Matt,

When is the WPT final table that Phil Ivey made right after WSOP 2010 going to air?

Blake

FSN will start showing WPT broadcasts of the new season in January.

Any change to have a reply pleeease?

*chance*

Matt:

I haven't been there yet, but Foxwoods apparently has moved its tournament area into an unenclosed space which is surrounded by smoking areas. In this thread from post 62 on a few people have complained about smoke in the tournament area (while others have said it's not an issue):

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/65...82/index2.html

Playing in a smoke-free environment is a necessity for tournament players. Could you look into this issue?

Thanks.

Will there ever be a smoking only wpt? Id really like to smoke during play

Also I'm interested in wpt Amnevulle, what kind of shuttle bus system is in place to/
from the luxembourg hotel?

I have to be honest here Todd and tell you that this may be a little out of my scope. Please send an email to Jeffrey Toth about this and I am sure he will reply.

From Angela Nyman of the WPT International

I hope you are well. I have attached some information which you might find useful regarding the WPT Amneville. Please feel free to distribute to players.

Please note that the shuttle is so far only scheduled to go from 2 hotels in Luxembourg as that's where the majority of the players will stay.


Transport Provided by WPT

There has been transport provided for you from your Luxembourg hotel to the WPT Tournament in Amneville and back again.

12pm Luxembourg to Amneville

5pm Luxembourg to Amneville

6pm Amneville to Luxembourg

Last Hand Amneville to Luxembourg

I am a little surprised that WPT Amneville does not have it's own thread but I have additional information that I have sent to "The Kevmath"

I agree making payouts standard should be discussed. I used a simple log based formula based on field size to come up with standard payouts. It can be easily adjusted up or down to increase or decrease the amount paid to 1st.
The other payouts are then curve fitted from there to have consistent pay jumps.

I would suggest paying 1/9th the field in all events. This is 11.11%. Round to nearest whole number.

Finally, make min. payout exactly double the buyin.

Below are two suggestions for what the Borgota $3300+$200 final event in Sept. 2010 could look like. It had 1042 players.

Some might think 1st takes a big hit. But the truth is poker tournaments have historically been too top heavy. Especially in large event fields.
Other large field sporting events pay WAY less to 1st than do poker events.

For example, while the 1st suggestion below pays $587k to 1st vs $733k actual, this is still 80% of the old value.

On a pro-rated basis, the Indy500 would have only paid 11% of the $733k or about 80k to the winner. In the Pro Bowlers Assoc. world championship, 1st would have paid only about $125k. In golf, at the US Open, 1st would have only paid about $242k, and in tennis, Wimbledon would have paid $315k.
So the $587k suggest below is still WAY higher than what other sports would pay.

Note only 12 places would pay less and 104 would pay more. (including 16 more making min. cash of $6600)


Actual Suggested Difference
1 $733,802 $587,065 -$146,737
2 $440,945 $412,544 -$28,401
3 $266,835 $293,617 $26,782
4 $223,475 $211,686 -$11,789
5 $183,449 $154,623 -$28,826
6 $148,427 $114,446 -$33,981
7 $118,408 $85,853 -$32,555
8 $90,057 $65,284 -$24,773
9 $61,706 $50,332 -$11,374
10-12 $40,025 $39,351 -$674
13-15 $28,351 $31,204 $2,853
16-18 $18,345 $25,103 $6,758
19-27 $15,009 $20,491 $5,482
28-36 $13,008 $16,975 $3,967
37-45 $11,674 $14,276 $2,602
46-54 $10,340 $12,190 $1,850
55-63 $9,339 $10,572 $1,233
64-72 $8,339 $9,314 $975
73-81 $7,672 $8,337 $665
82-90 $7,004 $7,586 $582
91-99 $6,671 $7,017 $346
100 $6671 $6600 -$71
101-116 $0 $6,600 $6,600
% to 1st 22.00% 17.60%
% Final 9 67.97% 59.23%
% Paid 9.60% 11.13%
Paid More: 104
Paid Fewer: 12


This one below is even flatter. While many will find this totally unacceptable, I think it is mainly due to players expecting top heavy payouts as that is all they have ever seen.

If you just look at the suggestion by itself, and do not compare it to the actual pay, the suggestion seems to have very reasonable pay jumps while still offering a very nice 444k payday for a $3.3k investment. Note that over 51% of the pool still goes to only 9 players out of 1042. This is still a large chunk of the prize pool when you stop to think about it.

Actual Suggested Difference
1 $733,802 $444,602 -$289,200
2 $440,945 $335,310 -$105,635
3 $266,835 $254,852 -$11,983
4 $223,475 $195,219 -$28,256
5 $183,449 $150,722 -$32,727
6 $148,427 $117,294 -$31,133
7 $118,408 $92,013 -$26,395
8 $90,057 $72,765 -$17,292
9 $61,706 $58,014 -$3,692
10-12 $40,025 $46,633 $6,608
13-15 $28,351 $37,797 $9,446
16-18 $18,345 $30,891 $12,546
19-27 $15,009 $25,459 $10,450
28-36 $13,008 $21,162 $8,154
37-45 $11,674 $17,740 $6,066
46-54 $10,340 $15,001 $4,661
55-63 $9,339 $12,795 $3,456
64-72 $8,339 $11,010 $2,671
73-81 $7,672 $9,558 $1,886
82-90 $7,004 $8,372 $1,368
91-99 $6,671 $7,400 $729
100 $6,671 $6,600 -$71
101-116 $0 $6,600 $6,600
% to 1st 22.00% 13.33%
% Final 9 67.97% 51.59%
% Paid 9.60% 11.13%
Paid More: 106
Paid Fewer: 10

FYI- This is the structure I suggested to all the casino partners for season 9 event though they ARE NOT FORCED to use. Let me know if you have any comments, criticisms, or would like to add and verbiage to the bottom of the page.
I have used 20,000 in starting chips at both Bay 101 and Commerce since my involvement with both properties and am willing to go to 30,000 because it seems like the standard number of starting chips. I also realize that many WPT stops have already made submissions or have even already had their event but I urged them to consider this simple but generous structure going forward.


