A trend in live and online tournaments has been pushing back when registration closes. There used to be that “rebuy” tournaments. In rebuy tournaments you could rebuy, but your rebuy would not be raked. There’s been a shift to “re-entry” tournaments where you aren’t simply “buying” more chips, but “entering” the tournament again, which means you pay rake again. Nowadays most tourneys offer at least a single re-entry, players like it because it means if you lose one big hand early then you aren’t out of action for the day. Operators like it because they collect more rake and generate bigger prize pools, which attracts more players, which allows them to collect more rake.
People like to max late register tournaments because when they enter the tournament they are closer to the money and cash the tournament a higher percentage of the time than if they played from the start. In a 100 person tournament where 15 people cash, being able to register with 45 people remaining is an attractive gamble. Personally I think this trend is fine, but there should be some tinkering on the margins: Registration should close earlier, players who register on time should be compensated in bonus chips or reduced rake and once late registration is closed all players should be seated before cards are back in the air.
The reason for the latter point is clear; If you are registered for the tournament and registration is closed and cards are in the air, your stack needs to be in play. If you are seated and your table breaks, you must directly go to your new table, you can’t take a lap or go to the bathroom or grab a drink. The same standard should be applied to max late registration. This is not a huge concern, but in my time in poker I’ve learned that if there is a loophole someone will shamelessly exploit it. A notorious exploiter of this loophole is Daniel Smiljkovic; on April 16th friend of mine and friend of POTD Steve O’Dwyer eloquently tweeted about Daniel’s shenanigans during the Irish Poker Open.
Enough is enough, tournament organisers and directors need to start being extremely strict about not seating players once late reg is closed because fucking parasites like Daniel Smilijkovic and others of his ilk will never stop abusing honest players who seat themselves on time
Myself and other players over the last year argued for strict late reg procedures in direct response to his antics at EPT Paris, PokerDream Jeju and Triton and thankfully those events have responded well and it’s no longer an issue there, but more need to be aware.
Modern tournament apps make it very easy to know exactly how much time is left on the clock to reg, there is absolutely no excuse for a player to walk up to reg 1 second before it closes and stall as long as possible before being seated.
It would be great if we could trust everyone to allow a little bit of leeway for someone who might have had some bad luck that prevented them from arriving on time, but people like him ruin it for everyone else and it sucks. Now we have to be super strict to stop this scamming.
Daniel eloquently replied
Time for you to retire old man.
The fix for this is simple. If late registration closes at the start of level 11, tournaments should go on break at level 10. This will give the floor and staff enough time to register and seat all players and gives players a buffer in case they are running late. Operators are in the business of running fair competitions, but are also in the service industry. These two interests often clash. If you had a reservation for dinner at 7pm and showed up at 7:01 and your reservation was cancelled, you’d be irate. If your opponent scored a goal one second after the final whistle blew and it was counted because it was “close enough” you’d also be irate. In an ideal world, operators could make decisions based on fairness and common sense— draconian tournament staff are bad for everyone, but we do not live in an ideal world. Our world has parasites who will travel halfway across the world, wait around all day, play stalling games so they can register as late as possible and get seated as late as possible. All of this to avoid playing at most an orbit so they can increase their ROI by hundredths of a percentage point. It’s bad for the overall tournament ecosystem and offenders should be punished.
In today’s hand we honour premium subscriber Steve O’Dwyer by looking at a hand I played poorly, but where I doubled through Steve’s nemesis, Mr. Smiljkovic, ironically in level 1 of a tournament he registered on time.
Triton Poker Vietnam 2023 - Event #1 25,000 GG SUPER MILLIONS LIVE
Level 1 (500/1k/1k) (SB/BB/BBA) 250k Starting Stack
It folds to Michael Addamo (250k) on the button who makes it 3k, I (237k) call 3♥️3♦️ in the SB, Daniel Smiljkovic (250k) makes it 18k in the BB, Addamo folds, I call
Flop (40k): 4♦️3♠️2♦️: I check, Daniel bets 10k, I raise to 40k he calls
Turn (120k) J♠️: I bet 60k, Daniel shoves, I call and beat his Q♣️Q♥️
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