Played my first MSPT and it was a crazy loose structure. Players kept buying in for 10bb even after the dinner break and just ripping it in with any PP then going to the rebuy counter. Someone who fired 8 bullets and was 30k starting stack after dinner is currently chip leading. I'm curious what people think about the structure? After a while you want to put ICM pressure on people as a big stack, but rebuys are through level 12 and day 1 play concludes in the money with 11% left around level 15 and average stacks very shallow. Didn't feel like there was much room to dominate the middling stacks as big stack and meanwhile the unlimited bullet short stacks were a constant threat.

They did away with the WSOP rebuy years ago just for this reason. MSPT needs the bread I guess so what do they care?

I don't like it, because they are stealing EV from existing players with very late reg.

However, they are also giving EV if they are ripping too wide. You need to catch some of that to make up for the above.

I dont really see late reg as stealing EV. All winning players are stealing EV from the losing ones anyways.

I get that the $$ value of your starting stack is worth more than the buyin if you late reg, but it doesn't increase your EV in the tournament to do that, its just maybe not as punishing as it could/should be.


winning players are losing EV by late regging (because they have less chips at that point than expected had they started on time), its actually the bad players who benefit the most, although they are also the least likely group to do it since it takes away from the recreation of it.



I wouldn't mind a change that when your register, you get chips equal to the $ value of the buyin. So at the start you get the starting stack, and then as people get knocked out, late regging gets you fewer and fewer chips. But also its hard to implement in large live fields and operators dont really have an incentive to do it.

What exactly is the structure? What are the levels, level lengths, and how much is a starting stack when late registration ends?

Here's the structure. Honestly I don't mind rebuys, I'm not a freezout nit and I think as above posters mentioned it was still giving EV from players blasting off too loose. But the rebuy period ended essentially an hour away from the money and even with a 200k stack chip leading my table I didn't feel like I had any ability to apply ICM pressure.

You can still put ICM pressure on people after late registration ends. Before it ends, you just have to recognize that there are going to be some people playing looser / more aggressively than they should to double up or rebuy, and given your own stack and position and how far along the tournament is, adjust your own decisions accordingly based on what you're willing to risk / get it in with.

I mean, everything in tournament poker is situational and there is always a best decision you can make at a given moment. It's just a matter of adjusting to the circumstances.

I play MSPT's and I've never been a huge fan of the shift to unlimited rebuys (it was single re-entry for years) and the decision to close late reg after level 12 instead of level 9, but I certainly understand it from a monetary perspective. A fair number of regs and certainly some of the degens are gonna max fire the events, especially in the softer fields, because they're going to (or think they're going to have) a significant ROI.

As far as the strategy goes, it really is just about understanding baseline at these depths and then making adjustments based on how these players play at the end of late reg. It does mean you're going to end up in more gambly spots, but if you pick wisely you can accumulate massive stacks.

I'm not a fan of these types of structures and have opted to "vote with my feet" and not play them. This structure is common for the multi day main events of our bigger tournament series at my local.

My reasoning is that I don't think I can beat a good player firing 4x my entry and one rebuy.

So I play the other events instead and skip the main. In the last one I did play, the guy that won event #1 for 60k, fired 15 $1k bullets over the course of three day ones. I had a satellite entry and saw him get knocked out 6 times before he quadrupled up.