Doubling Up, Doubling Down
2007-03-23 15:08:15
By: Gene Bromberg
Last Friday I posted about a conference call between reporters and World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, who reviewed a number of changes that've been made to the biggest poker tournament in the world. The one that struck me the most was the doubling of the chips you start off with. I thought that only applied to events with lower buy-ins--this was incorrect. The starting stacks for ALL events will be doubled. If you play in the Main Event you'll have $20,000 in tournament chips sitting before you, not $10,000.
Thing is, the blind structures have also been doubled. Instead of starting off with $25/$50 blinds, the Main Event will start with $50/$100. The levels will still be 120 minutes long, and some levels have been eliminated and/or consolidated, so it's not clear how (or if) these changes will affect play. Of course doubling the chips without some corresponding changes in blind structure would've made for some VERY long tournaments, but we'll have to wait and see if these alterations change players' strategy.
Of course, these points are somewhat moot if you aren't PLAYING in the Main Event. And if you're thinking that, yes, you'd like to play in the biggest event in the poker universe, you should know that tonight UltimateBet is running our weekly WSOP Satellite event at 9:30pm ET. Register now and you might be able to transform your $200+15 buy-in into...a whole lotta moolah.
Of course, exactly HOW MUCH moolah won't be known until the field is set, a fact that escaped an Associated Press reporter during last week's conference call. The reporter asked Pollack how much first prize would be this year, apparently ignorant of the fact that the prize pools are determined by the number of players who actually pony up the entry fees. Sigh, amateurs.
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