Questions: In an event with a structure of Day 1A, Day 1B, and Day 2 (Final), and the tournament is playing down to set number of players each day (not a certain number of levels), do they usually play down to a % of the field each day or a finite number?

Example: 130 entrants day 1...play down to 50% of the field, 65 players. On Day 2 there are only 100 entrants. Would you play down to 65 remaining or down to 50 (50%)?

every tourney is different, you need to look at the structure sheet

They usually play the same time during the two starting days (this time is decided by the day1A time of play). But sometimes you have exceptions (play down to 5% of the field by exemple, as say deadlysyns, you can find details in the tournament structure sheet).

Yes, I know they usually play x amount of levels on Day 1A and the same on Day 2...but I have played in a few before that played down to a certain percentage of players (i think because they had limited space to combine) and they brought everyone back on Day2. In my mind, it has to be a % and not a finite amount to be fair for each day...right?

For tournaments with multiple flights, I have seen 2 formats and a hybrid of both.

The most common format is that each flight plays the same # of levels.

The second alternative is that each flight plays down to a fixed percentage of the field.

The hybrid approach is when the field plays down to a certain percentage of the field for the first flight only and all subsequent flights play the same length of time as the first flight.

I've never participated in a regular tournament that required each flight to end with a finite # of players. A multi-stage satellite or shootout might work like that though.

Interesting occurrence this past week. I qualified for the $250 multiday event at the Venetian and my flight went well into level 20 before we got down to 5% of the field.

When I returned for day 2, we resumed with 13 minutes remaining in level 19. I guess they picked up where the shortest opening flight left off. Being short stacked, it was a nice surprise to start the day with a few more BB than I expected.