Poker Community Reacts to Festa al Lago Extended Registration

It seems that the poker world never tires of debating tournament structures and the most recent World Poker Tour (WPT) event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas is no exception. In a unique experiment, the tournament staff decided to forgo multiple starting days for the Festa al Lago and instead allowed players to register any time during the first eight levels.

The Bellagio traditionally plays five levels each day during the early goings of its numerous WPT events, so the eight level registration period meant that players could show up on Day 2 and buy in. The WPT’s chief tournament reporter, B.J. Nemeth, told Poker News Daily he was not aware of any major tournament, WPT or otherwise, that allowed players to register on the second day of play

The unprecedented registration process resulted in several big name players like Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Kenny Tran, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Freddy Deeb skipping Day 1 altogether and showing up midway through the second day of play. Thanks to the deep stack structure with very small antes, players who showed up at the start of Day 2 still began play with 75 big blinds.

Nemeth broke down the progress of the Day 2 starters as part of the coverage on the WPT’s official website. While most players would agree that a 75 big blind stack is plenty of chips to work with, most of the late arrivals had trouble catching up with the rest of the field. Nemeth reported that 20 of the 30 Day 2 entrants did not survive to the end of the day. Of the ten players who advanced to Day 3, only Danny Fuhs and Gary Gibbs finished with an above average stack and neither of them would make the money. While most of the late arrivals were eliminated on Days 2 and 3, Ferguson and Deeb were part of the top 27 and Deeb is currently second in chips with 11 players remaining.

Andy Bloch has been a vocal critic of the growing trend of tripling and quadrupling starting stacks in an attempt to offer more play to the players, but he appreciated the decision to extend registration into Day 2. In a recent appearance on the PokerRoad podcast “The Poker Beat,” Bloch suggested there is no need to start a tournament with more than 100 big blinds. The Festa al Lago structure gave players 600 big blinds and Bloch credited the late registration option as one of the reasons why he decided to play. He explained that he values his free time and with such deep starting stacks, the early play in the event was too insignificant to merit him taking the time to play on Day 1.

Ultimate Bet sponsored pro Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire was less fond of the extended registration period. While he did not play in this WPT event, Devonshire is a regular on the circuit. “I think the experimental registration procedure at this year’s Festa al Lago event is silly,” Devonshire told Poker News Daily. “When numbers are challenged, many players use the field [size] to decide whether or not to play.”

The numbers Devonshire is referring to are the small turnouts for the preliminary events and the overall decline in attendance for WPT events across the board. While tournament staff believed the move could help increase the number of participants in the event, Devonshire disagrees. “A smaller field discourages registrants and I don’t think it can be made up by allowing people to register after 12 hours of play,” he argued. Although the extended registration brought in 30 extra players, upping the total field size to 275, the numbers for this year’s event are still down 25% compared to last year.

Devonshire also spoke on the strategic ramifications of the policy, suggesting it could potentially give someone an edge since they could register late with a chip stack that is slightly below average with $1 million of dead money in the prize pool. Bloch agreed with Devonshire’s point, telling WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman that, even though you may miss out on the opportunity to win chips off the less experienced players, it is probably easier to make the money starting on Day 2 since so many players already busted out.

The debate rages on. What do you think? Post a comment below and let us know your reaction to the WPT Festa al Lago’s extended registration policy.

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Poker glossary:

RAINBOW - In flop games, a flop in which no two cards are of the same suit. "The flop was A 9 7 rainbow."
BUTTON - A distinctive token held by the player sitting in the theoretical dealer's position, when a house dealer is used. The button rotates around the table so that every player has an opportunity to be the last to act. Also, "THE BUTTON" can refer to the player who currently has the button. ("I was the button and called the blind".) Synonyms: BUCK, PUCK.
BIG BOBTAIL - An open-ended 4-card straight flush.
STRING BET - An unethical and often illegal means of raising whereby a player puts a call-size stack of chips into the pot and, after observing the reactions of the players, then goes back to his stack and puts out more, thus raising.
ROYAL FLUSH - An ace-high straight flush, the best possible hand in regular poker.
SUICIDE KING - King of Hearts. So named because in the drawing the king appears to be stabbing himself in the head.

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