WSOP Preview:
The Process of Changing Payout
and Tournament Structures

by Tim Lavalli

Directly in response to comments from
WSOP 2006 participants, Harrah's made
some major adjustments in the tournament
payout structure and the tournament blind
and ante structure. The revised and 'flattened'
payout structure is getting a lot of media
coverage after a recent Harrah's press release.
Let's look behind the changes to the reasons
for the evolving WSOP structure.

Gone are the days when the Main Event
winner will be splitting a $12 million dollar
prize up among friends, family, backers and
assorted litigators; while the bottom end
870-something finisher makes $4K on his
or her $10K entry fee.

Last year the $12M announcement was met
by almost universal player response of:
"Why so much?" and "Why not cap it at
$10M and spread the wealth."

Well that is exactly what is going to
happen this year. Like so many good ideas,
it takes action by a few individuals to start
the wheels of change. After the 2006 Series,
our sources tell us that Barry Greenstein
sent a "revised" payout structure to the
WSOP staff; this was basically Barry's
thoughtful response to the player reaction
to the 2006 payout structure. His was the
payout structure that became the template
for this year's Series.

But change does not come with a single
stroke of a pen and one payout structure
does not work for the diversity of events
that the 2007 WSOP offers. No, it took
over 200 hours of work between WSOP
Tournament Director Jack Effel and
Players Advisory Council members
(with significant input from Howard Lederer)
to create the series of five unique Payout Tables.

Think you know your poker?
Check out the Shootout Pay Table on
worldseriesofpoker.com, and explain the
gaps in the entrant numbers. The changes
in most events will result in smaller payouts
on the top end of the tournament, basically
the top 27 will receive less and the resulting
increase in payouts in the bottom 90-95%
of the pay structure.

Last year's $12M first prize in the Main Event
would come down to around $10M under the
new structure and the bottom end players
would take home $20K instead of $14K.
All of the 2007 WSOP events will change
in a similar fashion. The changes do not add
more players to the payout structure but simply
more money to those who do burst the bubble
at the low end of the pay scale. Right along with
the payout structure changes were the changes
to the blind and ante structure for all events.

As previously announced, every event in the
2007 WSOP will start with double the chips
from last year. Gone are the days where one
big hand in round one of a 1500 chips event
made you an automatic short stack.
Again, a lot of hard work and collaboration
between Jack Effel, Howard Lederer and the
WSOP staff has created a new set of tournament
structures that will allow for more play.
This is not to say that the starting chips were
doubled and the structure left unchanged.
To quote Assistant WSOP Tournament Director,
Jimmy Sommerfeld's classic line:
"At some point in the tournament you have to
bust some players out." But change in the blind
and ante structure allows for at the very least
70% more play for the prudent, patient player
until their Aces get cracked back-to-back.

Tournament Structure sheets can also be
found on worlderiesofpoker.com