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Poker Tournaments: Best All-Around Awards
It has been suggested that tournament structures should not be created that
might somehow compromise the integrity of a best all-around player (BAA)
competition. This is an upside down idea. BAA competitions should not be created
that compromise the integrity of tournaments!
Currently the Commerce Casino has a BAA that decapitates the true results of
tournaments. Players who get fifth place money "win" tournaments when they
triumph in a playoff for a trivial amount of money and the BAA points after a
deal has been made for the vast majority of the prize money. The Bicycle Casino
has a superior but still flawed system where the BAA competition intrudes on
tournaments less, in that if a deal is made for all the prize pool then the
person with the most chips must get the most points and the most money.
It has been suggested if I was playing head-up at the Bike with a player who
might pass my friend Chris Ferguson to win the BAA, that if I made a deal when
the opponent was chip leader that it would be unethical for me to make such a
deal, even though it benefited me (like making a 55/45 chop of the money when I
am a 75/25 chip underdog). This is very wrong.
In the first place, in an earlier tournament Chris may have made a similar deal
with another player. But whether he did or did not, it would be ridiculous for
me to base my tournament decisionmaking on a deal decision HE made two weeks
before. It would be ridiculous for me to try to KNOW how all the players got
their BAA points!
In the past on RGP, people have stated the position that it is the
responsibility of a player to always play with his own best interest in mind --
that playing with the interest of another player in mind is cheating. (For
example, if you make a token 5% swap with a friend but don’t alter your play in
the slightest, that wouldn’t be cheating, but if you dumped chips to him it
would be.) What has been suggested is that I should turn down a deal that
(assuming my opponent is not in my opinion so inferior to me that the "good
deal" wasn’t actually a good deal) is in my best interest to protect the
interests of another player. Couldn’t that be considered cheating?
Best all-around awards should not intrude on tournaments this way!
Now let’s turn the suggestion around. Suppose it is now Chris Ferguson who
offers me this head-up deal. Should I continue to play against my friend,
against my own best interests to protect... Sam Grizzle? What if Sam was the one
who would benefit from me playing on? It should be clear that costing myself
expected value by giving any consideration at all to a BAA that I am not
involved in is ... not ... right. I am there to play a tournament and maximize
my own results. It is absurd and even unethical for me to make choices that are
not best for me.
In my opinion, the Bicycle Casino’s BAA is superior to the Commerce’s because
players who are not involved in the BAA are always in a position to maximize
their own expectation. Still, currently the BAA clearly can intrude on
tournaments in ways beyond the one way that it should -- where individuals in
the points race make decisions about their own best interests.
Best all-around awards can be fun. They can profitable to talented, regular
players and they can also be in a casino’s interest. However, they should no
longer be allowed to manipulate the real results of tournaments. Fifth place
money finishers should not be getting first place points. And, players
uninvolved in the BAA competition should not have an opportunity to play in a
way that goes against their own self-interest.
The solution is clear: do not allow deals in tournaments with BAA prizes. All
the real and false conflicts of interest disappear. The only way that players
not involved in the BAA can influence the BAA (besides performing well or
poorly) is by deliberately cheating. Cheating is an entirely different issue.
Players should always simply play to do their best, for their own financial
self-interest.
No deals. Flatten the prize pools. Let the results show the true “winner” -- the
person who gets the most money, who wins all the chips, who gets the most BAA
points.
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