Every tournament player has an opinion on their preferred structure.
Do you prefer an early start? A late finish? Power through with no dinner break, or take an extra long one that allows for a wider choice of meal options?
You can’t please all the people, all the time, but the new structure at the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship has drawn some appreciation, not least from high roller and PokerOrg Player Advisory Board member Jeremy Ausmus (above).
It’s an opinion which has been racking up the likes and comments in the hours since Ausmus posted it, although in the end he didn’t need to wait til 10:15pm to take his leave, as he exited the tourney before folks bagged up for the night.
The first starting flight of the $2M GTD tournament ended — in good time — with 36 entrants remaining of the 122 who ponied up the $5K buy-in.
David Jackson, a WSOP ring and bracelet winner, leads the pack with a stack of over 560K, good for more than 220 big blinds (2.5K). 2023 WPT World Championship winner Dan Sepiol is hot on Jackson’s heels with around 192bb.
Sepiol’s position near the top of the counts came about thanks to a huge pot won late in the day.
A preflop raising war versus Robert Gorodetsky ended with Sepiol 5-bet shoving with 
and getting snapped off by Gorodetsky, who committed his last chips with 
. The runout of 
brought a river card that was a killer for the red aces, sending Gorodetsky to the rail and Sepiol to a place of relative comfort — and all in time for a good night’s rest.
Among those joining Jackson and Sepiol for Day 2 include Nick Schulman, Alex Foxen, Andrew Lichtenberger and Esther ‘E-Tay’ Taylor.
'Plays until 4am and is 12 handed. You should stay home'
A second starting flight begins at 11:10am PT on Friday, and one player who looks likely to join — attracted by the structure — is Patrick Leonard.
And that’s despite Ausmus’ efforts to put him off.
The conversation around what makes a good start and end time for poker tournaments is not a new one, but seems to be more of a focus for many players of late.
In November Seth Davies made the case that “the industry is due for a paradigm shift in tourney start times”, with various players chiming in with their thoughts, both for and against.
Check out the article below for more.
What are your thoughts on the best times to start and end a day of tournament poker?
Let us know in the comments.
