Poker

WPT Action Clock: Players Complaining About The Change Only Have Themselves to Blame

By Lee Davy
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WPT Shot Clock: Players Complaining About The Change Only Have Themselves to Blame

Lee Davy airs his view after the World Poker Tour’s decision to introduce the WPT Action Clock clock in the Tournament of Champions is met with an angry response by a member of their Champions Club.

I am in Baden, Austria. Marvin Rettenmaier sits in his seat like a king on a throne. And why not? The German star is on his way towards an incredible third World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event title in less than nine months. He wears a grey t-shirt. His hair tussled by the masseuse calmly squeezing his scalp between her fingers. He is enjoying a joke with his partypoker teammate Bodo Sbrzesny; seated to his direct left.

The action folds to Fedor Holz in middle position who min-raises to 12,000. The Finnish player Kimmo Kurko is next to act. He takes his time before three-betting to 28,000 in the hijack seat. My curiosity is piqued. So is Sbrzesny’s in the cutoff. He riffles a small stack of blue chips with his right hand. His left-hand rests on his right forearm. He doesn’t look at anyone in particular when he reaches for chips and moves a 52,000 cold four-bet into the middle in one fell swoop.

WPT Shot Clock: Players Complaining About The Change Only Have Themselves to BlameThe jokes have stopped. Nobody is talking. It’s as if all the eyes in the casino are on this table. Rettenmaier is also riffling a small stack of blue chips with his right hand. His left rests on the table. In between, lies the largest stack of anyone left in this competition. He stares at the initial raise of Holz. He looks deadly serious. After a minute’s thought, he pushes out a 96,000 cold five bet from the button.

Holz and Kurko fold quickly. I am expecting Sbrzesny to do the same. He squeezes his lips together; stares across the table, and makes the call. The flop is [Kc] [5c] [3d]. Sbrzesny is first to act, and he raps a few fingers on the table indicating a check. Rettenmaier riffles, and riffles, and riffles – when he stops, there is a slight pause as he picks up 62,000 and drops them deliberately across the line. Back to Sbrzesny, and he goes into the tank. He is studiously considering his options. He calls, leaving 235,000 behind.

Turn: [6s]

It’s a quick check from Sbrzesny. All eyes land on the two-time champion.

“All-in” murmurs Rettenmaier before sliding a stack of blue chips across the line.

A smile breaks out on Sbrzesny’s face. Shoulders sag around the table. The mood lightens as Sbrzesny says, “Oh Mad Marvin.” There is a sigh, followed by another sigh, followed by another smile. We are deep into the break. Players situated at the outer tables start to surround the table like vultures around a carcass. Sbrzesny is that carcass.

Finally, Sbrzesny folds. For the first time in the hand, a smile breaks out across the stoic face of Rettenmaier as he shows the [Ah] [9h] for the bluff, and drags in a huge pot. Sbrzesny reacts by smiling even wider, tapping the felt in recognition of a hand well played, and stands up to take his break.

That’s one of my favourite hands as a live reporter. I don’t remember how long it lasted, but the time taken was considerable. The tension in between motions was what made the action special. It was during the periods of inactivity that emotion ran riot. It made hairs stand up on the backs of everyone’s forearms. It was like electricity, darting around, infecting everyone.

Most of my favourite hands are like that. It’s not about the cards. It’s all about the emotion. I love nothing more than a 10-minute cold five bet and a series of disappointed dominoes hitting the deck one after another.

So I should be disappointed that the WPT has decided to introduce the 30-second Action Clock in the season-ending Tournament of Champions. After all, the emotionally charged atmosphere created by the introduction of nothingness will dissipate.

But I am not.

First, Let’s Start With the Why?

The decision to implement the WPT Action Clock has not been met with universal approval throughout the poker community. Those who like to make their decisions a little faster than most love the idea. Those who like to take their time don’t.

One of the biggest dissenters has been the WPT Champions Club member Jordan Cristos, one of the players on the circuit who has garnered quite a reputation for playing a little on the slow side during seemingly innocuous hands.

Cristos entered into a Twitter debate with the likes of Daniel Negreanu and Mike Sexton about the decision. He decided to get out the Joe McKeehen rulebook of subtlety and charm when he told anyone willing to listen that he would abuse the new rule by taking a full 30-seconds to make every decision.

It was a childish, petulant response, and one that will hopefully result in a series of countermeasures that will make Cristos’s life even more challenging. But if we forget the blunt delivery for a moment does Cristos have a point when he complains about the introduction of a clock in an event that some people are paying $15,000 to enter?

I think we need to go back and figure out why the change has been made before we can formulate a response. I reached out to Matt Savage to ask why the change was made, and this is what he had to say.

“After consulting with several WPT Champions Club members, the WPT Tournament of Champions will be played with the Action Clock created by Protection Poker. The addition of a 30-second shot clock will help ensure an efficient pace of play and inject an added level of strategy for the WPT Tournament of Champions.”

So the WPT organisers want to speed up the play.

Having spent the past few years reporting on live tournaments, I understand that decision. The game is boring at the best of times. Add a few Tommy Tankers into the mix and your soul starts to evaporate.

But who is complaining?

It’s not the recreational players.

