Double starting stack controversy at 2007 WSOP

I've been reading various blogs lately about the announcement regarding doubling the starting stack sizes (excluding the main event). I found that Daniel and Fuel had the best take on it all.

Here is Kid Poker's take:

[ "Poker players all across America have been duped by what is nothing more than a marketing ploy and many you have bought in hook, line, and sinker. I believe it was Jack McLelland who started this trend and it's caught on with tournaments all across the country. I'm talking about starting with double chips in tournaments. The idea is that there is "more play" yet that statement is completely ludicrous and unfounded. The amount of play in a tournament is based solely on the tournament structure and the amount of chips you actually start with has no bearing on that at all. Yet, I was shocked to hear so many pros I spoke with recently failing to grasp it.
You could start people off with a million in chips, but if you raise the blinds in correlation to the stack sizes it makes absolutely NO difference.

Examples:A typical structure starting with $20,000 in chips:
50-100
100-200
100-200 (25 ante)
150-300 (25 ante)
200-400 (50 ante)
300-600 (75 ante)
400-800 (100 ante)

Now, here is what the structure should look like with $10,000 in chips:
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
100-200 (25 ante)
150-300 (25 ante)
200-400 (50 ante)

As you can see, by level six the structure with $10,000 in chips is exactly half of the $20,000 starting chip tournament.

I think the reason some pros believed that the $20,000 in starting chips is better is because they forget what a good $10,000 structure looks like. It's not the starting chips that matter, it's the structure!

Who knows, maybe someone will start a tournament with $40,000 in starting chips, whoopee!!!! Of course they would start the blinds at 100-200 and basically double everything anyway, but I'm certain they could fool plenty of players into thinking that there tournament has "more play."

Don't get me wrong, starting with double chips isn't a "bad thing" it's just completely irrelevant and meaningless. Seriously, You could start players off with $100,000 each, but if you start the blinds at 2500-5000 it won't be any different than starting them off with $10,000 in chips." ]


I agree 100%. It's always about the structure. Not how many chips you get. I've played in numerous types of structures over the past few years and it always comes down to the number of levels and the length of time allowed for each level.

Making simple statements like "it allows more play" is totally misleading. Of course, most of us with half a brain will realize that this change has almost zero effect... so what is the point? You tell me.

I'll keep digging.

On another note, I'll see you at the Mookie tonight... try not to get too distracted by what should be another fantastic episode of LOST.