Halfway mark at 2016 WSOP

I have reached the halfway point of the 2016 WSOP having been here for about 3 1/2 weeks with that much to go. There is no shortage of work this year. We have six day work weeks and no shortage of overtime. So far, I have only dealt one final table, the $10,000 Lowball Draw Poker Championship. 

As usual, there is a lot of chirping and hand wringing around the dealer's break room about how much we get paid and what the "down rate" will be. If you're familiar with poker dealers, you understand that every 30 minutes a dealer sits at the table pitching cards equals a "down".  It's the basic poker dealer unit of work. A portion of every poker players entry fee is set aside to pay the dealers. That pool of money is divided by the number of "downs" it took to complete the tournament and each dealer gets paid for the number of downs they worked. Hence, the angst over the "down rate".  

Pleasant surprise for 2016, it seems the down rate will be up from last year. The increase is not because WSOP is taking more out of the player's prize pool, but because the smaller buy-in tournaments are better managed and have a more efficient structure. 

I say they are better managed because we have many fewer dead spreads. Fewer tables with dealers sitting at empty tables, collecting downs at the tournament start waiting for players. I also see fewer tables with multiple empty seats during the first levels of the tournaments. Better, more efficient management of the process of getting the tournament started helps to keep the "down rate" up.

The bigger thing is the tournament structure itself. In the past many of our tournaments began the first level with the blinds at 25 and 25. This year they begin at 25 and 50.  In addition the antes kick in at level 3 whereas in the past they didn't start until level 4.  The change makes the early levels more meaningful for the players.  In other words, it's easier to bust out of the tournament earlier, shrinking the field sooner. The players seem to like it. This is good for us and it seems to be working.  "Down rates" are higher than last year. How do you like that? The players are happy, the dealers are happy and management is happy!