Do Poker Tournaments Need Better Organization?
The major poker tournaments are always expanding, but in the last year or so that expansion has been marred by financial woes, clashing schedules, and organizational issues – not to mention threats of boycotts after black friday.
This year, the poker calendar is even more cluttered than usual – with big name tournament clashes starting early. Florida based players are expected to choose between the WPT Lucky Hearts Open, or the Miami Gardens Poker Classic next month. Why are both main events on the same day? What do the two events have to gain by competing with each other – or is it just an accident, brouht about through poor planning?
Some poker tournament organizers are working to mitigate these clashes, with multiple Day 1s a popular way of giving people the opportunity to take two bites of the tournament cherry, so to speak.
However, that still leaves people with the difficult of choosing what to enter first. Prioritizing a tournament is a public show of support. That may not be a huge deal for a dedicated amateur, but it puts big name players in a difficult position.
Would it be better if the bigger names worked together to schedule their tournaments? There’s always room for a little competition, but spreading out tournament dates would benefit many players, and could increase the number of entrants overall.
I believe that if the major tournaments spread out their dates a little better, and perhaps ran shorter series – so that there were more events running concurrently, it would be good for the players, and give more exposure to the brands too.