Is a High-Roller tournament going to crown the WSOP POY? That’s what it looks like judging by this Bluff Magazine article. To me, this would be a tremendous miscarriage of justice.
The debate begins
It’s not too often, but it does happen. I actually agree with Allen Kessler! To be honest, I agree with him on many issues, it’s just that these issues are usually on the petty side and not worth an article, but this one I think is important enough.
Yesterday’s battle du jour for Kessler was in regards to the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award, and he brought up two very important points:
* #1 – Players with big bankrolls are able to pad their stats first in Australia and later in France at the WSOP APAC and WSOPE tournament series.
* #2 – High-Roller tournaments are given too much credence in the Player of the Year standings.
Kessler used his typical rant outlet –Twitter—to let the poker powers that be know he was not a fan of the current system, tweeting out:
Current @wsop poy system isn’t equitable. Favors elite pros like @RealKidPoker can accrue points pre vegas @MattGlantz @Luscious_Lon @wsoptd
Analysis of current @wsop poy race via @Eric_Ramsey and @bluffmagazine (Appears high roller overvalued) http://t.co/SMvRVPCG3H
Why Kessler has a good point; actually two good points
When it comes to point #1 above, let’s face it, there aren’t all that many poker players that can simply fly to Australia or France for a couple weeks, stay in a hotel, and enter WSOPE and WSOP APAC tournaments. It’s a pretty expensive proposition, and if your only reward is the WSOP POY trophy it really doesn’t make up for that kind of an outlay.
Point #2 is even worse in my opinion. Essentially, by adding the High-Roller events into the mix (and placing such an emphasis on them points-wise) you are skewing the POY leader-board towards the haves.
For instance, there are four or five tournaments each year that are simply out of reach for 99% of the poker world. This year those events were:
* The $50k Players Championship
* The $25k 6-Handed No limit Holdem tournament
* The $111,111 Big One High-Roller
* The €25,000 WSOPE High-Roller
Other than the $50k Players Championship I simply don’t feel that any of these other tournaments should be included in the POY race (I still don’t even get the reason for the $25k six-handed event).
It’s alright to have one or even two big-buy-in events count, as they can’t skew the point totals too much, but to have four tournaments where the field is going to be small, pro-heavy, and offer a multiplier of 2.5x-3x points because of the high-buy-in, really skews the results towards the players who have big bankrolls, and harms the grinders plugging away in 40 massive field WSOP events every summer.
Potential Fixes
I’d offer up two suggestions:
* #1 – Eliminate all tournaments with buy-ins over $10,000 from the Player of the Year award.
* #2 – Impose a penalty on events with fields under 150 players (only award 75% of current POY points) and 100 players (award 50% of current POY points).
Oddly enough, right now a field of 76-100 players actually gets a 1.1 multiplier!
Why it really doesn’t matter… right now
In the same breath; none of this really matters (although it could somewhere down the line) since the WSOP Player of the Year award in and of itself isn’t all that big a deal in the poker world –basically, it’s not going to increase your profile anymore than actually performing well in poker tournaments will.
In 2005 the POY award probably meant you were in line for a sponsorship, or would be considered, but this is no longer the case. It’s still a nice resume padder, and if you already have an extensive resume it’s a nice feather for your cap, but having a good WSOP and making four final tables and winning the award isn’t going to heap riches on you anymore, those days are long gone.
Don’t believe me? Here is a list of the WSOP Player of the Year winners over the years; how many of these guys have terrific sponsorship deals:
* 2004: Daniel Negreanu
* 2005: Allen Cunningham
* 2006: Jeff Madsen
* 2007: Tom Schneider
* 2008: Erick Lindgren
* 2009: Jeff Lisandro
* 2010: Frank Kassela
* 2011: Ben Lamb
* 2012: Greg Merson
Negreanu is the only one with a sweet sponsorship deal and it has nothing to do with his 2004 WSOP POY trophy. Lindgren and Cunningham were both shareholders in Full Tilt Poker, but once again, does anyone think they were brought on board because they were WSOP POY winners?
Even the 2006 winner, when poker was all the rage, Jeff Madsen, pretty much saw no financial reward for his breakout WSOP and POY win – I believe it netted him a Full Tilt Poker Red Pro contract.
So, while Kessler has a good point that the system is pretty broken, it’s a bit overzealous to think a flawed Player of the Year system is harming anyone’s bottom line, but it still should be fixed.
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