Slot hoki Site Structure ComparisonsI have been meaning to write this article for quite some time, but the task just seemed so

Slot hoki Site Structure Comparisons

I have been meaning to write this article for quite some time, but the task just seemed so daunting. However, if you play tournaments regularly you know how important structure is to consistent success. A tournament in which the blinds are increasing very rapidly is akin to playing the lottery -- those at the final table will have gotten their almost entirely by luck.

All sites are not created equal when it comes to tourney structure -- far from it! There is already such a high variance in tourney success, you need to stack as many odds in your favor by playing sites with slot hoki blind strutures.

I have prepared this analysis for lower buy-in tourneys (less than $100). Most of the top sites add additional chips for higher buy-in tourneys (e.g., at Stars and UB you start with 2,500 chips instead of 1,500) and some slow the blind increases. I may look at a comparison of those in the future, but not in this article.

There are three key components that contribute to how favorable a blind structure is to better players:

1. Blinds Increases: This is the increase at each interval and varies dramatically between sites.
2. Increase Interval: Amount of time between blind increases and usually ranges between 10 and 15 minutes
3. Antes: When the antes start and the amount of the ante is also a factor in determining how quickly your chips will disappear.

I have only included 7 sites in this analysis that I feel have favorable blind structures: Pokershare, UB, Party, Bodog, FullTilt, Stars, Paradise and Absolute. There are two additional sites that are not ranked: Pokerroom has a decent blind structure but I could not find the specifics for the structure so could not include it (in general, PR has a fairly fast blind structure, but it never adds antes so the overall structure is favorable) and Bugsy's Club which has a great starting structure 10,000 chips and 50 bb to start, however, the problem with the site is the lack of players. Despite being around for several years, there are rarely more than 50 players in a tournament -- so really what is the point.

Below I rank the sites and provide detail behind my madness, but first let me tell you several sites that have horrible tournament blind structures. I highlight these not to bash the sites, but rather to prevent you from losing needless buyins in these tournaments. I hope the tournament directors at these sites see this blog and make a change to their structures because they are merely lotteries at this point.

Bad Tourney Structures:Prima Poker network (Prima, Royal Vegas, etc.)

Cardroom.com

Action Poker network (SuperiorPoker, Tigergaming, etc)

Pacific Poker network (Pacific, 888, etc)

Tribeca Poker network (Doyle's Room, mvppoker, etc.

Best Tourney Structures (in order of preference):

1. Pokershare - At virtually every stage of a tourney, this site has the lowest round cost. This would be the best site to play, except for one glaring problem -- too few players. Right now they rarely get over 100 players in a tourney. Hopefully, this will change over time maybe as a result of this article.
2. Ultimatebet - UB has had it right for a long time and they were the dominant site for active tourney players until their latest software upgrade. As a result of that debacle they lost a lot of top players, but slowly these players will return because the structure is just so favorable throughout a tourney. The beginning ratio of over 150 big blinds in a stack is one of the most favorable on the web.
3. PartyPoker - Party changed their structure a few months ago and started everyone with 3,000 chips. Unfortunately it is no longer as favorable a structure as it used to be, but it still is the 3rd best in my opinion. The antes are low for quite awhile which helps their structure. The biggest problem with Party is trying to find a tourney with less than 600 entrants. They have started offering 2 or 3 of the same buyin tourneys at the same time and capping the number of entrants in some. I have had success at their smaller tourneys and hope they increasing the number of capped entry tourneys.
4. Bodog - Bodog's blind increases are exactly the same as UB's, which is great. However, their antes go up much more dramatically, late in a tourney, than UB's or Party and they is why they have landed in 4th position. However, this site really is on par with UB for the first 2.5-3.0 hours of a tourney and then it is more aggressive thereafter. For tournaments with less than 300 entrants, I would rank it 2nd in a tie with UB. For larger tournament fields it would drop to fourth.
5. Full Tilt Poker -- Full Tilt also has a slow blind structure that is somewhat undermined by higher antes, particularly in the 4th hour. However, not many of their tourneys go that long so this is a very good site to play. One other very cool feature at FTP is the final table, it is an entirely different set that is made to look like a WPT TV set. Its a nice change of pace after grinding it out in a tourney for several hour -- great idea guys!
6. Pokerstars -- Unfortunately, Stars is a victim of their own success. Because they have so many entrants in every tourney, their blind structures have to be a bit faster than everyone elses. They are not terrible but definitely increase faster than the Top 5. The advent of the 180 $20 SNGs and the 90 $50 SNGS was a great idea. Hopefully they can add something similar for a rebuy tourney.
7. Paradise -- Paradise uses a structure very similar to Stars except that the antes go up much faster in the 4th hour. Most of their tourneys make it to the 4th hour so this is a significant difference. You need to accumulate chips at Paradise or you will quickly be devoured by the antes.
8. Absolute Poker - Absolute is the 8th best site rated because its blinds and antes increase fairly fast quickly and they only have 10 minute intervals between increases. slot online

A couple of points on methodology and the above list. I took the blinds and antes per level and figured out the round cost at each stage of the tourney, big blind plus small blind plus 10x ante. I further divided each hour so that sites with faster intervals were getting additional blind increases each hour. So, Pokershare with its 10 minute increases has 6 intervals per hour whereas Stars with 15 minute increases has 4 intervals per hours. This allows us to compare each successive timeframe (e.g., start of hour 3) on a "apples to apples" comparison.

To make Party's structure (which starts with 3,000 chips) comparable to the other sites, I divided the starting chips and blinds by 2 throughout the intervals. slot hoki

Below is a chart with the round cost per interval and by hour. I have a full spreadsheet that supports these calculations with all the blinds and antes per interval. If you are interested in receiving it just email me that you would like it and I will send you a copy.