I'm not a pro, so I probably don't have much to offier in this thread. However, it's worth nothing that this post is precisely why TChan is such an asset to the Pokercast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TChan
The structural solution that would actually work, and that pros will hate
So now I have made the argument that no matter how one changes the rules for an MTT, nothing will change unless there is actual cultural change within the professional poker community. Indeed, the culture of poker pros is very powerful, as I’ve outlined above. But this culture shift will not come easily. It will require poker pros to ostracize people who continue to stall. There will be holdouts (just as there are people who tank, slowroll, berate fish, and don't tip), but eventually, the game will be better off.
If the professional poker community is insistent that only structural changes can solve this problem, then I only see one solution that will actually work: eliminating the bubble.
Right now in the vast majority of MTTs around the world, the bubble is worth anywhere from 0.75-2 buyins. This is obviously significant money. If the culture of acceptable stalling does not change, then the only real way to combat the problem fairly is to pay a huge percentage of the field, and make the mincash very small, like 0.1 buyins. Note that in every large-field MTT, there is a flurry of bustouts immediately after the bubble, because the subsequent payjumps are just fractions of a buy-in. Here are the lower payouts for the Millionaire Maker, as an example:
Note that $2249 for a $1000 buyin is something that many people would consider worth stalling for, but even the jump from 478th to 477th is not even 20% of the stone bubble. And I think most people would consider it unlikely that many people were stalling at 500 players.
Yet I think the majority of poker pros, if pressed, would be opposed to making bubbles as small as even 0.3 buyins. There is a great outcry when even 20% of the field is paid, but to make “soft bubbles”, probably well over 40% of the field would have to be paid. Payouts would have to be very flat until the final table, at which there is *finally* no incentive to stall.
I ask those poker pros who argue that a structural change -- not a cultural change -- is the only way to combat the stalling issue: Is this something you are willing to accept?
Out of curiosity, couldn't a reasonable pay structure be worked out that has both a "soft bubble" (i.e. a min-cash that is only a fraction of the buy-in) AND still have a top-heavy payout structure that has prizes for less than 20 percent of the field?
Maybe if I get some time, I'll sit down with an Excel sheet to see if I can make one – or alternatively – demonstrate to myself that it can't reasonably be done. All in all, though, I like the idea from a big-picture standpoint.