I had concerns about the payout structure (as noted in a previous post). First and foremost, why, why, why didn't they post the payout structure before the event? Hi were going to set records with this. We are going to do a lot of planning, and get everything done as well as possible. Payouts? Players don't care about those. Look at all the money we're going to make!
When they finally announced the structure (while I was in a Deepstack) reactions varied from miffed to outrage - and these were people no longer in the Colossus. My final opinion on it: WSOP is hosted by a company that just declared bankruptcy. Maybe they're not too good at accounting, or knowing how to get people to come back.
The plus side: Flat the top prize = more money left in the pool for ChaosRock in 591st. So that's a win.
I'm with Palansky on this. If you wanna payout the top 10%, that's a lot of players in an over 22k field.
The rake was clear from the start, $500 goes into the prizepool, and $65 is for paying the staff, and the cost of running the tournament. I'll be playing in a $1,500 event, and $150 of that money is going to the WSOP with $1,350 going into the prizepool. For the Main Event $600 per player goes to the WSOP, with $9,400 going into the prizepool.
The blinds are more favorable in higher buy-in games. That means the players will be in the game longer, therefore costing more money, which accounts for the higher rake amount. They also have to rent the space from Harrah's, pay the staff (not just the dealers, but the cage personnel, security, floor persons, etc.), and write off the chips, chairs, cards, and tables. And since it's a business they also need to make a profit, because if they don't there won't be a WSOP for much longer.
Ultimately there's 11M to distribute among the 22,000 players, and if you're going to pay 1st place more, the other places get less. It's simple math. So you need to make a choice. Do you payout more to first place, or do you payout more to the rest of the field. They could payout a smaller percentage of the field, or apply a steeper payout curve. It doesn't have any consequences for the profit the WSOP makes though, they still get their $65 per player.
If you're going to demand a lower rake, that will be reflected in the tournament structure. If they have to make do with less money per player, they'll want to eliminate players out of the tournament faster. That will mean reducing the blind levels from 40 to 30 minutes, reducing the starting stacks from 5,000 to 3,000 chips, or starting with 50/100 blinds instead of 25/50.
I'm sure they'll try to accommodate the wishes of the players by changing the structure of the payouts or the structure of the tournament, but whatever changes they will make they'll hurt more players and reward fewer. But if that's what the players want, that's what they'll do.
The WSOP has made poor choices before, but every year they've improved. They listened to the players, and learned from their mistakes. In 2006 the big blunder was the All-In chip which caused players to move all-in unintentionally. In 2007 it was the poorly designed Pokerpeek cards that led to players mistaking 6s for 9s and vice versa, and the 25,000 chip which was too similar in color to the 5,000 chip making calculating the pot and pot odds nearly impossible (and not working very well on TV). Over the years chip counts have gone up, antes were introduced, and longer levels and smaller jumps were implemented.
In 2014 they decided to double the length of the early levels, but eliminated the first two blinds levels.
- In 2011 and 2012 I played in $1,500 Limit games which started with 25/50 blinds (50/100 limits), 4,500 chips (90 BBs, equivalent to 180 BBs in No Limit), and 60 minute levels (2nd level 50/75 blinds and 75/150 limits).
- In 2014 they changed that to 50/100 starting blinds (100/200 limits), 4,500 chips (45 BBs, equivalent to 90 BBs in No Limit), and 120 minutes for the first 3 levels (2nd level 75/150 blinds and 150/300 limits). While it did allow more play for hours 6 and up, it meant the players were short-stacked in hours 1-3, resulting in many early eliminations.
- This year they're compensating for this by increasing the starting stacks to 7,500 chips (75 BBs, equivalent to 150 BBs in No Limit), increasing play for hours 2 and up.
. Many congratulations. From now on you'll be known as "Paulo, with $5,000 in WSOP tournament earnings."