My suggestion will be that buy-ins less than $10,000 at least use hour long levels at least on day one and two and that 90 minutes be used on 10K or higher. This structure would even work for the Championship with 2 hour long levels and 30K to start but I imagine they would want at least 50K/75K to start in which case my suggestion would be to start at 75-150/100-200 and 90 minute levels.

Examples of how I will be using the standard structure with different parameters are as follows:

Marrakesh 5,000E (3 days) will use 1 hour levels throughout the tournament
Commerce $10,000 (6 days) will play 5-90 minute levels each day and back to 60 at the final table.
Bay 101 $10,000 (4 Days) Days 1A/1B will be 1 hour, day 2-90 minutes, day 3-2 hours 6 handed and back to 60 minutes at the FT.

I initially created this as a guide for our international stops but I also feel that it gives each domestic partner a chance to use it and change the time levels but still letting the players know what to expect from a WPT tournament.



Again, comments welcome



WPT CHAMPIONSHIP STRUCTURE
NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM
30,000 in Starting Chips


LEVEL ANTE BLINDS
1ST - 50 - 100
2ND - 75 - 150
3RD - 100 - 200
4TH 25 100 - 200
5TH 25 150 - 300
6TH 50 200 - 400
7TH 50 250 - 500
8TH 75 300 - 600
REMOVE 25 CHIPS
9TH 100 400 - 800
10TH 100 500 - 1,000
11TH 200 600 - 1,200
12TH 200 800 - 1,600
13TH 300 1,000 - 2,000
14TH 400 1,200 - 2,400
REMOVE 100 CHIPS
15TH 500 1,500 - 3,000
16TH 500 2,000 - 4,000
17TH 500 2,500 - 5,000
REMOVE 500 CHIPS
18TH 1,000 3,000 - 6,000
19TH 1,000 4,000 - 8,000
20TH 1,000 5,000 - 10,000
21ST 2,000 6,000 - 12,000
22ND 2,000 8,000 - 16,000
23RD 3,000 10,000 - 20,000
24TH 4,000 12,000 - 24,000
REMOVE 1,000 CHIPS
25TH 5,000 15,000 - 30,000
26TH 5,000 20,000 - 40,000
27TH 5,000 25,000 - 50,000
REMOVE 5,000 CHIPS
28TH 10,000 30,000 - 60,000
29TH 10,000 40,000 - 80,000
30TH 10,000 50,000 – 100,000
31ST 20,000 60,000 – 120,000
REMOVE 10,000 CHIPS
32ND 25,000 75,000 – 150,000
33RD 25,000 100,000 – 200,000
34TH 25,000 125,000 – 250,000
35TH 50,000 150,000 – 300,000
36TH 50,000 200,000 – 400,000
37TH 50,000 250,000 – 500,000
38TH 75,000 300,000 – 600,000
REMOVE 25,000 CHIPS

Level times can be altered based on the casino’s needs and suggested times are 1 hour, 90 minutes, or a combination of both. Please note that if hour long levels are used than breaks will be done every 2 levels and if 90 minutes than breaks should be done after each level. This will also leave latitude for the casino on when to schedule dinner breaks and end of days.


Final table structure for WPT Season IX. (excluding Bellagio)
If the average big blinds upon reaching final table are below 30 the structure will be rolled back to the appropriate level with a 30BB average as a minimum. If the average is above 30 then just continue on the same level in the below structure.
Hour long levels/ 30 minutes heads up, frozen on level if structure goes below 15BB average
3,000-6,000 1,000
4,000-8,000 1,000
5,000-10,000 1,000
6,000-12,000 2,000
8,000-16,000 2,000
10,000-20,000 3,000
12,000-24,000 4,000
Change 1,000's
15,000-30,000 5,000
20,000-40,000 5,000
25,000-50,000 5,000
Change 5,000's
30,000-60,000 10,000
40,000-80,000 10,000
50,000-100,000 10,000
60,000-120,000 20,000
Change 10,000 chips
75,000-150,000 25,000
100,000-200,000 25,000
125,000-250,000 25,000
150,000-300,000 50,000
200,000-400,000 50,000
250,000-500,000 75,000
300,000-600,000 75,000

So far the average final tables have lasted 8+ hours


(Casino Reserves the right to make changes in the best interest of the Tournament)

Why are antes often 1/3 sb. 1k 3/6 seems high. The ept structure is much more player friendly and finishes in the same number of days.

Because three straight levels of a 500 ante are plenty

1,500-3,000 500
2,000-4,000 500
2,500-5,000 500
3,000-6,000 1,000


I believe and ALWAYS have that antes should be between 20% and 33%

High antes are player friendly imo.

I agree with Chainsaw. I think antes should be 25% of the SB and if that's not possible should always be less than 25%, which is the approach taken by the Borgata (I don't have enough knowledge of the other venues' structures to name other casinos who do it but I'm sure there are some).

Looking forward to starting with 30K at the LAPC!