[haley44]

I was listening in on the teleconference; I might be able to add a bit. What Greg says about the increase in ALL events I can't speak to, as I don't remember it that way, but it seems very logical.

What I do remember --- and this was in response to Susie Isaacs' original question --- is the reason the chip stacks were doubled in the lower events was to provide room for additional play. The way it was explained is that the ratio of the starting blinds to the starting chip stacks will remain the same, but that by doubling the initial chip stacks, they can work in several more incremental blind levels during the middle stages of the smaller events. My interpretation here: This is designed to increase the amount of more complex play and delay the onset of push-'n'-pray poker.

(And not a ton more extra play at that --- I just read through the interesting thread on the structure.)

As for tying it back to the "chip cheating" thing, it'd be hard to. Amy and Tim's series on the overage last year was excellent, and comments that some player had managed to ring in $2.2 million in extra chips were ludicrous. There's no way any player or group of players could pull $2+ million in chips out of play in earlier events without it either being noticed or without the whole scheme being exposed, due to the massive numbers of players that would have to be involved to make it work. It was all but certain to be a math error, as it turned out to be.