Matt Savage's New 'Abyss' Tournament Aims to Be Deepest Ever
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Imagine yourself at the end of a triumphant Day 1 of a multi-day poker tournament. You made some big hands and got paid. You pushed the action with some big bluffs that got through. You were on the right side of a couple of massive coolers.
All in all, everything went your way, and you're definitely the chip leader as the tournament director calls out for the final few hands to be played before chips are bagged and tagged.
The final hand is dealt and you open one last pot. If anyone wants to play, they'll have to risk working the whole Day 1 only to walk out the door without bagging a chip. The flex works. They all meekly fold, content to have survived onto Day 2.
You stand up and stretch, draining the last of the IPA you ordered to celebrate beer level. You sign your bag and drop in the numerous towers you've accumulated across eight hours of play. Securing the sticky part to seal the colorful assortment in, you walk away satisfied.
How else could you feel after putting 915 big blinds in the bag?
The Abyss
Yes, 915 big blinds. Not 91.5, which would be an expected chip lead at the close of many Day 1s in the world of poker tournaments, but 915.
That's exactly what happened on Day 1a of "The Abyss", a new tournament introduced by the fearless — some might say a little crazy — mind of World Poker Tour Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage, who also moonlights as a tournament director at Commerce in Los Angeles. There, as part of the Commerce Hold'em Series, Savage is trying out The Abyss, which features no blind increases on Day 1 in a wholly unique format meant to create "the deepest tournament in poker history."
"It's actually the anti-turbo tournament"
"The basic concept is that players that love playing poker can come in and play deep stacked tournament without the pressure of escalating blinds, similar to a cash game," Savage told PokerNews. "The idea came to Tournament Coordinator Justin Hammer and I during our last series as running a tournament that is not only different than anything has ever done before."
As Savage outlined, the format somewhat resembles a cash game, specifically an online cash game with a fixed buy-in of 100 big blinds. Players sit down with 20,000 and blinds of 100/200. Differentiating it a bit, and encouraging more play, is the big blind ante of 200.
Day 1 of the $360 event features a single eight-hour "level" before everyone bags up. Then, one more two-hour level of 100/200/200 kicks off Day 2. After that, registration closes and blinds begin to increase, somewhat quickly at first with 20-minute levels until Level 25. At that point, there are four 30-minute levels before the structure slows down with 40-minute levels until the tournament ends.
First Two Day 1s Far From Boring
The Abyss got rolling on Wednesday, when 85 players turned up for Day 1a. Any fears that the structure would be too slow, action too lackluster as everyone nitted up behind deep stacks proved to be unfounded. Just 27 players found bags, about a third of the field.
Of those, Hank Kyurumyam amassed the most titanic stack, with his 183,100 good for the aforementioned 915 big blinds.
Day 1b went down in a similar fashion as another 78 entries were logged, with 27 advancing and the leading stack of 141,800 — 709 big blinds — belonging to Joe Gilbert.
The players who managed to bag several starting stacks have built themselves a nice cushion for the early levels of Day 2, which will feature the massively quickened pace of 20 minutes per level. Savage rejected any notion that Day 2 is a turbo, saying the structure was set up that way so it could finish without going to a third day.
"It's actually the anti-turbo tournament," he said.
'For Now, It's a One-Off'
To incentivize players to come on Day 1 and attempt to build stacks, Savage set the tournament up so the top three chip earners in each flight get their buy-ins refunded.
Unfortunately for Savage and the Commerce staff, the 163 entries through two flights mean there's a real chance the $250,000 guarantee won't be met. Nearly 700 entries are still needed, although Day 2 registration and flights on Friday and Saturday provide plenty of upside still.
"The Commerce has always allowed me to be innovative and take chances with bold guarantees"
"The Commerce has always allowed me to be innovative and take chances with bold guarantees," Savage said. "Many of the concepts used in poker tournaments today were developed and tested at Commerce, 'the world’s largest poker room,' and we are proud of that fact."
One of the difficulties in organizing The Abyss was the dealer-intensive nature of the structure, a thorn that Savage attempted to salve with an added $10 fee from each entry that will go to the staff pool.
As for the players who did show up, Savage said the response has been "overwhelmingly positive" and he hopes that continues so that The Abyss can return in some future series.
"For now, it’s a one-off but if the response is good I’m sure we will bring it back," he said.
