There were some major changes to the WSOP that, surprisingly, have gotten little play in the press or on forums. The first is the changing of the payoff structures, including paying 15%, instead of 10%, of the field in all events leading up the Main Event (ME). (In the ME, a minimum 1000 places will be paid.)
I like the new payout schedule. As a working pro, I like the idea of having a better chance of cashing, thereby replenishing my bankroll and allowing me to enter more events and have more shots at the big score, not to mention the bracelet! For the amateur, cashing in a WSOP is a thrill and a badge of honor of sorts, and doing so will bring amateurs back for more. I both cases, more cashes results in bigger fields and bigger prize pools.
The only ones I heard who don’t like paying more spots are the biggest pros with the biggest bankrolls who want the top places to pay more and don’t care about small cashes. Sorry, can’t please everyone. If they want more action, there are plenty looking for last longer or bracelet bets.
If the money is all concentrated at the top, it wlll often leave the poker community in one way or another. Taxes play a big part. So do gambling “leaks,” like pit games, sports betting, etc. Or some just take the big score and find something else to do with it. (This brings up a great story about Norwegian Thor Hansen, one of the first foreigners to attend the WSOP back in the ‘80s. He won a WSOP event with a sizable first place, and in the interview was asked what he would do with the money. “I’ll pay off some people I owe”, he said. “What about the rest”, he was asked. “They’ll just have to wait”, was his reply.
Some players look at it as a scheme by management to extract even more rake from players by churning the money. That’s silly! Rake is part of modern poker. If you don’t like, don’t play, it’s not going away. If the Rio makes more, the WSOP will to thrive. It’s a symbiotic relationship, like it or not.
The one detriment to the new payout schedule, I guess, is that is messes with the WSOP record book. While not vitally important, WSOP records are a way of keeping score, and old timers on the all-time cash list, including me, will be passed up in short order. Nobody said poker is fair!
The other change is in the playing structures. There has been an ongoing issue over the years between players who play a lot of events and don’t want to waste of lot of time and energy on early levels that don’t mean a whole lot, and players who, for whatever reason, think they can gain a big edge at the early levels, or players who play few events and want the ones they do play to last longer.
Prior to this years, most events lasted four grueling days, and sometimes took a fifth to finish. Especially in the limit events, the early levels were essentially meaningless, and in some the money wasn’t reached until late in the second day. For those who want to play a full schedule of events, this was a tremendous waste of time, energy and opportunity. The MO for most pros was to enter the limit events after four or even six levels, The problem was that most of the inexperienced amateurs played from the start and were broke or close to it by that time. So, to get a shot at that money required playing from the start and making for a lot of very long days.
This year, the new structure starts out at higher, more significant limits. Playing from the start now means something. Players are usually in the money early the second day, In no-limit events, many players feel the tournament starts when the antes begin. This is when real tournament skills kick in. In past years that didn’t happen until the 5th level. This year antes start in the 3rd! Many NL events are in or very near the money on the first day.
Perhaps more importantly, most events are finishing in three days. Some require a fourth, usually heads up, but I don’t think those players mind. I think three full days is long enough to let the best players excel, while still giving amateurs a shot at getting deep. Older players, like me, who have or were considering abandoning the WSOP because it’s just too exhausting, feel like we’ve got a new lease on playing, at least for a few years. I had an 80-year-old at my table the other day, and ran into 82-year-old Howard “Tahoe” Andrews, who started at the WSOP in 1974, in another event. The old-timers who helped build the WSOP into what it is today should still be a big part of the scene, and it’s great to see them coming there.
Even the ME has moved levels up a bit, with antes starting at the 3rd instead of the 4th level, but the starting stacks were increased form 30K to 50k, so it’s still going to be a very long slog to the November Nine. With the extra chips, it might even take longer than previous years.
The modern WSOP management is focused on making the WSOP better for everybody. They listen to player’ complaints (at least the constructive ones) and suggestions, and factor them into their decisions. Some of the things they have done I don’t fully agree with, but this year I think they got it right!
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I think paying out 15% of the field at this years WSOP is good for the players. The winners of each event are still going to be all smiles. Even though they changed this I don’t think it will affect the record keeping as far as past players cashes are concerned when 10% got paid.
It would be nice if a player had an opportunity to enter every event if they wanted to, but due to how many events they have overall with multiple events running simultaneously it would be impossible.
I hate antes. I personally think antes are designed to force a poker game to a conclusion, to speed it up. I believe antes take out the grueling nature of poker because of this. It’s a dual edged sword because antes are good if a player is chipped up well vs. sitting short & catching rag hands where a players chip stack is getting grinded on if they are in the hand or not. Casinos that put on poker tournaments have to like antes in their tournament poker games because it allows the casino to force the game to a conclusion faster, the casinos let their dealers off the hook by starting a damn ante and in my opinion the players get screwed. That’s also less hours the dealers have to work, so the casino is winning there by forcing a game to a faster conclusion. They don’t want to play cards, they are looking to get out and end an event as quickly and as humanely as possible.
It would be nice to see a WSOP NLHE event with NO ANTE. Maybe they have had one in the past, I don’t know. It would also be nice if the WSOP put on an NLHE event where the players dealt the game. That means no professional assist as in a house dealer to protect the players by dealing the game for them! Perhaps they could oversee the game to ensure the game ran smoothly. They could even have a special type of round table for the players to sit at so nobody is sitting at an odd angle. A player dealt game would be the first event I would enter.
I think a player dealt game would be very unique without a professional assist to save and assist the weaker poker players of less skill and determination. That’s the way I feel about it anyways.