in Europe and the United Kingdom.

We will go to Latin America and we will go to Asia, maybe in the next 12 to 24 months. Going global was simply a reflection of poker's popularity and increasing the awareness of the World Series of Poker.

Question: Why did you add the title of World Series of Poker commissioner?

Answer: That came about after listening to the players. We came to the conclusion that we needed to assign general responsibilities to one person. When something went wrong, people knew who to blame. We wanted to let the poker community know there was a face to the tournament and someone who was accountable to them.

Question: Do you play poker?

Answer: I play quietly, privately and very rarely. You will never see me play in the tournament. I appreciate the game and love the brand. But I'm not here because I'm a poker player.

Some who have done business with me will tell you I certainly know how to bluff and have very good table skills, but applied in a different setting.

Contact reporter Howard Stutz at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871.