Matt Savage is a name well known to anyone who spends any time at all on the professional tournament poker circuit. One of the most respected tournament directors around, Savage has played a significant role in the poker's growth and development over the last dozen years.
I was able to talk to Savage this week as he enjoyed a rare break from his current duties as the Executive Tour Director of the World Poker Tour. We talked about various topics, including his many travels to direct poker tourneys all over the world, his background including helping start the Tournament Directors Association and serving as the TD at the WSOP from 2002-2004, and about the state of tournament poker today.
Short-Stacked Shamus: So the last time I saw you we were in Marrakech, Morroco at the WPT event a few weeks back. Did I hear something about you riding a camel while there?
Matt Savage: Haha, that's right. My wife, Maryann, really missed the fact that she didn't get to ride a camel when we were there last year. So we made sure this time to get on a camel. We had a lot of fun. It's a very interesting place.
SSS: And now you've made it back home safely.
MS: I've been back home for a little while. For the most part I'll be here for the next month-and-a-half, getting ready for the L.A. Poker Classic [which will take place from January 19 to March 3rd].
SSS: I was looking at the World Poker Tour schedule for the spring... will you be going to all of these stops? Italy, Austria, Slovakia...
MS: Right now I think I'll be doing the LAPC, then Bay 101, and then to Vienna and possibly Slovakia as well.
SSS: Poker has really taken you far and wide. You were the tournament director at the World Series of Poker from 2002-2004, correct?
MS: That's right.
SSS: But you had been directing tournaments well before that.
MS: Yes, I started in 1998 in San Jose, California at the Bay 101 -- where I still am, actually.
SSS: And you also helped start the Tournament Directors Association back in 2001.
MS: That's right. I was playing some events in the Bay area around that time, and everywhere I went the rules were different. So I decided to go to the World Series and talk to some people about maybe getting an association of tournament directors together with which we could try to standardize rules.
Robert Thompson [a tournament director] and Bob Thompson [Robert's father and WSOP TD from 1999-2001] both told me that this had been tried before and there was no real force behind it. They didn't think it was ever going to happen. So I talked to my friend Linda Johnson who I'd meant through tournaments at Lucky Chances [in San Francisco], and she told me about a gaming conference coming up -- the World Poker Industry Conference. She suggested a meeting with some of the tournament directors the day before the conference started, and the TDA was kind of borne out of that.
Continued:
http://www.betfair.net/blog/poker-canada/the-betfair-poker-interview-ma-171210.html
I was able to talk to Savage this week as he enjoyed a rare break from his current duties as the Executive Tour Director of the World Poker Tour. We talked about various topics, including his many travels to direct poker tourneys all over the world, his background including helping start the Tournament Directors Association and serving as the TD at the WSOP from 2002-2004, and about the state of tournament poker today.
Short-Stacked Shamus: So the last time I saw you we were in Marrakech, Morroco at the WPT event a few weeks back. Did I hear something about you riding a camel while there?
Matt Savage: Haha, that's right. My wife, Maryann, really missed the fact that she didn't get to ride a camel when we were there last year. So we made sure this time to get on a camel. We had a lot of fun. It's a very interesting place.
SSS: And now you've made it back home safely.
MS: I've been back home for a little while. For the most part I'll be here for the next month-and-a-half, getting ready for the L.A. Poker Classic [which will take place from January 19 to March 3rd].
SSS: I was looking at the World Poker Tour schedule for the spring... will you be going to all of these stops? Italy, Austria, Slovakia...
MS: Right now I think I'll be doing the LAPC, then Bay 101, and then to Vienna and possibly Slovakia as well.
SSS: Poker has really taken you far and wide. You were the tournament director at the World Series of Poker from 2002-2004, correct?
MS: That's right.
SSS: But you had been directing tournaments well before that.
MS: Yes, I started in 1998 in San Jose, California at the Bay 101 -- where I still am, actually.
SSS: And you also helped start the Tournament Directors Association back in 2001.
MS: That's right. I was playing some events in the Bay area around that time, and everywhere I went the rules were different. So I decided to go to the World Series and talk to some people about maybe getting an association of tournament directors together with which we could try to standardize rules.
Robert Thompson [a tournament director] and Bob Thompson [Robert's father and WSOP TD from 1999-2001] both told me that this had been tried before and there was no real force behind it. They didn't think it was ever going to happen. So I talked to my friend Linda Johnson who I'd meant through tournaments at Lucky Chances [in San Francisco], and she told me about a gaming conference coming up -- the World Poker Industry Conference. She suggested a meeting with some of the tournament directors the day before the conference started, and the TDA was kind of borne out of that.
Continued:
http://www.betfair.net/blog/poker-canada/the-betfair-poker-interview-ma-171210.html
