ken_p (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ken_p) wrote,@ 2006-09-24 06:05:00 |
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Marathon Man
--A look a big tournament online poker--
--The movie was a scary thriller. People never saw their dentist in the same light.--
--Hopefully, you'll look at your poker room in a similar light--
Sunday the Million went off at Stars with 4,495 putting up tourney tickets or good ol' cash to the tune of 500+30. That is six-percent juice and compares with brick and mortar WSOP events and even a chintzy Harrah's manages to survive with an assumed nice profit.
The report says the tournament was a 13-hour Marathon and the blinds at the final table were 20-40,000 with a 4000 ante. That translates to Level 22 on their charts so we can extrapolate about 30-minute blinds if the final table started before the 12-hour blind increase.
There is a full report of the Million here [http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/9/w
Let me just highlight: The first major battle was a race between two of the shortest stacks...With several short stacks still in play, two more eliminations soon followed...tried his last $220,000 in with a J-9 steal...'Feb19' was similarly desperate for chips, and committed his last $300,000 with a suited A-3.
Bing, Bang, Boom and the table shrinks and quickly. You'll see in the article that there was an on-fire player that came to the table with the big stack. He seemed unbeatable. The remaining late stacks were close in value with roughly a million. A circuit of the table cost 84K. Which means one bad play and you are down below M=10[1] and maybe much worse. I wrote a long article about blinds and I will refer you there for more of the why. [ http://pokerworks.com/article-510.html]
I sweatered some friends in a big tournament on PokerRoom with, as I recall, a bigger buyin that I mention in an article that is currently unpublished. The blinds in that one were one hour. And the tournament was run over a two day period. So what is the difference? The people who survived were still in a position to play good poker. With an average stack, they could go card dead for a period without total panic. A big stack has trouble running over the table with his raises and is more vulnerable when he overbets at players who can stalk him. It gives everyone a chance to play their best poker.
Felicia [Z. Dyer] Blogger and husband Glenn [Bagsnowski]--who also blogs--played tournaments at the Orleans while the WSOP was going and found a lot of mid-level pros they knew. Why were they there? Felicia said the blinds were far more fair. You can be dumb and select the worse deal but dumb pros don't survive. And, Felicia, Glenn and a host of others voted with their feet and the Orleans got its business just from giving the players a decent shot.
Ignoring the juice taken from all the satellites, Poker Stars made $134,850. For a player to do better he had to finish second. And Poker Stars structure made that very hard to do. There were 4,495 players; this was a very big tournament and one had to suspect the blind structure was to become the major factor in play. One can say that it wasn't Poker Stars fault because the huge turn-out wasn't anticipated. But they were advertising it as the WCOOP and that should adjust things comfortably beyond normal blinds to provide the best quality of competition. The only thing I can see that is truly special is the amount of money put in play by the players. I admire the people who lasted 13-hours to make the final table. It would have been nice if they had blinds that left most of them with a shot. Maybe next time...or in a galaxy far, far away...
---------------------
[1] M is the your cost to make a circuit of the table divided into your stack. You need to get pretty loose while you can still try to steal and survive with hands you wouldn't push with when it gets around ten. You need to start thinking any two cards when it get to five or below. An average M=5 at the table was a stack of T410,000. Take another look at the highlights. With all but one player having a late M of roughly 12 or below it is gamble time for all others;--you need to catch hands or die trying. And! Not only do you calculate your M but you do it for the opposition which gives you an idea of the hand strength he'll commit with and what your M will be if you call his move—a big clue and a huge grace note for the big stack.
--A look a big tournament online poker--
--The movie was a scary thriller. People never saw their dentist in the same light.--
--Hopefully, you'll look at your poker room in a similar light--
Sunday the Million went off at Stars with 4,495 putting up tourney tickets or good ol' cash to the tune of 500+30. That is six-percent juice and compares with brick and mortar WSOP events and even a chintzy Harrah's manages to survive with an assumed nice profit.
The report says the tournament was a 13-hour Marathon and the blinds at the final table were 20-40,000 with a 4000 ante. That translates to Level 22 on their charts so we can extrapolate about 30-minute blinds if the final table started before the 12-hour blind increase.
There is a full report of the Million here [http://www.pokernews.com/news/2006/9/w
Let me just highlight: The first major battle was a race between two of the shortest stacks...With several short stacks still in play, two more eliminations soon followed...tried his last $220,000 in with a J-9 steal...'Feb19' was similarly desperate for chips, and committed his last $300,000 with a suited A-3.
Bing, Bang, Boom and the table shrinks and quickly. You'll see in the article that there was an on-fire player that came to the table with the big stack. He seemed unbeatable. The remaining late stacks were close in value with roughly a million. A circuit of the table cost 84K. Which means one bad play and you are down below M=10[1] and maybe much worse. I wrote a long article about blinds and I will refer you there for more of the why. [ http://pokerworks.com/article-510.html]
I sweatered some friends in a big tournament on PokerRoom with, as I recall, a bigger buyin that I mention in an article that is currently unpublished. The blinds in that one were one hour. And the tournament was run over a two day period. So what is the difference? The people who survived were still in a position to play good poker. With an average stack, they could go card dead for a period without total panic. A big stack has trouble running over the table with his raises and is more vulnerable when he overbets at players who can stalk him. It gives everyone a chance to play their best poker.
Felicia [Z. Dyer] Blogger and husband Glenn [Bagsnowski]--who also blogs--played tournaments at the Orleans while the WSOP was going and found a lot of mid-level pros they knew. Why were they there? Felicia said the blinds were far more fair. You can be dumb and select the worse deal but dumb pros don't survive. And, Felicia, Glenn and a host of others voted with their feet and the Orleans got its business just from giving the players a decent shot.
Ignoring the juice taken from all the satellites, Poker Stars made $134,850. For a player to do better he had to finish second. And Poker Stars structure made that very hard to do. There were 4,495 players; this was a very big tournament and one had to suspect the blind structure was to become the major factor in play. One can say that it wasn't Poker Stars fault because the huge turn-out wasn't anticipated. But they were advertising it as the WCOOP and that should adjust things comfortably beyond normal blinds to provide the best quality of competition. The only thing I can see that is truly special is the amount of money put in play by the players. I admire the people who lasted 13-hours to make the final table. It would have been nice if they had blinds that left most of them with a shot. Maybe next time...or in a galaxy far, far away...
---------------------
[1] M is the your cost to make a circuit of the table divided into your stack. You need to get pretty loose while you can still try to steal and survive with hands you wouldn't push with when it gets around ten. You need to start thinking any two cards when it get to five or below. An average M=5 at the table was a stack of T410,000. Take another look at the highlights. With all but one player having a late M of roughly 12 or below it is gamble time for all others;--you need to catch hands or die trying. And! Not only do you calculate your M but you do it for the opposition which gives you an idea of the hand strength he'll commit with and what your M will be if you call his move—a big clue and a huge grace note for the big stack.
