New WSOP Limit Structures Kick Off With $10K Omaha Hi-Lo

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Jun 06, 2019 5 min read

The $10,000 limit championship events at the 2019 World Series of Poker get rolling when the first card is pitched for Event #18: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. However, players at the Rio sitting in for these tournaments will experience something a little different compared to recent years when it comes to the structure of these events.

That's because, after David "ODB" Baker did a little bit of crowd rallying on Twitter, WSOP brass agreed to alter the structures. In a nutshell, things will speed up in the middle stages of the event to reach the money slightly faster while slowing down in the latter stages to allow more play during the big money jumps.

"We want what the players want."

Seth Palansky, VP of corporate communications for Caesars, called the $10K limit tournaments "highly specialized" events, noting they cater to a limited subset of players. Thus, he said, WSOP decision-makers were open to changes.

"We want what the players want," he said. "We want these players playing these championship events with a structure they most want. Obviously we can’t meet everyone’s specific needs, but we always try to do what we can within reason to design the events in a manner that will appeal to players for whom the events were designed."

ODB Polls the Masses

In late April, a little while after structures for the 2019 WSOP were released, Baker took to Twitter to rail a bit against the structures for the $10K limit tournaments.

The WSOP had elected to bring back the 2018 structures, with double levels on Day 2.

Baker called them "awful" and opened a poll asking if people would prefer the double-level structure or his proposed structure featuring 90-minute levels from Day 2 on and no double levels. Respondents overwhelmingly favored the latter, to the tune of 83 percent.

Following the response, Baker urged the WSOP to action.

Making the Change

Now, structures can be a bit of a tricky subject when it comes to making changes. Poker tournament operators typically have to submit them to regulators well in advance, so editing them a month before cards are in the air leaves the operator on a tight timeline.

That, plus the nature of most player feedback — requests that improve things for some at the expense of others — leaves the WSOP in a spot where making changes is often unproductive and produces just as many problems as it solves.

"ODB deserves the credit here though."

However, Palansky said, this request struck a chord with the team for two reasons. One, WSOP Vice President Jack Effel has apparently always been in favor of Baker's proposed structure. Palansky said Effel was talked out of it by a group of players several years back because of issues with the break schedules.

Two, they saw Baker's proposal as a non-selfish one, which truly looked after the "best interest of all involved." Thus, they pushed things through to the regulators, who were able to approve the changes in time for use at the 2019 WSOP.

"ODB deserves the credit here though," Palansky said. "He raised it, proved his position was what the majority wanted and dealt with the matter in a professional and non-threatening manner."

Looking at the Changes and What They Mean

Day 1s in the $10K limit tournaments will remain essentially the same aside from the 10,000 increase in starting chips up to 60,000. Levels will still be an hour apiece, and they still progress from 500/1,000 starting limit to a double level of 3,000/6,000 — to allow for deeper Day 2 buy-ins.

Changes begin taking effect on Day 2:

Rather than breaks every other level, there will be at least a 10-minute break after every level with select levels having longer breaks. In total, the 2019 structures will make Day 2 longer by 30 minutes, Palansky said.

That may look a little scary to some players — having the levels tripled at the close of Level 20 and having Day 2 end at 30,000 limit rather than 20,000. But, another way to look at it is to consider the limit at a given number of hours into the event (not including breaks):

As one can see, it takes until the 40,000/80,000 level before the new structure catches up to the old one. After that, however, when the biggest money is on the line, the structure will be a little slower. This allows more play at the most key part of the tournament.

Some have expressed concern that the events will drag on too long, but Palansky nixed those concerns.

"We’re confident players entering will realize these have the consistency of previous years and won’t take more time except for the last six of each event," he said. "The goal was to let skill decide at later stages of events with 90 minute levels instead of 60."

"The goal was to let skill decide at later stages of events with 90 minute levels instead of 60."

The plan will be to monitor how things go and evaluate feedback to determine if the WSOP has arrived at the optimal structure.

That's in keeping with the WSOP's overall plan, Palansky said. The WSOP requests players pass along any suggestions and thoughts to the floor supervisor for their event. That supervisor will then run it up the chain for review.

"All players should know we are open to their input," Palansky said. "The more we can tackle these issues in August/September, the more chance we have the time necessary to gauge and study the information before potentially implementing in future."

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