Quote:
Originally Posted by PokerStars Luke
I don't think the tournament schedule needs to follow a mathematical pattern or only have three blind structures. Most players just want an experience that feels fun. I doubt there's many situations where a recreational player feels incredulous that the blinds go from 2500 -> 3000 -> 4000 because it is a 20% increase followed by a 33% increase.
Except the part where the BB doesn't actually go from 2500 -> 3000 -> 4000.
For the specific game in question with the number of players it typically gets,
the largest jumps in effective BB that affect play the most happen right before the FT. I don't see how decreasing everyone's stack in BBs by 50% right before the FT feels fun for anyone. I don't play MTTs that much any more, but I have played it 3 times this month and happened to have final tabled twice and final table bubbled once so know exactly when the FT bubble was on each of those days:
PokerStars Hand #155579543332: Tournament #1607640958, $75+$75+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (1500/3000) - 2016/07/05 11:39:32 CUST [2016/07/05 0:39:32 ET]
Table '1607640958 7' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: KingOfThe$ea (166396 in chips)
Seat 3: puan29 (67913 in chips)
Seat 5: Pedpano (213638 in chips)
Seat 8: 69iMhoT69 (266117 in chips)
KingOfThe$ea: posts the ante 500
puan29: posts the ante 500
Pedpano: posts the ante 500
69iMhoT69: posts the ante 500
Pedpano: posts small blind 1500
69iMhoT69: posts big blind 3000
PokerStars Hand #155823091716: Tournament #1607640985, $75+$75+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (1500/3000) - 2016/07/11 11:32:14 CUST [2016/07/11 0:32:14 ET]
Table '1607640985 9' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: kelroypoker (173051 in chips)
Seat 2: Adso139 (258916 in chips)
Seat 6: KingOfThe$ea (37260 in chips)
Seat 7: teohellas (119705 in chips)
Seat 8: trampalau (247495 in chips)
kelroypoker: posts the ante 500
Adso139: posts the ante 500
KingOfThe$ea: posts the ante 500
teohellas: posts the ante 500
trampalau: posts the ante 500
teohellas: posts small blind 1500
trampalau: posts big blind 3000
PokerStars Hand #155986643276: Tournament #1613251016, $75+$75+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (1500/3000) - 2016/07/15 11:31:02 CUST [2016/07/15 0:31:02 ET]
Table '1613251016 4' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Vic_Lud (174288 in chips)
Seat 4: jamaicano77 (104851 in chips)
Seat 5: Truttman (292359 in chips)
Seat 6: *****rk (109166 in chips)
Seat 7: KingOfThe$ea (59032 in chips)
Vic_Lud: posts the ante 500
jamaicano77: posts the ante 500
Truttman: posts the ante 500
*****rk: posts the ante 500
KingOfThe$ea: posts the ante 500
*****rk: posts small blind 1500
KingOfThe$ea: posts big blind 3000
As you can see the FT bubble was played each time at BB3K which means 20 minutes earlier the play was at BB2K. I'm mainly bringing this up because this is the only >$100 "non turbo" MTT that runs daily on the nightly schedule and the structure is pretty terrible for what is suppose to be a "normal speed" game. I don't think it is such a bad idea to consider changing up the structure to lower the number of effective BBs in the early/mid stages and give a little more play for the later stages.