So You Want More Chips...

Regular readers know that a theme I periodically return to in this space is that of tournament structures. Particularly I have looked at how deep-stack structures are not really the be-all, end-all Holy Grail that they appear to be. What a deep-stacked structure does is allow a greater number of players to make the middle stages of the tournament. I strongly felt that one of the reasons the WSOP went to triple stacks this year was just so that more players could say "I made Day 2!". If the players don't feel like they're wasting their money or are dead money, if they feel like they're getting some sort of value ("I played for 8 hours before I busted") they're more likely to play additional events in the future.

Of course once the middle stages hit the structure rapidly starts to deteriorate, with the mystical "40 big blind" threshold quickly approaching and then forcing the tournament's pace as dictated by the blind increases. I'm not sure I've ever been very articulate about why the structure deteriorates the way it does. Therefore allow me to pass the mantle to esteemed TD Matt Savage, who wrote an excellent article in this month's 2+2 magazine about why deep stacks are problematic. There is a reason that Matt is universally regarded as one of the foremost TDs and it's on display in his discussion of tournament structures in that article.

Matt also happens to be the TD for the Asian Poker Tour. I'm covering their Macau event in a few weeks in what is sure to be an excellent structure devised by Matt.