Norman Chad, longtime WSOP commentator, bashes WSOP's re-entry events on Twitter
Norman is 100% correct.
I am also irritated by the rise of reentry and (even worse) unlimited reentry events, even at the main WSOP in Vegas.
First off, this is very rec-unfriendly, as it greatly decreases the chances that recreational players make it deep, since most of the rebuys are done by pros with deep rolls, which in turn makes the percentage of pros buying in much higher.
Second, this makes the events tougher in general, as you no longer have a lot of good/great players falling out of the field early just because they ran bad or made an early mistake. Now they get to keep rebuying until they finally catch fire, and then they can start crushing everyone.
Third, this perverts the entire concept of tournaments, which have always separated themselves from cash games by having stack preservation and penalty for early risk elements. Reentry events take away these important elements from tournaments, and make them too much like cash games, allowing players busting early (or even in the mid-stages) to reach back into their pocket and return to the event.
I will say that it's actually easier to min-cash these reentry events because of the artificially pumped up field size (every time someone busts and rebuys, that adds an entry, thus making the money come sooner), but it makes it much harder to run deep, as the average skill level late in the event will be much higher.
In general, reentry events suck. I don't mind single reentry events (such as what they do for the $1500 PLO8 at the Vegas WSOP), but I really don't like the concept of multiple or unlimited reentries, especially as a player who desires to run very deep and not just collect min cashes.
Venues love these reentry events because they collect far more rake. Also, this allows known pros to get deep more often, which attracts further interest to observers of the event. Also, in addition to liking the ability to rebuy and take another shot after busting, pros like these because when traveling for poker, they're not just one-and-done after flying a long way to play an event.
Still, these need to get under control, because it's ruining the entire concept of tournament poker, and is somewhat allowing deep pocketed pros to buy titles and Player of the Year points.
As you'll probably notice from my WSOP schedules, I play very few reentry events. When I play NL events, I try to pick the $1500 type events with a single buyin.
