Improving the World Championship

Last year, the World Series of Poker championship event more than tripled in number of entrants, going from 839 in 2003 to 2,576 in 2004. I sure didn't expect it to more than double in 2005, but that's what happened, as 5,619 players competed this summer. For the staff and planning to completely adjust to this monumental growth would be unreasonable to expect, especially since there was a "driver change" at the top between this year and 2004. But let it be said that the tournament was a magnificent one, and I'm highly complimentary of those who assisted in running it. So, everything I say in this column should be received as simply constructive suggestions to improve the WSOP, and not as an attempt to take anything away from a great accomplishment. Here is my list of areas that need some improvement:



1. Scheduling starting and ending times for sessions so that players have an adequate opportunity to recuperate with a good night's sleep. This year there were three starting days, with the survivors combined into one group on day four. The sessions on the first three days started at 11 a.m. and lasted until about 2:30 a.m. I was assigned day three, meaning I had to be ready to start play at noon the next day. I managed to be alert for the whole marathon session of 15-plus hours on my first day, but the short intermission between days had me really hurting on my day two. I will buy the fact that a poker player ought to be able to play a long session, but he has to have time to recuperate before going back out into combat. I think a 13-hour session that knocks off at around midnight would be fine, but any longer than that turns the competition into too much of an endurance contest.



2. Discontinue restroom breaks for the entire room at once. This practice exceeds the capacity of any building to service such timing. This problem has been mentioned by several other Card Player writers, but let me elaborate and explain exactly what happened. Play was held in a room with 200 tables. With nine players at a table, that is 1,800 people, not counting the numerous spectators. We were given a restroom break approximately every two hours. For some reason, the first break was a half-hour, with all the others being only 20 minutes. The spectators were asked to leave the playing area five minutes before each break. In the convention area, there were two men's rooms. One of the ladies' rooms was temporarily converted into a men's room during the break, which was very helpful to the men. I will leave it up to the ladies to carry any argument about what they thought of that procedure. Despite that conversion, there was not nearly enough room to accommodate everyone promptly. The lines were very long. Perhaps next year we will be in a facility that has somewhat more restroom capacity, but it is hard to believe that any architect who designs convention space could visualize what happens during an event in which thousands of people want to use the restroom at the same time. It has been suggested that the room be divided in half for restroom breaks. I would go it one further and divide it into thirds, with three break times each a half-hour apart, or something similar. If you divide the room into thirds, you need only a 15-minute break, which would be helpful in shortening the total length of playing time for the day.



3. Increase the payoff for barely getting into the money. We had a fabulous prize pool this year, with the top spot getting $7.5 million and everyone who made the final table being assured of becoming a millionaire. However, the payoff for barely cashing was $12,500. Not everyone gets into the event by winning a cheap satellite, and those who win a satellite may well have lots of at-bats before they get that hit. I would suggest increasing the minimum payoff to $15,000. We all know there will be an even bigger field next year. Let's increase the bottom payoff to $15,000 and make the appropriate adjustments to the rest of the lower places. There will be plenty of prize money available to do this.



4. Give the players enough time to eat dinner, and a coupon that can be used in their dining room of choice. We were given 75 minutes for dinner. We need at least an hour and a half. Using staggered times for each third of the field would help in timing the dinner break, as well as the timing of other breaks. I did not want to eat at the Rio buffet, for several reasons. So, I ate in either the Indian restaurant or the Italian restaurant each evening. Both had excellent food, but were a little pricey. Having a coupon to help defray some of the cost would have been much appreciated.



5. Widen the aisles for spectators. A corridor needs to be wide enough to allow free passage for people even though spectators are watching play. The aisles were so narrow that weaving one's way through the tables in the playing area was actually a faster way to get out of the room.



6. Make sure that players have an adequate amount of starting chips for each tournament. So far, I have been talking about just the championship event itself, but other events also deserve attention. Most of the events started players out with an adequate amount of chips, but the $1,000 event with rebuys started us out with only a grand, playing $25-$25 blinds. It appeared to be an attempt to bust out lots of players and get a bigger prize pool. Players should start any world championship event with 100 times the big blind in chips. If this means starting with $5-$10 blinds (so that the chips actually reflect the amount of money in the event), so be it. Play during the rebuy period would be a lot more like championship poker than what actually took place. I noticed that the number of entrants in this event was far less than in the other no-limit hold'em events, and I believe the starting blind structure had a lot to do with it.



I have had conversations about these matters with both Tournament Director Johnny Grooms and overall WSOP Director Kenny Lambert Jr. These men and other poker people directly connected with the tournament are aware of these problems and are going to try very hard to correct them next year. I think the WSOP will continue to be strengthened in the way it is run, in addition to continuing to grow in attendance.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker (available at CardPlayer.com), Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free. Ciaffone is the cardroom director for ChecknRaisePoker.com.