Quote:
Originally Posted by Beaudog
I checked and as far as I know the 9/13/08 date is set....
I am going to lobby for $15K in chips....will make things a bit smoother in those mid-levels.....don't know if they'll go for it, but worth a shot....
Beaudog... thanks for your posts above. I especially appreciate the advice that you and another poster had about handling the tax situation in a final table chop.
With respect to the structure, I was thinking about it since the tournament ended. The blind levels seemed ok to those who had average stacks or better throughout the tournament until right around the time that the money hit. I don't remember the levels exactly, but shortly after the bubble burst, it seemed like the blind levels really took off, especially the antes.
By the final table, the blinds left no room to play (25k/50k w/ 10k ante). Even the chipleaders with 1 MM chips had only an M of 6. Two-thirds of the table had stacks with less than 600,000 and therefore Ms below 5. There was no ability to play poker at all. It was just fold or shove, and pray either way that you were still there when it came time to chop.
Now I know that Showboat has some space issues and was looking to get the tournament finished in a day. I had two ideas that might enable Showboat to flatten the structure a little as the final table approaches.
One might be just to start a little earlier. Instead of getting the cards in the air at noon, why not start at 10 a.m.?
Another thought was simply to give a two-day tournament a try. Maybe the goal in day one (Saturday) could be to play down to two tables. Then those players might return on day two (Sunday) for the end-game. Showboat could host the final tables in its poker room on day two. Showboat must have the room to do this.
In any event, I think the 25 minute levels are fine, and in general, the blind increases are not too bad. But I just recall some point at which there was such a serious escalation in the combination of blinds and antes that it becomes a card-catching contest.
One story from this weekend that perhaps makes the last point. Two of the top 3 finishers this weekend were down to felt with three tables left. The player who finished second told me that he had 23,000 chips (when the blinds were at 10k/20K or so), when he caught Aces three times. By winning just those three hands, he vaulted to over a 1 million in chips.
The number 3 finisher was seated next to me. He had lost a big hand, and could not post a full big blind. He went all-in blind from the SB with 95o v. AK. He caught a 5 on the river to survive. He moved all-in on the next hand with TT against A9 and won that hand, too. He started the final table with 800,000 chips.
Obviously, these runs are only possible because just the total of the blinds and antes are enormous compared to stack sizes. Maybe Showboat needs to get a little creative about how to smooth out the structure near the end so that if you have an average stack at any given point in time, you don't have to play "all-in or fold" poker.
It's a great tournament run by really nice people. I hope Showboat runs this tournament for many years to come.
Last edited by mxp2004; 07-14-2008 at 04:20 PM.