Poker News

Dr. Scott Aigner

The Wynn is running weekly no limit tournaments. One of my biggest pet peeves in tournaments is the fact that the structures make a number of them crap shoots. The Wynn’s structure is one of the best I have seen. The starting stack of t3000 in chips is 60 times the size of the big blind. In addition, the levels are45 minutes long. The levels increase at reasonable increments and because of this the final table takes several hours to complete. David Egsleder (the tournament director) made the structure of the weekly tournaments one that will attract tournament players to the Wynn.

The structure of a tournament is a very important factor in whether I play or not as it determines how the skill factor relates to luck. In the future I hope that we will see more tournament structures that are similar to this one at other venues. Increasing the starting stack to 60 times the big blind is really not asking for too much. It improves the play at the final table too. At most it will only add one more level to the length of a tournament. That level does make a difference to the players though. Let’s add more skill to tournaments and stop the crap shoot that most tournaments succumb to at the end because no one has enough chips to play real poker. I am tired of seeing final tables where no one has enough chips to play one hand past the flop.

In the past there was an association of tournament directors that decided on a set of rules. These rules are usually used at most major tournaments and are known as the TD Rules (or Tournament Director’s Rules). I believe that the same tournament directors could also standardize tournament structures in a similar fashion.

One that would make structures more uniform and also improve on what has become a less than optimal situation that tournament players are finding out only after having traveled across the country to play at a tournament venue. Some tournaments have structures that give them only a slim chance to win unless they are very lucky. There is no time to develop a strategy or to play more than one or two hands. Once you get involved in a hand past the flop you are committed to play it for all of your chips. By adding a few more starting chips to everyone’s stack the players will see more flops. This in itself leads to more confrontations and players being eliminated at a similar rate as a structure that makes everyone play too tight.

Finally someone is taking the bull by the horn and giving the players a tournament structure that allows the players to use their skills. I want to thank David and compliment him for doing something that no one else has done. So far the tournaments are attracting around 50 players and are lasting 7 hours. I am sure there will be an influx of tournament players in the near future.

Once the word gets out about the structure everyone who plays in tournaments in Las Vegas will flock tothe Wynn to play in their weekly tournaments. As far as I can tell it is a no lose situation. The Wynn wins and so do the players.

There are one table satellites (two winners per satellite) that start at 8 a.m. on the day of the tournaments.

Two of the weekly tournaments are $330 buy ins and start at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Friday tournament is $540 and starts at 3 p.m.

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