Poker Tournaments: Part I - Why?

Many card clubs and casinos have started to run major poker tournaments. Unfortunately, they don't always know why they run them, and therefore make some strange choices. I am going to examine several common objectives of running a tournament, and discuss some of the appropriate choices for achieving those objectives.

To make money: This is certainly the most common objective, and even those tournaments that appear to run for other reasons (see below) are really trying to make money in the long run. The profit can be further divided into making money on the tournament itself and making money from the tournament players and their significant others in the casino, in side games, and in the bars, restaurants, hotel, and other facilities/services. You would think that anyone running a tournament to make money would realize that one of the most important ways to capitalize on their players would be to run short tournaments. This means that antes and blinds should start high and escalate quickly. Doing this lowers tournament costs (staff and services are provided for a shorter period of time). It also increases revenues from other areas, as more players are eliminated quickly and have time for side games, casino gambling, dining, and so on. Also, some players are more likely to play in tournaments when they know they will either be in the money or have time to do something else. Short tournaments prevents frustrating the players who spend long hours for no money. They are left tired and discouraged. They are unlikely to play in the next day's event. (There are very few people with the stamina and heart to play from noon to 3 in the morning, finish 23rd, and be ready and eager to play again the next day.)

Unfortunately, short tournaments also decrease the quality of poker being played, as the events quickly become a crapshoot. The best compromise solution is to start off with high antes and blinds, escalate quickly in the beginning, and then slow down or even back up the structure as players approach the money.

To reward regular players: The regular patrons of a cardroom are its real source of income. Those players who play almost every day and who put in lots of hours each week are the ones who keep the games going and allow the club to survive. The best systems involve tracking the amount of time players play and rewarding them accordingly. The rewards may be in the form of rooms, meals, prizes, or tournaments. These tournaments should be restricted to regular players and be either freerolls (no buy-in or entry fee) or added-money events. A further refinement is to start players off with varying amounts of chips based on the number of hours they played during the qualifying time period. This idea has been picked up by some of the Internet poker sites, since it is easy for their computers to track the number of hours played.

For prestige and publicity, and to attract new players: This purpose is best served by having large prize pools, top players, and media coverage. In order to do this, a sensible structure is needed (see Part II next time). It is also desirable to have the tournament in a quality venue with incentives for players to participate. There's a wide variety of incentives, including such things as added money, special prizes, free rooms, meals, or transportation. For years, the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe was the premier event of the year. It attracted all of the top players and received a lot of media attention. Its position as the most prestigious event in poker is being challenged by the crowning event of the World Poker Tour. Even individual events of the WPT are rapidly becoming highlights of the tournament circuit. They combine attractive locations with superlative technology in filming and presenting the final table. The PartyPoker.com Million is another contender for media attention. The combination of tournament stars and Internet winners on a cruise ship created an interesting show on the Travel Channel. The combination of huge prizes, media coverage, and exotic venues cannot fail to draw new players to these local clubs, and eventually to big tournaments.

It is essential that televised poker tournaments follow a consistent structure. One of the underlying premises of all major sports is consistency in the rules and format of each game. Imagine what it would be like if every baseball game used different numbers of balls, strikes, outs per inning, or innings. There is room for some slight variation of stadium size and shape, but the essential elements are standardized. The need for standardization will be discussed more in Part II.