WPT Makes Changes to Season XVI Championship Events

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Monday, August 21st, 2017 | Written by Stephen Smith

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced that there will be two major changes to the popular tournament series’ during Season XVI, namely a switch over to eight hand tables, and the introduction of a tournament shot clock. The innovation is seen as an adaptation to changing times as the tournament poker industry becomes more and more competitive. This is especially true with the recent expansion of partypoker’s live events, as well as PokerStars‘ re-branding and consolidating its live tours as it attempts to globalize its PokerStars championship and festivals.

Changing Times

The WPT is the longest running and most established poker tour ever created, and unwilling to alter a winning formula, the organization has not made any major alterations in its model since its beginnings more than 15 years ago. Last month, the WPT subsequently put the new changes up on its Twitter page, thus making the announcement official.

Shot Clocks

The shot clock will be used for WPT main events in order to speed up play and keep the players and audience engaged. The 30-second time limit has been experimented with before during the Tournament of Champions, as well as at a few different WPT 500 tournaments in recent years. It is now going to expand its use of the shot clock to all WPT Championship Events by partnering with Protection Poke.

The WPT thinks that both professional and recreational players believe there is unnecessary time wasting taking place during tournaments, making poker less fun. The WPT shot clock intends to change all that, but won’t be used all of the time. In fact, it will only be used when the money bubble approaches in the tournament. As Matt Savage, WPT Executive Tour Director, explained recently:

“The World Poker Tour is proud to be the first to implement the Action Clock across all of its Main Tour events. Many players, both recreational and professional, have expressed concerns that unnecessary tanking has taken a lot of the fun out of poker. Poker should always be fun, and it was a no-brainer decision to bring the Action Clock to all WPT Main Tour events following its success in the WPT Tournament of Champions and WPT500 Los Angeles. With the Action Clock, more action equals more fun, and who doesn’t want more fun in poker?”

Of course there are always a group of people who tend to react negatively to change, with a number of pros already having voiced their objection to the shot clock development. For instance, as Jordan Cristo tweeted recently:

“would love it if @SavagePoker had to make a string of tough decisions in less than 30 sec that would affect him and his children forev #shotclock.. deciphering 20 variable equations for hundreds of k’s in less than 30 seconds is not the way poker should be played.”

Eight-Handed Tables

The eight-handed tables are another change facing the WPT, and once a tournament reaches just ten tables, the WPT Main Events will only be played eight handed. This change was intended for events in the future, although it will still be dependent upon the venue that is being played. The development seems to correspond nicely with a twitter poll conducted by Matt Savage in which he asked players whether they prepared eight, nine, or ten handed tables. According to the 6,408 respondents who voted, just 5% preferred 10 handed play, while 42% enjoyed 9 handed play, and 53% voted in favor of 8 handed tables.

Unlike a lot of other changes that have taken place in poker, these eight-handed tables represents a huge concession made by the WPT to its players. If the WPT decides to switch to eight-handed poker for all of its events, for instance, it will most likely mean there will be longer alternate lists, as well making logistics at WPT events increasingly difficult.

Player-Friendly Changes

With so much competition happening within the world of live poker tournaments, the WPT believes its company needs to make more player-friendly changes if it wants to retain its customers. Needless to say, there is nothing more player friendly than allowing participants more space in which to enjoy their games, and with the hands being played in a timely manner.