Two Plus Two Newer Archives - *** Official WCOOP 2008 Suggestions***

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Here's what I think a Pokerstars Spring Series should look like.

WARNING. What follows is very TLDR.

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It started when I was thinking, people want more play, so lets give that to them. What is a tournaments "play"? I came up with the following rough idea: let f(t) be the median stack [in bets] at time t. A tournaments "play" is the expected value of the integral of f.

Armed with this definition, knowledge of basic math, and statistical data in various tournaments (Sunday Million, High Stakes Showdown, some WCOOPs, etc.) I set to work on a new Spring Series (This is what I do on friday nights, obv.)

I figured that time was our biggest obstacle in creating deep structures, so how can a structure be deepest? It dawned on me that if the rate of increase in blinds is constant, then the expected stacksize in terms of bets doesn't move much. By tweaking the rate of increase so that the tournament fits in the time required, we can create the best structures.

[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] This series would feature:

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New events that should be tested in my opinion. They are: sattelite shootouts (top 3 advance), maniac rebuys, huge ante tournaments, turbo tournaments, micro tournaments, 4max tournaments, and a 2 day tournament.

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Structure that maximizes play, especially for limit and HU tournaments.

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Holdem on every day of the series.

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Smaller buyins as well as bigger buyins, to maximize the number of players. This is reflective after considering the FTOPS formula, which has many $100 events. The emphasis is on smaller buyins. I know this pisses a lot of regulars off, who want huge buyin events, but IMO the majority of pokerstars players don't want to play $1k+ and $200r events every day, and it would be bad business to cater exclusively to this crowd. Also it helps the WCOOP keep its level of prestige.

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A player of the year race, culminating in a special tournament.

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Obviously the Spring Series should award cups, trophies, bracelets, or something to commemorate the winner of each event.

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[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] There are some criticisms of WCOOP that are addressed here.

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Limit tournaments need to start off more shallow and use the time saved to make the rest of the tournament less shallow.

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On the same note, doubling starting chips and keeping the same structure is not a substitute to make a structure deeper. This is because you effectively make the tournament too deep at the beginning (400 bets in WCOOP ME!), obviously sacrificing deepness that can be used later. We need to remember that our primary constraint is that the tournament cannot last much more than 20 hours.

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That marathon events lasting over 20 hours should be two day events instead. I struggled over this for a long time, but came to the conclusion that one marathon day is better in practice, for enrollment reasons.

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[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] Pokerstars Championship Poker Series
Refer to structure key for structures

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/520/pcpsjl1.jpg

Event legend:
+4 = 4max
+6 = 6max
+R = rebuys included
+9 = 9max
+S = Shootout
+SS = Sattelite shootout, takes 1/3 the field every round
+T = Turbo tournament
+HU = Heads up
+ha = huge antes
+RRR = maniac rebuy
+d = two day event (Think "Sunday Hundred Grand", but more people, rebuy, two days, and super-slow structure.)

Structures:
The levels are all 30 minute levels. In all the explanation of the structures, "/" means "from now on, antes are added." The antes are the standard 1/10th of the BB. "R" denotes the level just before the end of rebuy-period. The given number is the big blind (the SB obviously being half.) "[x]" denotes that the blinds increase by roughly a factor of x every blind level. (If one wants to calculate every blind level for these structures, they should calculate the list of powers first, and then round afterwards towards nice numbers.)

The number in brackets after this, gives (for convenience) roughly what the 40th blind level will be, and about how many starting stacks this is. This lets us estimate very quickly at a glance, about when the tournament will end based on what structure we choose and how many players are playing. (One way to think about this is that the tournament will usually end before there are less than 100 bets in play.)

[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] General NL/PL freezeout events:
We give four different structures that can be used for varying amounts of play, the last being for the main event. For the turbo, use structure 1, but cut the first three levels, and make the levels last less time.
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Structure 1: 5000 starting chips.
50, 60, 80, 100, 120, 150 /
200, 250, 300, 400, [1.28] (658k, 131x)

Structure 2: 10000 starting chips.
80, 90, 100, 120, 150, 200 /
250, 300, 400, [1.26] (517k, 52x)

Structure 3: 15000 starting chips.
100, 120, 140, 160, 200, 240 /
300, 400, 500, [1.24] (394k, 26x)

Structure 4: 20000 starting chips.
120, 140, 160, 200, 240, 300 /
400, 500, 600, 700, [1.22] (272k, 13.5x)

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[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Rebuy events:
Rebuy events should not have 200 bets in the beginning. They should be quite shallow at the beginning and the blinds should at first increase very very slowly, to encourage maximum rebuy-participation. We give four structures, the last is ultra deep and intended for the two-day mega event, the second-last is intended for the maniac rebuy event.
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Structure 1: 5000 starting chips.
80, 100, 120, 150R / 200, 250,
300, 400, [1.3] (1771k, 354x)

Structure 2: 10000 starting chips.
200, 200, 250, 300R / 400, 500
600, 800, [1.25] (1010k, 101x)

Structure 3: 1000 starting chips.
50, 50 / 400 [1.25] (1541k, (77 * 20)x)

Structure 4: 1000 starting chips.
20, 20, 30, 40R / 40, 50
60, 70, [1.20] (24k, 24x) (2282k, 2282x at level 65)

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[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Limit Structures:
Stacks should start at 50 bets, and stakes should slowly rise. We give two structures.
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Structure 1: 5000 starting chips.
100, 100, 120, 140, 170, 200, [1.27] (677k, 135x)

Structure 2: 10000 starting chips.
200, 200, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, [1.24] (484k, 48x)

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[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Heads Up Events
We give two structures, the second to be used for a $10k buyin event. Note that for comparison, in the WCOOP 2007 Heads-up event, the structure was 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 600, 800 with 15 minute levels, and in "High Stakes Showdown" they used 30 minute levels.
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Structure 1: 10000 starting stack, 15 minute levels.
80, 100, 120, 160, 200, 300,
400, 700, 1000, 2000, 20000

Structure 2: 10000 starting stack, 25 minute levels.
60, 70, 80, 100, 120, 150,
200, 300, 400, 600, 1000, 2000, 20000

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[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Shootout Events
There are two kinds of shootouts requiring distinctly different structures. The satellite tournament needs to offer play at the beginning when players are trying to accumulate chips, then speed up quickly because players are playing tight anyways, and then stay at those levels.
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Structure 1 (WTA-4hr), 10000 starting stack.
100, 150, 200, 300 / 400, 600,
800, 1000, 1200, 1800, 3000, 5000

Structure 2 (WTA-6hr), 10000 starting stack.
100, 150, 200, 250 / 300, 400, 500, 600,
700, 800, 900, 1000, 1200, 1800, 3000, 5000

Structure 3 (Top 3), 10000 starting stack.
100, 150 / 200, 400, 800, 800,
1000, 1200, 1600, 2000, 4000

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[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Other events, and final notes.
The huge ante event simply has antes at 1/5th of the BB and antes starting immediately.

The 2-day $11 rebuy has three flights, plays some fixed time (13 hours?) on the first flights, pays only during day 2 (a very small percentage of the field), players get the sum of the chips they have over all three flights to use in day 2. Ideally this event should be featured as (if not more) prominently than the ME, and feature a $1M guaranteed first place prize and some insane ($3M?) prizepool guarantee.

The PCPS Player of the Year tournament uses the TLB formula to give everyone points in every PCPS tournament, except for the $10k HU, the ME, and the $11r. Everyone above a certain number of points receives a proportional number of chips in a deep-stack tournament with only a few tables.

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