WPBT Tournament Structure

Below is the tournament structure I requested from the Imperial Palace. I tried to follow the Texas TEARS structure (similar to the one used in WSoP events) as closely as possible but some changes were necessary in order to keep the tournament to a somewhat sane ending time. The IP agreed but they don’t have $5 tournament chips. They said they could get them but it might be easier to give out more chips and just start at the $25/$50 level and move up from there on a similar time frame. We’re still working it out but we’ll likely just give everyone $1200 instead of $1000 and hopefully that will compensate for eliminating two beginning levels.

You’ll also notice that the first couple of levels start at 20 minutes, go up to 25 minutes, and then go back down to 20 minutes. I requested that because the normal debate that occurs with setting a blind structure is that if they go up too fast they favor luck over skill. I was attempting to balance the luck and skill aspects and my thinking was that blinds escalating relatively quickly in the beginning rounds doesn’t hurt good players as much as if they increase too rapidly later (and the game will go on forever if they don’t rise fast enough in the beginning). Many (or most) of the less experienced players will drop out in the 20 minute rounds so that when the rounds go to 25 minutes, the more skilled players will have a chance to employ their talents without blind increases breathing down their necks. The rounds don’t go back down to 20 minutes again until the blinds are at $5,000/$10,000 which means, assuming there’s $120,000 in play ($1200 x 100 players), 12.5% of the chips in play are bet per-flop so we’re somewhat into crapshoot mode anyway if the tournament hasn’t already ended. We’re also 7 hours into the tournament which is another reason why the rounds are shortened.

$1000 in Chips

Blinds increase every 20 min

Round 1: $10/$15
Round 2: $20/$40
Round 3: $25/$50
Round 4: $50/$75

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 20 min – elapsed time 90 min (1.5 hours)

Round 5: $50/$100
Round 6: $75/$150
Round 7: $100/$200

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 25 min – elapsed time 160 min (2.67 hours)

Round 8: $150/$300
Round 9: $200/$400 $25 Ante
Round 10: $400/$800 $50 Ante

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 25 min – elapsed time 245 min (4.08 hours)

Round 11: $500/$1000 $100 Ante
Round 12: $1000/$2000 $100 Ante
Round 13: $1500/$3000 $200 Ante

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 25 min – elapsed time 330 min (5.5 hours)

Round 14: $2000/$4000 $300 Ante
Round 15: $3000/$6000 $400 Ante
Round 16: $4000/$8000 $600 Ante

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 20 min – elapsed time 415 min (6.92 hours)

Round 17: $5000/$10000 $1000 Ante
Round 18: $6000/$12000 $1500 Ante
Round 19: $7000/$14000 $2000 Ante
Round 20: $8000/$16000 $3000 Ante

10 min Break

Blinds increase every 20 min – elapsed time 505 min (8.42 hours)

Round 21: $10000/$20000 $4000 Ante
Round 22: $15000/$30000 $6000 Ante
Round 23: $20000/$40000 $10000 Ante
Round 24: $30000/$60000 $15000 Ante

10 min Break

elapsed time 595 min (9.92 hours)

Payout Structure

Pay 10 places:

1st 34.0%
2nd 18.5%
3rd 12.9%
4th 9.5%
5th 7.10%
6th 5.40%
7th 4.20%
8th 3.34%
9th 2.73%
10th 2.33%

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