Final tables taking 1/2 as long at 2007 WSOP

[john voight]

could it be b/c we are only half way through the wsop?

[MaverickUSC]

Structures are different this year too in the 1500 v 5k.

I also strongly agree. The double stacks minus levels is very annoying - esp in the limit events. You're pretty much stuck there for five hours period and then when you get to where it matters the chips aren't there. When I finished the O8 event there were 16 big bets in play - playing for a bracelet.

Devo

Devo

[PickyTooth]

[ QUOTE ]
Citing that final tables are finishing faster isn't sufficient evidence for your claim that the strucutre of the tournament is poor.

Somebody needs to look up and post the stack sizes and blind structure of two similar tournament final tables from 2006 and 2007 to provide the proper evidence.

[/ QUOTE ]

All I know is the NL 5k(the one mig.com won), was done in 45 hands.

[iMsoLucky0]

On the o8 final table, we were 8 handed to start and there were a totla of 69 bets in play.

I agree. The structure this year is worse than it has been.

And to dynasty: Yes, ALL the final tables taking half the time to finish does mean something. It's not variance for every tournament to end in half or 1/3rd the hands, it's NO or little play.

[umistboy]

Although I would still give anything to be out tthere playing it seems to me that Harrah's have made some huge errors this year.

Hopefully there will be some attempts to rectify the several problems before the 50k HORSE and the Main Event so that at leats these events aren't spoilt.

[jogsxyz]

Harrah's is no different than Lipscomb at the WPT. They want those final tables to end in under eight hours. No overtime for the film crew.
Slower blind structure would offer more play. Better for the players and spectators. But risk running over eight hours.
Very few finals are played at a faster rate then 25 deals per hour. The ingrained culture of poker says players aren't to call the clock on slow players. You can't have it both ways. Either play faster or expect blind levels to move up quickly. Those film crews will be out in under eight hours.

[umistboy]

A FT < 8 hours is fine, I'm sure most would happily agree with that.

But the 2nd biggest NLHE (5k) tourney with 640 runners should have a 9 man FT last longer than 45 hands. It's second placed finisher shouldn't be able to grab second having played only 2 hands in the entire FT. This is too far to the other extreme.

[coltranedog]

In case you missed it, not all the final tables are televised. And the ones that are, are filmed by ESPN and their affiliated companies. Harrahs has nothing to do with the final table nor do they care how long a final table runs. The daily schedule for Harrahs and the WSOP is pretty much from 12pm to 3am every day. People can complain about how horribly the WSOP is run, and blame Harrahs all they want because its obvious that the people in charge of running the event have never played a serious tournament in their life. However they did take the time to listen to the concerns of an advisory board, and did provide the structures to the players on that board well in advance. Its pretty sad that the players we have representing us never took the time to look at the structure sheets and or realize how poor they were.

I would be pretty embarrassed if I was one of the players on this board. It took me about 5 mins of looking at the structure sheets for me to realize how horrible they were.

[Todd Terry]

I did one comparison: the 1st 2K NLH event from 2006 and 2007. In 2006, the average M going into the final table was 10.1. This year, the average M going into the final table was 8.47. This is a slight difference, but not a very significant one. The cause of the difference I believe is a slightly larger field in 2006 -- I believe in general the time it takes an event to finish is not proportional, but rather exponential to the field size. In other words, for a given structure, the percentage of the field lost in a given amount of time should be the same regardless of the size of the field.

I think a similar comparison needs to be made across all events before Harrah's is raked over the coals for this. The NLH events, with similar field sizes as last year, are getting down to a final table in 2 full days, just like last year. The speed of the final table usually has to do mostly with how frequently two people pick up big hands against each other, which is completely random. It happened quite often in this year's 5K, which I watched on the Internet, which is why it was over so quickly.

The limit events apparently are a different story, I know nothing about those.

[PickyTooth]

[ QUOTE ]
In case you missed it, not all the final tables are televised. And the ones that are, are filmed by ESPN and their affiliated companies. Harrahs has nothing to do with the final table nor do they care how long a final table runs. The daily schedule for Harrahs and the WSOP is pretty much from 12pm to 3am every day. People can complain about how horribly the WSOP is run, and blame Harrahs all they want because its obvious that the people in charge of running the event have never played a serious tournament in their life. However they did take the time to listen to the concerns of an advisory board, and did provide the structures to the players on that board well in advance. Its pretty sad that the players we have representing us never took the time to look at the structure sheets and or realize how poor they were.

I would be pretty embarrassed if I was one of the players on this board. It took me about 5 mins of looking at the structure sheets for me to realize how horrible they were.

[/ QUOTE ]

Howard Lederer came up with the structures. Wich makes it even more frustrating I think.