Was the reason they were ahead of schedule that the play was loose?

[betgo]

I know a lot of people were saying that was the reason they were ahead of schedule and wound up playing one half day and having one day off. I wonder if that was the case. It seemed like they allowed more days than in the past without a slower blind structure.

[technologic]

people were pushing preflop with green zone type m's which was accelerating the knockout process

[Everybody Lurks]

[ QUOTE ]
people were pushing preflop with green zone type m's which was accelerating the knockout process

[/ QUOTE ]

Tech - do you mean into pots that hadn't been opened yet? Or were these reraises you are talking about?

I have to say that I didn't have too many of these over-eager-preflop-pushers at my tables throughout the late stages of the tourney. But two questionable plays I remember were:

1. Right before the bubble burst, a young guy in Party Poker Hat that had folded everything EVERYTHING for the last hour and a half (was completely obvious he was trying to fold into the money) pushed from the button with what must have been an M of like 7 or 8 (I think) with K6s. Not an awful push, but an incredibly risky play from a guy that had just folded away about half of his stack to make $14,000 (or so he thought). Guy in the BB went into the tank for like 2 minutes and then called with A8 (pretty ridiculous call IMO with how tight the button had been, but w/e), and A8 held up. Must have been a short circuit from an otherwise ultra-tight player.

2. Saw an otherwise very solid TAG push in MP with no FE over an UTG raiser with AJo (M of probably 7). UTG had Queens. Saw the same thing happen about 500 short of the bubble, but I think the guy with AJ this time was steaming from a previous hand.

From a participant's standpoint, it's very tough for an online player (what, 65 hands/hr/table?) to adjust to the much slower pace of online play -- good hands just simply don't come along as often. On my bustout hand, I looked down and saw an Ace for the second time all day and got excited and made a terrible push from MP with an M of almost 6 (near a decently sized pay jump, no less). Small stack play requires some serious discipline in slow-moving live tourneys, so its not surprising that so many of us not-so-accilmated online players were dropping like flies throughout the ME.

[technologic]

for example,

when the play was to the final ten, the guy in tenth place effectively open pushed for an M of around 10-12 in the CO, and he was called by richard lee in the BB with KK. he pushed with Q3o, and thought he had to make that play.

[Some Pig]

They all read Arnold Snyder's tournament formula book.

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
I know a lot of people were saying that was the reason they were ahead of schedule and wound up playing one half day and having one day off. I wonder if that was the case.

[/ QUOTE ]

For the most part, this was exactly the case, combined with Harrah's desire to put in full days at the ME even as the event zipped ahead of schedule.

[CardSharpCook]

it is pretty annoying to have to go all the way down to the rio just to play 5 hours amd go home again. Kudos to Harrahs for succombing to the temptation to end early only once.

[CardSharpCook]

[ QUOTE ]
for example,

when the play was to the final ten, the guy in tenth place effectively open pushed for an M of around 10-12 in the CO, and he was called by richard lee in the BB with KK. he pushed with Q3o, and thought he had to make that play.

[/ QUOTE ]

jeebus. M of 10-12 is like 20-25BBs!!!

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
it is pretty annoying to have to go all the way down to the rio just to play 5 hours amd go home again. Kudos to Harrahs for succombing to the temptation to end early only once.

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I agree with you--I'd rather put in fewer long days than a bunch of small ones. There seemed to be a large number of players complaining about this, though.

[Kevmath]

The reason they were complaining is because there were limits set that they ignored (playing down to 600, 300, 150, 60, 27). It seemed they were reluctant to communicate with the players to see what they would like to do and just did 5 levels/day.

[AngusThermopyle]

They were ahead of schedule because there was no basis to go on. It's not like you have 8800 player tournaments every month.

They clearly took a "worst case scenario", which they did not do in the HORSE event.

[Quicksilvre]

[ QUOTE ]
The reason they were complaining is because there were limits set that they ignored (playing down to 600, 300, 150, 60, 27). It seemed they were reluctant to communicate with the players to see what they would like to do and just did 5 levels/day.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fair enough. I agree that it was a bad idea to set the ME schedule based on the number of players remaining.

[pokergrader]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The reason they were complaining is because there were limits set that they ignored (playing down to 600, 300, 150, 60, 27). It seemed they were reluctant to communicate with the players to see what they would like to do and just did 5 levels/day.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fair enough. I agree that it was a bad idea to set the ME schedule based on the number of players remaining.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well they had to for Day 1s and Day 2s, and I dont know what they did after that.