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Bad Structure Favors High Variance Plays
I play quite a few MTT’s on World Tavern Poker. It’s a lot of fun, but I just don’t think it’s that good for my game. What I like about WTP is the affordability (free accounts get 7 games / week — $25/month gives access to like 50 games/wk), the camaraderie (you play with the same population every day), and the freedom to experiment with fresh plays without much consequence of failure.
What gives me pause with the WTP tournaments is the structure. The structure heavily favors high variance plays, particularly after the first break.
Starting chips: 15,000
Levels: 12 min
Blinds:
100/200
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000
(break)
1K/2K
2K/4K
4K/8K
5K/10K
10K/20K
20K/40K
(break)
etc.
With this structure, even the players who manage to double their starting stack in the first hour are only left with 15 bigs after the break. Players nit up, then shove pre. If you have a healthy stack of 50+ bigs, you can take advantage of many uncontested pots. However, because the blinds are so big, contested pots are much more impactful. Players can double or bust in any given hand.
So we’ve got to adjust our game to win. That’s fine, but what really, really bugs me is the thought that by adjusting our game to this style of tournament play, we are actually making our game worse for real-money tournaments. That is, there is a fear that we are practicing the game incorrectly.
Any thoughts on this? Anyone have experience in World Tavern Poker or similar structures?
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