Jeff Haney tells how the World Poker Tour is out to improve its final table structure

Thursday, May 31, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

Any World Poker Tour event is primarily a TV show.

No, it's a poker tournament.

It's a TV show.

It's a poker tournament.

Obviously, both sides are correct. Like "Shimmer," the product that famously served as a floor wax and a dessert topping, every World Poker Tour event on the schedule is a TV show and a poker tournament.

The two forces can sometimes be at odds - especially at the final table of World Poker events, when the structure of the tournament dictates that the amount of the "blinds," or forced bets designed to generate action, increases quickly.

That's because, as a TV show, the event requires a production crew racking up pay by the hour, not to mention a live audience of poker fans who might not feel like sitting in the temporary bleachers for, oh, 18 hours or so - no matter how much they enjoy watching poker.

Players at the final table have been known to complain about how rapidly the blinds go up - or, if they're diplomatic sorts, at least mention it in post-tournament interviews. It's a good bet the players knocked out from the final table in any World Poker Tour event will begin the recap of their strategy by saying, "Well, the blinds were so high and going up so fast..."

At the recent World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio, spectators actually booed every time the blinds increased during a riveting heads-up confrontation between the final two players, Kirk Morrison and eventual winner Carlos Mortensen. As in most tournaments, World Poker competitors would prefer to have blinds increase more gradually, so they don't feel like they're essentially flipping coins for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money toward the end of the event.

To address concerns about the final table structure, Steve Lipscomb, founder and chief executive of the World Poker Tour, has released an "open letter" to players and fans in which he explains his thinking behind the final table structure and asks for suggestions on how to improve it.

Among Lipscomb's relevant points:

Lipscomb's letter coincided with the beginning of World Poker's sixth season, and might have been designed in part to drum up interest in the circuit as it moves to cable network GSN in the fall from its original home on the Travel Channel.

Still, World Poker enthusiasts should welcome any discussion that could lead to a greater emphasis on the creativity, skill and psychology inherent in poker as opposed to just the tournament prize money.

Lipscomb invited players and viewers to contribute at worldpokertour.com.