Okay everyone, the World Championship of Online Poker is coming soon to Poker Stars. I probably wont be playing in this because, #1: I hate tournaments and #2: I don't currently have the bankroll online to make a serious run. With me recently starting college, I am also short on time. However, I have been looking at the tourneys and structures, and just started analyzing the ME's blind structure. For those of you that dont know: the WCOOP ME is a $2,600 buyin, $5 mil gtd NLH tournament. It will be the first online tourney to give $1 mil to the winner. Last year, tournament ringer and poker professional JC Tran took first place for $600k+.

Now, to the heart of this post. I will now post the blind structure and provide some analysis.

WCOOP-23: NL Hold'em Main Event ($2,600) - $5,000,000 Guaranteed

Start Date & Time: - Sept 30/16:30 (EST)

Level SB BB Ante Time
1 25 50 0 30
2 50 100 0 30
3 100 200 0 30
4 150 300 0 30
5 200 400 0 30
6 300 600 0 30
7 400 800 0 30
8 400 800 50 30
9 500 1,000 75 30
10 600 1,200 100 30
11 750 1,500 150 30
12 1,000 2,000 200 30
13 1,250 2,500 250 30
14 1,500 3,000 300 30
15 2,000 4,000 400 30
16 2,500 5,000 500 30
17 3,000 6,000 600 30
18 4,000 8,000 800 30
19 5,000 10,000 1,000 30
20 6,000 12,000 1,200 30
21 7,500 15,000 1,500 30
22 10,000 20,000 2,000 30
23 12,500 25,000 2,500 30
24 15,000 30,000 3,000 30
25 20,000 40,000 4,000 30
26 25,000 50,000 5,000 30
27 30,000 60,000 6,000 30
29 40,000 80,000 8,000 30
29 50,000 100,000 10,000 30
30 65,000 130,000 13,000 30
31 80,000 160,000 16,000 30
32 100,000 200,000 20,000 30
33 125,000 250,000 25,000 30
34 150,000 300,000 30,000 30
35 200,000 400,000 40,000 30
36 250,000 500,000 50,000 30
37 300,000 600,000 60,000 30
38 400,000 800,000 80,000 30
39 500,000 1,000,000 100,000 30
40 600,000 1,200,000 120,000 30
41 750,000 1,500,000 150,000 30


Now, for some analysis. For practical purposes, I estimated 60 hands/hour. This may be a little on the low side, but it is not unreasonable (and it makes the math on this A LOT easier). So, for the first 8 blind levels, this is what you are paying in blinds:

level 1: 225
level 2: 450
level 3: 900
level 4: 1350
level 5: 1800
level 6: 2700
level 7: 3600
level 8: 5100

Your starting stack is 20k chips. You could sitout for 4 hours and still be in the tournament! How awesome is that? This is not going to be one of those donkfests, where the blinds go up so fast that you have to gamble early. Oh no, this is going to be one amazing tournament. Granted, I expect 3k+ entrants, and for the tournament to take over 24 hours, but it will be an amazing game.