The New Face of Tournament Poker

It's Day One at the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, and well-known pro Daniel Negreanu makes a $500 bet into a small pot. His opponent raises all-in for nearly $15,000, causing Negreanu to marvel at the ridiculous over-bet before mucking his hand. "That's poker," claimed his opponent. "That ain't poker," rejoined a frustrated Negreanu. "That may be how y'all play poker..." and he trails off, understanding the futility of an attempted explanation. His experience during the first day of the tournament reflects an ongoing trend in tournament poker.

The truth of the matter is, the quality of play is at an all-time low. A number of reasons can be cited for the decline, but most of them stem from one common factor: the fields have gotten too large.

The problem with the increasingly large fields in poker is rather basic and intuitive in nature: the talent pool becomes diluted. In other words, there are too many players who do not understand how to play the game, a trend that is damaging the game of poker. The results of this phenomenon have included: players being unable to recognize whether they have won or lost a hand, even after all of the cards have been turned face-up; an increasingly high number of players' fates being decided by coin flips pre-flop, reducing the game to nothing more than a glorified lottery; and fewer and fewer top pros managing to make their way through fields of inferior players who tend to go after them as if the pros wore a bulls-eye on the front of their shirts.

For those who may not agree with the reasoning behind this author's standpoint, consider that poker is not unique in its reduced quality of play that comes from increasing field size. Take a look at professional football, for instance. There are 32 teams in the NFL and only about a dozen good quarterbacks to go around. Similarly, in Major League Baseball, there are not nearly enough good starting pitchers to fill the 150 roster spots that exist among the 30 teams. The result in both cases is a dilution of the talent pool, leading to a lower level of play. As is the case in poker, there are just too many players that do not belong there.