World Poker Tour CEO Opens Final Table Structure Discussion to Public

Steve Lipscomb, World Poker Tour President, Founder, and CEO has published an open letter to the poker community on the WPT’s message forum, asking for the poker community’s input on possible changes to the WPT final table structure. 

The WPT final table structure has been criticized for progressing the action too quickly through too steep of a blind escalation.  The blind structure, in fact, is changed once the tournament reaches six players.  While blinds that increase quickly makes for “exciting” television because the all-ins come one after the other, poker fans that have advanced past the novice level find this type of poker boring for its lack of skill.  The most popular poker program amongst enthusiasts is the Game Show Network’s High Stakes Poker, which features a much more nuanced game that just all-in pre-flop, all-in pre-flop. 

Despite this, however, WPT events still draw very large fields.  The latest WPT Championship, contested in April, doled out a record purse, awarding almost $4 million to the winner, Juan Carlos Mortensen.

Originally published 12:37 AM Sunday, May 20, 2007