When it comes to canvassing opinion, it will be the professional players or enthusiastic amateurs; that would have told the WPT that this was the right way forward after being surveyed at a select number of events. The fish wouldn’t have had a say in the matter because not a lot of fish are playing in these high buy-in events.

So I don’t believe the introduction of the WPT Action Clock will prevent recreational players from leaving live tournament poker because I don’t think they play enough to care. Their decision on whether to play or not is not going to be based on the speed of the game.

It will turn off some professional poker players who can give or take a live tournament experience, preferring to play online poker instead. But in the main, I don’t think the change in rules will make a difference in the attendances of our live tournament fields.

The New Norm

At the end of the first week of the Global Poker League (GPL), Alex Dreyfus and his team included a highlight reel on the official website. It contained the four-minute bluff shove by Tom Marchese against Anthony Zinno and a great hand between Justin Bonomo and Timothy Adams. Just like the Rettenmaier v Sbrzesny hand that I opened with, the intensity of emotion splurged out during the breaks in play to make them both worthy of note.

So yeah, the shot clock means we will miss this type of energy. But that doesn’t mean the end of excitement in poker. Quite the contrary, and I think Michael Gagliano nails it with this response to the back and forth Twitter debate between Jordan Cristos and the world.

Savage said that the rule changes will introduce an ‘added level of strategy’ and without busting out a ton of Charles Darwin quotes let’s just say that the players who are most adaptable to change will flourish the most. It shouldn’t be the professional poker players worrying about the rule change. It should be the amateurs.

The reason anyone will complain about this rule change is one of fear. They are afraid that the rule changes will result in a drop in performance. They are fearful that they won’t be able to make optimal decisions in the time taken. They are afraid of getting beat.

What is interesting about Cristos’s stance is the futility of it. Savage notes that he approached various WPT Champions Club members before deciding to implement the rule changes. Cristos is a member of that exclusive club. If he wants to be privy to such changes in the future, he is going about it the wrong way.

I believe we are at the beginning of a shift in poker’s history that will see a shot clock introduced in most live tournaments around the world, especially the higher buy-in events. A ‘non shot clock’ event will become a novelty that not many people will be interested in.

It will become the norm to make your decisions within 30-seconds. Players will adapt. That will be that. Move on to the next change.

But Cristos is Going to Ruin the Experience For Everyone!

No sport can allow a player to dictate the rules.

The sport has to have the final say on things.

Cristos has told the WPT of his intention; it’s now up to the WPT to stop him.

So how?

I will continue to repeat myself until I am blue in the face. The answer lies in handing the dealers the authority to manage their tables, enforce rules, and dish out penalties.

If I were a dealer at a table where Cristos is playing, and I could see that he was deliberately slowing down the pace, then as the official, I should be able to hand out enough warnings that eventually leads to his expulsion from the contest.

If you think that’s too harsh, then the dealer can give punishments to players that see them lose time on their shot clock. Slow the game down repeatedly and the next thing you know a time bank chip is taken away, then another, and another, and now we will reduce your thinking time to 20-seconds.

But dealers are not smart enough!

What a load of bollocks.

Have you ever heard of world class training, more stringent selection during the appointment, and thorough review from the Tournament Director’s team.

Matt Savage wasn’t born a TD.

But they will all officiate differently!

Name me a sport where there are different referees and each one of them officiates the same.

They will pick on people like Cristos!

Good.

I coach U16 football. The other week one of our kids called the referee a wanker. Like I explained to the kids. If you call the referee a wanker then he will give you no favours. Be sensible. It’s life. We get what we put in. Treat people like shit and they will treat you in kind.

I have heard players complain that it takes them too long to count their opponent’s stack if they have not stacked them in an orderly fashion. I have sympathy for these players. I remember working at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) when Phil Hellmuth was stacking his chips in a dizzy array of messiness.

Introduce another rule.

Make players stack them in the twenties.

Allow the dealer to enforce it.

Penalise players who don’t conform.

To summarise:

Calling the tournament organiser an ‘epic pile of shit’ is not going to get them to listen to your opinion, so next time keep your powder dry.

Telling the tournament organiser that you are going to deliberately slow the pace of the game is crass and stupid because they can now introduce laws to prevent that from happening.

Get used to the shot clock; it’s going to be the norm.

You only have yourself to blame. Had people not acted so ridiculously slow when making trivial plays, the need for a shot clock might never have arisen.

And at the end of all that, if you still don’t like the clock, then Daniel Negreanu has the perfect answer.

Here are the shot clock rules:

• The Action Clock will be dealer-controlled.

• Dealers will start the Action Clock once the last card is dealt. When players fold in turn, the Action Clock will be reset.

• Once there is a bet or raise, the dealer will count the bet, announce the amount, then start the clock. If a player calls the bet, the clock instantly starts on the next player.

• Dealers will advise 10 seconds remaining and kill hands facing a bet and announce check if not facing a bet. If there is a tie, the player’s verbal/physical action will be recognized.

• There will never be a need to pause the clock unless there is an extreme situation.

• Each player will receive four (4) 30-second time extension chips per day.

• All unused time extension chips will be removed at the end of each day.

• Players will throw out the extension chips in a forward motion, and the dealer will press the time extension button to add 30 more seconds to the Action Clock.

Note: Because the dealer has to count the bets and raises before starting the clock, players get more than 30-seconds to make their decision.