By Sean Chaffin The WPT Action Clock has generally received positive reviews since it debuted at the Season XIV WPT9️⃣ Tournament of Champions. The goal was to speed up play in later stages of a tournament – striking a balance9️⃣ in speeding up play but also offering opportunities for time extensions when players have particularly…
Matt Clark
By Sean Chaffin
The WPT Action9️⃣ Clock has generally received positive reviews since it debuted at the Season XIV WPT Tournament of Champions. The goal was9️⃣ to speed up play in later stages of a tournament – striking a balance in speeding up play but also9️⃣ offering opportunities for time extensions when players have particularly difficult decisions.
However, as tour events continue to attract bigger and bigger9️⃣ fields, a few changes were added beginning with the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
The Action Clock comes into play9️⃣ when a tournament is one full table off the money bubble and continues until a champion is crowned. Each player9️⃣ has 30 seconds to act on a hand, and received four time-extension chips for an extra 30 seconds each. Players9️⃣ reaching the final three tables of the tournament are then reset to a maximum of six time-extension chips, and those9️⃣ at the final table are reset to a maximum of eight chips.
Now, the tour is adjusting the number of time9️⃣ chips players receive based on the number of players who will cash in an event.
“What happened at the Borgata [Winter9️⃣ Poker Open] is that we just had so many people in the money,” WPT executive tour director Matt Savage (pictured)9️⃣ says. “It was always four time extensions to play down to 24. We could have been paying 28 and from9️⃣ 28 down to 24, you got four time chips. At the Borgata, we paid 136, which is great, and you9️⃣ got four down from that to 24. Is that fair?”
Players basically had to play a full day with four time9️⃣ chips because of the increased number of entries. The tour is now trying to adjust for those increases and distributing9️⃣ more chips accordingly.
“We’re giving more time chips based on the number of players paid,” Savage says. “Players brought it up9️⃣ to me and obviously it makes sense that if we’re playing that many more, that it’s not really fair for9️⃣ them to be getting the same amount of time chips.”
Players can now receive as many as 10 time-extension chips when9️⃣ the Action Clock comes into play. Once play reaches 24 players, all other time extension rules remain the same. A9️⃣ full copy of Action Clock rules can be found here.
Here’s a look at the new time chip structure for future9️⃣ tournaments when the Action Clock is put into play:
Number of players in the money Number of time-extension chips (per player)9️⃣ 25-34 players Two (2) time-extension chips, per player 35-44 players Three (3) time-extension chips, per player 45-64 players Four (4)9️⃣ time-extension chips, per player 65-80 players Five (5) time-extension chips, per player 81-100 players Six (6) time-extension chips, per player9️⃣ 101-120 players Seven (7) time-extension chips, per player 121-140 players Eight (8) time-extension chips, per player 141-160 players Nine (9)9️⃣ time-extension chips, per player 161+ players Ten (10) time-extension chips, per player
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