Isn't it Time to Add Some Skill to The Tournament Structure?

Scott Aigner

I have been playing in satellites lately trying to win a seat in a bigger tournament. I played in a few of the events too but what I have been finding has been disheartening. Tournament poker has become such a luck fest that there is minimal skill involved. Either you catch a lucky flop, catch a big hand that holds up, or you gamble with a draw. If you lose you are done. You end up playing one hand per tournament unless you win that first confrontation. There is little skill involved in a tournament when you start with 40 BBs. Even a 60 BB structure might not be big. Once there is a raise and a reraise, you are almost surely going to end up getting all in.

One skill that is lacking in tournaments is the ability to fold a big pocket pair that could be dominated. The structure is such that you cannot get away most of the time. Once it gets to the second level there is a huge drop in the average stack size vs. the blind's ratio. Chip compression changes every ones strategy to the point that the skill is no longer a part of one's strategy. No one will be limping in with a pocket pair, no one will be playing suited connectors, and everyone will be holding out to either get a chance to steal the blinds from late position, or better yet, find a big hand in late position that dominates another strong hand in one of the blinds.

There have been a few improvements made in tournaments. The Bellagio increased the starting stack of their $1,060 from t3000 to t5000. With 40 minute levels the structure allows players to actually play more poker and less "Let's wait until I have the goods or get short stacked before I move all in play!" By giving us some chips it increases the action post flop. The bottom line is that the players end up playing more hands and the tournament still ends at about the same time frame it did before. There might be an additional level of play when the number of players is big but otherwise the tournaments are ending around the same as they did before.

Some day the people in charge are going to wake up and start giving us better structures. Now they are starting to increase the entrance fees that we pay to play in the tournaments. The $1,060 structure is dead. They are charging $1,075 or even $1,080 now. Enough is enough people. A final table rarely last more than several hours. Doing the math I think we should all see that they are already taking in enough profits for the length of time we play.

If I am going to receive the same 40 or 60 BB starting stack then I am not going to be playing too many tournaments in the future. They are pricing out too many players. The pros who are already struggling without a sponsor will no longer be able to play in as many tournaments. There will be less recreational players willing to travel with the additional cost involved as a result of the rising gas prices, plane fare going sky high (pardon the pun), and now an increase in the cost to play in a tournament where 1/2 of the players are already eliminated by the end of the 3rd level of play or even less. My next article will suggest ways to improve tournament structures.

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