WSOP Starting Stack/Blind Structure Revamp

gilmour

Just read this on Cardplayer:

Blind Levels for WSOP Events Have Changed
Double the Starting Chips Equal Double the Blinds
Players in all the World Series of Poker events that are scheduled to take place this summer will start with double the amount of chips, and the blind levels will also change.

The change affects all 55 events, including the $10,000 main event and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship event. Players will start with $20,000 in chips in the main event and $100,000 in the H.O.R.S.E. event and they will start with $3,000 in chips in the $1,500 buy-in events, $4,000 in the $2,000 buy-in, etc.

Main Event

Blinds for the main event will run 120 minutes and start at $50-$100. Last year, the blinds ran the same amount of time, but started at $25-$50. There are several changes to the blind levels throughout the day, but for the most part, the level structure simply doubles every two hours, just like last year.

In this year’s main event, players won’t have the $150-$300 or the $250-$500 levels. Instead, they’ll jump right from $100-$200 to the $200-$400 levels, which run two times in a row, the second time with a $50 ante.

At the beginning of the second day, blind levels will be $500-$1,000 with a $100 ante. Last year it was $250-$500 with a $50 ante.

In the later rounds, the $50,000-$100,000 level has been cut. Players will instead jump right into the $60,000-$120,000 level (level 27). By the time players reach level 41, the ante structure gets very aggressive. It goes from a $400,000 ante to two levels of $500,000, and then it jumps to $1 million (blinds will be $3 million-$6 million).

H.O.R.S.E.

The players in the H.O.R.S.E. $50,000 championship event will start with $100,000 in chips, but the blinds, antes, and bets are much more aggressive in the early rounds than they were last year.

For example, the first level — a hold’em level — the blinds start at $300-$600 and the limit is $600-$1,200. In last year’s first level, the blinds started at $100-$200 and the limit was $200-$400. This is the same for the Omaha eight-or-better levels.


In the razz, stud and stud eight-or-better, the antes and bring-in are $200 each and the completion is $800. Last year, those amounts were $100 for the antes and the bring-in and $300 to complete.

The levels in 2007 slow down around level 13, and by level 21, the structure slows more than last year to give players who made it this far a slightly better chance to maneuver.

For example, this year at level 40, limit bets are $15,000-$30,000, blinds are $9,000-1$8,000, antes are $3,000, the bring-in is $5,000 and the completion bet is $15,000. Last year, the numbers were: limit, $30,000-$60,000; antes, $5,000; bring-in $10,000; completion, $30,000.

Each game changes every 30 minutes and limits increase every hour during flop games and every 90 minutes during stud games.

The Others

Players will get more play in the seven-card stud events. For example, in the $2,000 stud event, players start with $4,000 in chips, antes start at $5, the low card brings it in for $10, the completion bet is $25 and the limits start at $25-$50. The $3,000 stud eight-or-better event follows the same structure.

The razz events also follow this structure, with some minor changes (slightly lower completion bets). Blind levels for these events run 60 minutes up until the final table, then they change to 90 minutes.

The blinds and limits in the limit hold’em events will start at $25-$50 with limits of $50-$100. The limits pretty much follow the same structure as last year (doubling every level). These blind levels run 60 minutes.

In the pot-limit and no-limit events, including the $5,000 pot-limit championship and the Omaha events, blinds start at $25-$50, slightly more than last year. Blind levels run 60 minutes.

Concentrating on the ME, does anyone else think this is the first step to the inevitable rise in entry fee - from 10k to 20k? Other than that i fail to see how the ME starting stack/blind structure is majorly different from recent years as they are dropping certain levels that were in last year and the antes increase more aggressively than previous years. No doubt the 20k start will have the donks splashing early with teh big stakz.

bohsman

Its more to do with the smaller events, people have been complaining that 1k event with only 1k starting chips wasnt worth it, theyve been keeping stack=buyin so that people wont dump chips in the smaller events to use in the ME so when they double stacks in the smaller events they need to do it in the ME aswell

robinlacey

lame
sounds like the main event structure just got a whole lot worse

RoundTower

really? it looks almost the same to me. When I read the post first I figured they were doing it so they will have more chips in play than last year, they can have a new biggest ever pot, etc, for publicity even if they have many less entrants. But what Oscar says makes more sense.

robinlacey

maybe i'm reading this wrong,but surely this will all make it worse:



"In this year’s main event, players won’t have the $150-$300 or the $250-$500 levels. Instead, they’ll jump right from $100-$200 to the $200-$400 levels, which run two times in a row, the second time with a $50 ante.

At the beginning of the second day, blind levels will be $500-$1,000 with a $100 ante. Last year it was $250-$500 with a $50 ante.

In the later rounds, the $50,000-$100,000 level has been cut. Players will instead jump right into the $60,000-$120,000 level (level 27). By the time players reach level 41, the ante structure gets very aggressive. It goes from a $400,000 ante to two levels of $500,000, and then it jumps to $1 million (blinds will be $3 million-$6 million)."

Goodluck2me

robinlacey wrote:

maybe i'm reading this wrong,but surely this will all make it worse:



"In this year’s main event, players won’t have the $150-$300 or the $250-$500 levels. Instead, they’ll jump right from $100-$200 to the $200-$400 levels, which run two times in a row, the second time with a $50 ante.

At the beginning of the second day, blind levels will be $500-$1,000 with a $100 ante. Last year it was $250-$500 with a $50 ante.

In the later rounds, the $50,000-$100,000 level has been cut. Players will instead jump right into the $60,000-$120,000 level (level 27). By the time players reach level 41, the ante structure gets very aggressive. It goes from a $400,000 ante to two levels of $500,000, and then it jumps to $1 million (blinds will be $3 million-$6 million)."

it seems less valuable. actually with the BB 5 levels in will be 400-800 and last year it was 150-300 so it actually is worse. i dont like it now, it will be good for inexperienced players who think they are getting twice as many chips/value which will be untrie.

RoundTower

no, the 5th level will be 300-600/75 which is almost exactly double the 150-300/25 they had last year. For the first 26 levels, the blinds and antes have almost exactly doubled from last year. Some changes in rounding, both up and down. Then level 27 has been removed, this was at a really slow part of the tournament after 50 hours of poker where it took 8 hours to go from 20-40 to 50-100, I don't think anyone will miss that. Also some levels after that.

2006 structure
2007 structure (pdf)