World Poker Views Blog

I think tournaments are too similar. Sure some have the blinds rise faster than others, some are rebuys, some are Sit and Gos, but that is basically it.

My biggest problem with multi-table tournaments is that they typically take an eternity to finish. I find it unlikely that the average fish, who registers for $22 in a large field MTT, actually looks forward to an 8 hour marathon. If he could take his equity and leave after 3 hours of undoubtedly lucky play, he would be all too happy to do so.

Why not let him? Who would mind? The sharks, yes, but sharks would be allowed to leave when they want too. Just add a button saying ”drop out” or something, and people would be free to register for the tournament without risking to miss TV-shows and sleep if they get in the money.

There are other ways to solve the ”marathon threat” as well. The tournament could simply end at a predetermined time, and the one with the most chips wins followed by the one with the second most chips etc.. This should result in some wacky moves near the end. There might already be tournaments like these, though. I am not sure.

A tournament, which might appeal to ring-game players, is a tournament, which is also a ring-game. Players register and may when the tournament begins choose how much money (not tournament-chips) to put on the table, and they can add or remove money when they wish. The blinds are constant. The tournament ends at a predetermined moment. The player who makes the most money wins 1st price in addition to whatever he already had made. 2nd price goes to the 2nd most winning player etc.. A cruel variant would punish the biggest losers as well. You can drop-out at any time, and your win or loss on the table will count on judgement day (the end of the tournament).

This isn´t really groundbreaking, but I have always wondered why players in multi-table HU-tournaments have to wait for all the other duels to finish before starting on the next round. Just let players who have reached the new round play against each other before all duels are done.

I also don´t understand why poker-rooms don´t let players make (truly) custom tournaments. People are creative. They will make tournaments with entertaining payout-structures, blind-structures and stuff. In the magical world of online video-/computer games, the players often change the game if the game lends itself to that, and the result is more entertaining games. Just don´t let the players have full freedom over the size of the fees, because then the poker-rooms will gloriously fall one by one.