Betfair.net

In the recent opening tournament of the WPT, players were allowed to register well into the third day, a controversial new ruling that left players wondering whether or not it was an advantage to buy in late. I want to think about some of the concepts involved here and what you should take into account if you're considering registering late at a tournament if this practice becomes the norm.

Firstly, it's extremely important to consider the strength of the field at various stages. When any tournament gets underway, the field is far weaker than it is at the end. Since poker is a game of skill, the weaker players obviously fall faster than the strong. This makes your chance at winning easy chips much harder.

Next, you need to consider the fact that most of the players who bought in on day three did just that in order to be given a stack of around twenty big blinds. This gives you very little breathing room in any field and especially one that is now biased towards the strongest competitors, who will be more skilled than the field average on day one and will also hold the advantage of having considerably more chips to push you around with than they otherwise would have had at their disposal.

However, it's not all negative. Due to the rules of ICM, the value of your chips increases with each bust in tournament poker. Therefore, by buying in late you get some extra mathematical value over the players who buy in at the start. This does, however, have to be taken in the context of the previous points.

Even though your chips might be worth more than they were at the start, your overall position is far weaker than it would otherwise have been at the beginning. At the start, you are playing deep stacked against weak players and have a decent chance of accumulating a big stack with little risk. The same can't be said when playing talented, stacked players, with only twenty big blinds.

The last point you always need to bear in mind is the extent to which you value your time. If you're busy and find it difficult sometimes to make time to play poker, turning up and trying to gamble for a big stack or bust might well suit your game. Alternatively, if your preference is to attempt to maximize every edge available to you, buying in at the start is your best bet.