WSOP Structure

[ShoelessJoe]

Does anyone (possibly Matt T who played in the event) know the blind and starting chip count structure for the WSOP?

I'd like to know a few things....

1)How much you start with
2)Starting blinds
3)Blind increases (when/how much)
4)Possible antes(I didn't think they had these but in Super System Doyle mentions that in the '77 and '78 ones they have antes as well as blinds).

Thanks in advance and even if a website has this, a link would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again guys.

[redd38]

You start with 10000 in chips and there are antes after the blinds get higher. That's all i know.

[MasterShake]

I'm fairly certain the opening blinds are 25/50 but they might be 25/25. The antes come in around the 150/300 mark.

[SillyPuppy]

This is NOT official, but it's likely correct (info is from Donahoe's DDPoker program, which simulates tourneys). Format is Small Blind-Big Blind/Ante

25-50/0
50-100/0
100-200/0
100-200/25
150-300/50
200-400/50
250-500/50
300-600/75
400-800/100
500-1000/100
600-1200/200
800-1600/200
1000-2000/300
1200-2400/400
1500-3000/500
2000-4000/500
2500-5000/500
3000-6000/1000
4000-8000/1000
5000-10000/1000
6000-12000/2000
8000-16000/2000
10000-20000/3000
12k-24k/4k
15k-30k/5k
20k-40k/5k
25k-50k/5k
30k-60k/10k
40k-80k/10k
50k-100k/10k
60k-120k/20k
80k-160k/20k
100k-200k/30k
120k-240k/40k
150k-300k/50k
(Doubles every level after that... don't know if the antes do, too, but I'd imagine they would).

Levels are two hours each (in the simulation, at least).

[Matt T]

Sorry it took so long to respond. Friggin' hurricanes! To be honest, I don't remember the exact blind/ante amounts but as mentioned above, it starts out with only blinds and then antes are added shortly after (in the first day). You start with 10K in tournament chips. About all I can remember now is the stupid play I made on my last hand. It's not quite a recurring nightmare but it still haunts me.

[ShoelessJoe]

Explain your play please.

And who your opponent was.

I'm interested to hear, for some reason it's just really cool to hear about the WSOP FROM someone, instead of from stupid editted TV.

[Matt T]

Sure, I'll explain it. I'll probably get flamed for such stupidity but I'll explain "why" I thought it might work.

I had played pretty well I thought up to the dinner break. I had a horrible, hectic dinner break (note to all future "first-time" WSOP players: PLAN YOUR DINNER BREAKS AHEAD OF TIME!). After the dinner break I got caught stealing and lost a large pot, I didn't think he should've called but he did and his A9 paired the 9 on the river (I had AQ). I didn't heed the "keeping the pot small" rule. Then I built it back up a bit. Then I get 77 in SB, everyone folds to me and I raise (about 3x the BB IIRC, not sure). John Bonetti reraises (not a huge reraise). I call and the flop comes something like A-Q-6. And here's (IMO) the blunder; I move in! John calls and has AQ. Needless to say, I didn't hit my 2 outer.

Here's why I thought it would work: I had been getting high-unpaired-cards a lot that day and AQ several times (and showed them). I thought John had profiled me as a "high card" player. Also, John was still VERY upset from a previous hand where he mucked his hand pre-flop in the BB when no one had raised (only one caller). I also think I still had remnants of "move-in or fold" mode from building my stack back up a bit (even though I shouldn't have, I had enough chips to "play"). Still, dumb, dumb, dumb. The only positive I can draw from it is that I went down swingin', not just calling away my stack or getting blinded out.

Lemme tell ya; when they say that getting busted out of the WSOP feels like a punch in the stomach, that's an understatement. It really, really hurts. I can't even really describe it, but it hurt way more than I ever expected it to. Perhaps because of the way I went out.

OK, flamesuit donned. 8)

[redd38]

I don't think your play was that bad, you tried to make a move and it didn't work. I don't think anyone can flame you unless they've finished better than you in the WSOP (what was your position?)

[Matt T]

Busted first day. Only about 9-1/2 hours into it. The first episode on ESPN ended well before I got busted though, Negreanu got busted at the end of that episode and I remember he got busted out well before I did. Moneymaker was out very early.

Thanks for the reassurance. I didn't play poker for 3 months afterward. It really got to me (and a poker loss usually doesn't affect me that much, it happens to every player).

[HitTheFlop]

We'll sounds like the hand I busted on. It was right before the dinner break on day two. Lucky me I had the chip leader Mike Laing on my immediate right and seeing flops was not an option most of the time. Anyway I'm in the big blind look down and find 66. First let me say that so far I have shown two hands QQ and AA. So, there is a smal raise from UTG and one caller I am down to about 8500 in T Chips blinds are 400/800 with a $50/100? ante (not quite sure what the ante was at this point). I call the raise planing to make a move on the flop as I feel I am being seen as a tight player. Flop comes Q44 I move all in for my remaining 6500 UTG folds and other caller goes into the tank. Eventually he calls and turns over AQ and I am gone. Personally I think my mistake was not jammin' preflop where I believe I could have taken down the pot right there. Like they say all-in wins every time but one and just my luck it was the only time throughout the whole tourney I was all-in. We'll here's hopin' I can win another seat next year.

Answer to your original questions-

1)How much you start with
$10,00

2)Starting blinds
25/50

3)Blind increases (when/how much)
the first two days blinds increased every 1Hour and 40 minutes after that they went to 2 hours. The structure allowed for alot of play as the increases were extremely fair. I do not remeber the exact order of the increases

4)Possible antes(I didn't think they had these but in Super System Doyle mentions that in the '77 and '78 ones they have antes as well as blinds).
They started on the first day with a $25 ante. If I remeber correctly somewhere around the 100/200 level



If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes.


Peace, HTF

[Matt T]

Just curious HTF; How did you feel after you got busted? It really got to me. I walked around the whole next day in a sort of dazed depression or something. Totally unexpected.

[HitTheFlop]

We'll, like you I felt miserable. I would say from a poker players perspective there is NO worse feeling than getting busted from the Main Event at The WSOP. First I walked around for about an hour or so just being well you know...cranky than I called all those concerned mom, pop and the wife. Than I personally slept for about 12 hours, much needed but also a bit of depression. I also did not want to go back into Binions even to check out who was still in the tourney, etc....

The other part that sucked was that when I planned me trip I planned to be in Vegas until Sunday, hell I got busted on Monday and still had 6 days to kill. Not that I hate Vegas I was there three times this year but I did want to be home after being busted. My brother didn't even get there until Tuesday after I was busted out. I finally did cash in a $100 tourney that Friday at the Orleans just a small bit of redemption.

But.... now that i've busted my cherry for the main event. I did play in three other WSOP events this year and cashed in the $2000 NL event came in 45th with a field of 839 (?). It will hopefully be less nerve racking next time at the tables.


Peace, HTF

[Guest]

i think what the original question was asking..

1.How Much do you start with

he is asking how much of each chip do you start with. Obviously everyone knows u start with 10,000. but how much chips do you get? im curious to know this as well.

how much $25 chips? , 50$, 100, 500, etc.. do you start with!

[Tex Rex]

Dear Guest:

I think each player starts with the following:

$25 -- 12 ($300)
$100 -- 7 ($700)
$500 -- 2 ($1,000)
$1,000 -- 3 ($3,000)
$5,000 -- 1 ($5,000)

So they start with 25 chips. That's the schedule I've seen. Anyone who has played in it, I'd love to see this confirmed or corrected.

Hope this helps.