Mexican Tourney Players Offered Compensatory Freeroll (Update)

December 10, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — The recent fiasco of bumbling Nuevo Vallarta gaming officials ruining a PokerStars LAPT Mexico tournament (see previous reports) could have a happier ending, it appears from a PokerStars statement.
 
Customer relations-smart PokerStars has announced that the 89 players who still held chips at the time the Latin American Poker Tour event was screwed up by local gaming officials are to be given the opportunity to play in a $50,000 freeroll for the LAPT Mexico title.
 
In keeping with its core business, the first part of this special PokerStars freeroll will take place online, with players starting with the same chipstacks they held when the tourney in Nuevo Vallarta was stopped. The final nine players will then be flown to LAPT Vina del Mar in Chile — hopefully a more enlightened and sensible official environment — where they will finish the tournament live on a televised table.
 
"We know that many of our remaining players really wanted the opportunity to finish this tournament and earn their shot at an LAPT title," said Sarne Lightman, director of marketing for PokerStars Latin America.
 
"Although the tournament was suspended and the prize money distributed, PokerStars still wants to offer their players this extra opportunity," said Lightman. "PokerStars will also be adding $50,000 in prize money to the final table."
 
He added that the players concerned will soon be contacted with a choice of available times and dates for the freeroll, after which the company will plan a schedule best suited to the majority.
 
The 89 remaining players in the tournament have already received shares of the $568,850 prize-pool originally generated by the event, calculated on chipcounts, together with the return of their buy-ins and a bonus of $500 each from PokerStars.