The add-on pricing issue alone would tilt me, but I think the deeper structural problem is what happens after that second break — the blind levels basically go from "playable tournament" to "push-or-fold shove-fest" in about two levels. When the average stack is sitting around 10-15 BBs, real poker kind of stops and it becomes a lottery. That jump from 800/1600 straight into doubling and doubling again with no intermediate stops is what's killing the structure more than anything else.
The framing I've found useful when talking to a host about their structure — without it sounding like a critique of their baby — is to ask about average stack in big blinds at specific points. Something like "hey, I was doing the math: if we've got 20 players and everyone rebuys, what does the average stack look like at level 10?" Most hosts who actually care about the game respond well to that, because it shifts the conversation from "your structure is bad" to "let's figure out together why the endgame always feels so rushed." It's harder to be defensive about math than about your own design choices.
Preditor's point about picking battles and going issue by issue is right. If I were choosing ONE thing to bring up first, I'd go with adding a 1,500/3,000 level and a 2,500/5,000 before hitting 5,000/10,000. That's a pretty painless ask — doesn't touch the buy-in structure at all, just smooths out the endgame. Get that one win, then revisit the add-on nonsense next time around.
The framing I've found useful when talking to a host about their structure — without it sounding like a critique of their baby — is to ask about average stack in big blinds at specific points. Something like "hey, I was doing the math: if we've got 20 players and everyone rebuys, what does the average stack look like at level 10?" Most hosts who actually care about the game respond well to that, because it shifts the conversation from "your structure is bad" to "let's figure out together why the endgame always feels so rushed." It's harder to be defensive about math than about your own design choices.
Preditor's point about picking battles and going issue by issue is right. If I were choosing ONE thing to bring up first, I'd go with adding a 1,500/3,000 level and a 2,500/5,000 before hitting 5,000/10,000. That's a pretty painless ask — doesn't touch the buy-in structure at all, just smooths out the endgame. Get that one win, then revisit the add-on nonsense next time around.
