Mike Sexton: WPT Championship and starting late in tournaments

It’s an exciting time as we get ready for the final table of the WPT championship. As of this writing, 35 players are left in the tournament (Day 4). Of those 35, 11 are still in the hunt for the WPT Player of the Year. That includes 5 WPT champ’s and 3 former World Champions (Carlos Mortensen, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen). Faraz Jaka (aka “The Toilet”) is the current point leader.

In this tournament, players were allowed to enter up until 5 pm on Day 2. Unless someone had an obligation on Day 1 or took an extra day to find stakehorses, it’s never made sense to me why players would miss early playing time. It’s only logical that weaker players will not only lose their chips, but that better players will now have them, putting those who enter late at a distinct disadvantage.

Here’s some interesting info: 35 players started on Day 2, 20 of them advanced to Day 3 (pretty impressive), but only 5 advanced to Day 4 (not so impressive). Even if one of those 5 win, I’m not changing my mind about starting late in tournaments.