A Proposal for an Improved Stars Sunday Million Structure

[nath]

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I read the post. But who cares what the ante is when you have less than 10 bets?

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This is dumb... like really dumb.

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[Evenkeal]

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seriously meowchow

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Okay, then infact I will comment seriously

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IMO, larger antes nor smaller antes will matter in solving the problem of requiring more play. (I myself prefer larger antes myself.) What will solve the problem is fine tuning the structure (i mean the correct timing of the blind levels) to keep the average stack high across the entire tournament. You cant just arbitrarily write down blind levels here, you have to look at the stack sizes of previous sunday millions. If Stars could provide me data (how many people left, median stack, average stack @ each blind level) then I could write a better blind increase chart. [and I would and often do stuff like that with my free time because I like thinking about the problem] But who cares? Lol donkaments.

ps. again, a big problem is that it takes 4 minutes to complete a hand

[augie_]

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But who cares? Lol donkaments.

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this is obviously the right answer

[NoahSD]

Evenkeal,
Thanks for pointing out that you think you might very well be able to make a good structure if you knew how stack sizes evolve with time in the Sunday million. However, it happens that the multi-table tournament forum contains at least a handful of people who already know how stack sizes evolve in the million AND have a great sense of how different stack sizes play with different blinds and antes.

[nath]

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IMO, larger antes nor smaller antes will matter in solving the problem of requiring more play. (I myself prefer larger antes myself.)

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No, but they solve almost every other problem almost. The major problem is that shallow-stacked low-ante poker results almost exclusively in clashes between two real hands preflop, and nothing else. There's no real incentive to play hands without a significant ante, and with the stack sizes, most moves are limited (stacks are never deep enough past the 2nd hour or so to 3-bet and fold to a 4-bet, for example).

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What will solve the problem is fine tuning the structure (i mean the correct timing of the blind levels) to keep the average stack high across the entire tournament.

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Did you look at the comparison chart? I haven't done a study on the average stack size during various points in the tournament, but for the most part in the mid to late stages the BB is 2 to 2.5x as much in the current structure than it is in my proposed structure. Thus, deeper stacks, which allow more play, and the larger antes force more play.
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You cant just arbitrarily write down blind levels here, you have to look at the stack sizes of previous sunday millions.

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There's nothing arbitrary about this; it's based around the structure of many current major live events while keeping in mind the time constraints under which the tournament must operate.

[Botchman]

Very good post Nath, now if we could just get Stars to implement the changes. It seems everybody, casual players and serious players all think that the structure should be changed to allow for more play but Stars doesnt want to change it for some reason. I really think Stars needs to make some changes to all of there tournys structure and soon.

[MikeJPokerStars]

Hello Nath and all of 2+2,
First of all, thanks for your detailed proposal for the Sunday Million tournament structure. PokerStars takes player feedback very seriously, and we always appreciate ideas for improvement.

We have made many refinements to the Sunday Million structure over the last year, all aimed at providing participants with as much 'play' as reasonably possible. The Million structure was most recently changed in January 2007, and included the following:

1) Level 1 changed from 40/80 to 25/50
2) Level 2 changed from 60/120 to 50/100
3) Added a new level 4 at 150/300
4) Added a new level 11 at 100/1000/2000
5) Added a new level 37 at 50k/500k/1M

These recent refinements did a great deal to slow down the Million and give everyone more 'play' in the early stages. Perhaps now is the time to add even more 'play' to the middle game. To that end, we will take a close look at your proposal and we'll carefully consider implementing it in whole or in part.

Thanks again for your post. Keep the fresh ideas coming!

Regards,
Mike Jones
PokerStars Poker Room Management Team

[MrTimCaum]

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Regards,
Mike Jones
PokerStars Poker Room Management Team

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First "WHO IS MIKE JONES?" post

[Botchman]

MIKE JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Evenkeal]

The effect of big antes is that you want to win more pots. While it may be good in its own right to have stars adopt a structure with double antes, IMO it does nothing to improve the structure. It just changes the game being played.

Looking at the issue, one thinks:[ QUOTE ]

Well, at this point of the tournament where the average stack is 100k, instead of the blinds being 5k/10k-500, the (normalized) blinds will be 4k/8k-1k, which is <u>better</u> because the stacks are deeper. The tournament will be moving at the same pace in both structures because the M is roughly the same. So we should double the antes.

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IMO this is correct and why I support larger antes.

Just saying that we could do more.

Again, IMO what will improve the structure (IMO even more than 2x antes) is faster hands, especially around the bubble, and understanding how the tournament proceeds so as to structure the blind levels so that the average stack stays high instead of fluctuating wildly.