The Mayhem Poker Series Main Event wrapped up a few days ago at The Lodge Card Club, located in Austin, Texas. The Main Event had a buy-in of $1,200, guaranteed $1,000,000, and thanks to 836 entries, the guarantee was narrowly met in the end. Even though the Main Event knew its champion, the series is still ongoing.

It was the Main Event that drew the most attention to itself, and it wasn't because of the numbers. It was the fact that the owner of this poker room, Doug Polk, sat at the final table where $195,700 awaited the winner as a massive chipleader. Doug hasn't had a live tournament win since 2017 and only appears in tournaments occasionally as he mainly plays cash games.

Doug himself did a poll on social network X (Twitter) where he asked people if they think it's okay for a poker room owner to win his own tournament. Many poker rooms in the world don't allow the owners of a given poker room or the organizers of a series to play their tournaments.

To the question, "Is it a bad image for a poker room owner to be at the final table and be able to win a big tournament in their own poker room?", he added three options - Yes, it's a bad image, I'm not sure/I don't care, and No, it's perfectly fine.

14,763 people cast their vote here, and more than 51 percent marked the option - No, it's totally fine. In second place with 29.5 percent was the option - Yes, it's a bad picture. Doug himself was taken aback by people's reaction because he thought it was perfectly fine to win his own tournament.

The most famous tournament director Matt Savage also commented on the whole situation, saying that it's only a bad image if there is an overlay in the tournament and the owner enters the game, or even uses the re-entry, which is free that way. He went on to add that he himself has also played in his own tournaments or at various charity events, but in his case it was just for promotional purposes, which helped the tournament as he is not a professional poker player.

It sparked a huge discussion on the social network and there were different opinions. Some claimed that the move was perfectly fine, while someone claimed that it was not a good image for the poker room in question. Someone also commented that the question is not whether it is okay if he wins his tournament, but just that he is playing his own tournament. At the same time, one of the panelists pointed out that if the market were regulated in Texas, something like this would not be possible at all.

Some commenters said that it would be okay if the owner paid the buy-ins out of his own pocket, like other players, or if the owner donated the winnings of such a tournament to charity or to his own employees in the form of a large tip. However, none of the discussants raised the possibility that Doug Polk might have cheated in this way. They did, however, express the view that it could certainly give rise to various conspiracy theories, and is certainly best avoided.

In the end, Doug Polk was unable to take advantage of his massive chiplead and finished in 6th place in the aforementioned Main Event, which was worth $40,000. The tournament ended with a heads-up deal that saw Terry Morales and Austin Apicella take home $163,375 each.

What do you think about this topic? Should owners of casinos, poker rooms or big series be allowed to play, and win, their own tournaments? Let us know in the comments on our social networks.

Source - pokernews, X, hendonmob, the lodge card club