Barry Carter looks at the new payout structure from the WSOP, which awards x2 for most mincashes this year.
This week the World Series of Poker announced a crowd-pleasing decision to increase the size of their min cashes and generally flatten their payout structures.
Some players like to claim they only ‘play for the win’ but these people are in the minority. The vast majority of poker players want flatter payout structures across the board. They want more min cashes, bigger min cashes, and bigger prizes before the final table – they are happy to make the final table pay out less to get that.
This is proven by the fact that most final tables end with some sort of deal (we may not see it reflected in the official results, but they do). It may be to reduce variance, save time, guarantee a specific amount, or just to take the pressure off. Stories about deals happening before the final table are becoming more common too.
It’s also proven whenever there is stalling, even when it is a small pay jump in the money. The jump between a $2,004 payout and a $2,134 payout is relatively small, but some people obsess about their hourly in this regard. If you take an extra ten minutes stalling, in say one orbit of a pay jump, the $130 difference might, you could argue, have been worth an hourly of $780 per hour.
This is what a $1,000 event from 2023 which had 1,710 players would look like in 2024:
| Position | 2024 Payouts | 2023 Payouts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $217,121 | $236,741 |
| 2 | $144,747 | $146,335 |
| 3 | $104,546 | $106,602 |
| 4 | $76,394 | $78,495 |
| 5 | $56,484 | $58,429 |
| 6 | $42,263 | $43,972 |
| 7 | $32,007 | $33,461 |
| 8 | $24,537 | $25,749 |
| 9 | $19,044 | $20,041 |
| 10-11 | $14,967 | $15,778 |
| 12-13 | $11,913 | $12,567 |
| 14-17 | $9,604 | $10,127 |
| 18-26 | $7,844 | $8,259 |
| 27-35 | $6,492 | $6,816 |
| 36-44 | $5,445 | $5,695 |
| 45-53 | $4,629 | $4,817 |
| 54-62 | $3,989 | $4,125 |
| 63-71 | $3,486 | $3,578 |
| 72-80 | $3,090 | $3,143 |
| 81-89 | $2,778 | $2,797 |
| 90-98 | $2,535 | $2,522 |
| 99-116 | $2,346 | $2,304 |
| 117-143 | $2,205 | $2,134 |
| 144-170 | $2,104 | $2,004 |
| 171-257 | $2,004 | $1,753 |
Most players in these events are better off, it’s only the final 90 who see a reduction in what they expect to win. I’m of the mindset that the more winnable moments you can create for the most recreational players is better overall for everyone, so I am all for this.
Better for your mindset
As I have explored previously flatter payout structures are better for your mental game because they have less variance in them. This is true for pros and recreational players alike.
If anything we could flatten them even more. One way to flatten payout structures is to pay the majority of players more and give less to the big winners. The other way to flatten them is to pay more people.
I’m not against this at all. I’d have been just as happy if the WSOP kept a x1.5 min cash but paid an extra 5% of the field. This would soften the bubbles and give more players that Hendon Mob flag they so desperately crave.
The argument against flatter payouts is there is more stalling, but I don’t buy that at all. I think players will stall whether is a x1.5, a x2 or a x3 payout on the stone bubble. The bubble is an ‘all or nothing’ experience either way. There is also an argument to be made that bringing the bubble forward and paying more people is good for pros too, because the bubble is where they make their EV and the sooner it happens, the better.
So Kudos to the WSOP and hopefully more operators will take their lead. Once the prizes get into six or seven figures everyone is happy and we don’t need to force an eye-catching first prize for marketability. More players will be happier if we reward them for deep runs, not just final tables.
Do you prefer flatter payout structures? Let us know in the comments: