What's Wrong With Modern Tournament Poker?

Why is the industry in crisis?

Major live poker series continue to report record participation. The World Series of Poker, for instance, announced an all-time high of 251,899 tournament entries during its summer festival.

Not everyone sees those numbers as evidence of genuine growth. Derek Kwan, a Los Angeles-based tournament professional, poker analyst, and founder of EV1 Poker, argues that the statistics are misleading because they count re-entries rather than unique players. In his view, organizers are relying more on repeat buy-ins from existing customers than on improving the experience or attracting new participants.

Kwan believes unlimited re-entries are one of the biggest frustrations for recreational players, whom he considers the foundation of the poker industry. He also criticizes increasingly long late-registration windows, with some tournaments allowing players to enter as late as Day 2. For those traveling to Las Vegas, the overall cost only adds to the burden, with expensive airfare, hotel rates, and dining making the trip significantly more costly.

As evidence for his argument, Derek points to the $1,500 Freezeout event at the 2026 WSOP. The tournament attracted 2,617 entries and featured a large proportion of recreational players. According to Kwan, many amateurs specifically chose that Tuesday because it was a freezeout event, which they consider the fairest for tournament poker.

At the same time, professional players still enjoy significant advantages. They have more time to study the game, access to private groups, opportunities to exchange information, and financial backing through staking and share-selling arrangements. The rise of poker solvers has widened the gap even further by enabling professionals to identify and correct mistakes far more efficiently than recreational players.

"Our main goal should be to attract new players, especially recreational ones. Building the biggest possible prize pool shouldn't be the ultimate objective if it's achieved through practices that damage the player experience. Rather than maximizing revenue from every participant, tournament organizers should focus on creating fairer conditions for recreational players and recognize their long-term value to poker."

In Kwan's view, these issues expose deeper structural problems within contemporary live tournament ecosystem. If left unaddressed, they could eventually slow the game's growth and reduce its appeal to new players. So what changes does he propose to keep recreational players making up 70-80% of the tournament field?

What to do?

In total, Kwan proposed four key areas to help attract new players and retain recreational players in tournament poker.

Tournament poker should become a fully-fledged entertainment product

Poker series shouldn't exist solely for tournament participants. Like traditional sports or esports, poker can attract a wide audience through high-quality broadcasts, compelling player stories, and a modern content delivery format. The return of WSOP broadcasts to ESPN was a positive step, but the industry needs to find new ways to retain viewers' attention and convert them into future players.

Limiting late registration

Another issue is that professionals are increasingly using late registration as a way to gain an additional advantage. For recreational players, this format seems unfair: they spend several hours at the table, only to be confronted by a large number of new opponents who are aggressively fighting for tournament survival. Kwan suggests motivating players to start from the first level with various bonuses and perks, rather than encouraging late entries.

Limiting re-entries

Organizers should focus not on maximizing re-entries, but on increasing the number of unique participants. Instead of endless re-entries, they could develop package deals for tournament series, special loyalty programs, and even buy-in insurance, allowing players to secure a ticket to a future tournament after an early exit. This approach makes participation less risky and encourages players to return.

Creating a ranking system

Another idea of ​​Kwan's is to create a ranking system similar to ELO in chess or ranking systems in esports. This would allow players of similar skill levels to compete against one another more often, with gradual promotion to higher divisions as they improve. This concept has already been partially implemented in Triton Poker's invitational tournaments, where amateurs play separately from professionals in the early stages.

Derek admits that his proposals aren't a one-size-fits-all solution. However, he is convinced that the current model for tournament poker development requires change.

Community reaction

Derek Kwan's post generated extensive discussion within the poker community, with many players agreeing with his central argument: modern tournament poker is becoming less appealing to recreational players. One commenter even admitted being reluctant to bring a colleague to their first live event because they felt the newcomer would have little chance of making a deep run.

Not all of Kwan's proposed solutions, however, received broad support. The most controversial was the idea of ​​separating players by skill level. Supporters argued that creating lower-tier divisions for recreational players could make tournaments more welcoming and encourage new participants to join the game. Critics, meanwhile, questioned how such a system could work in practice. They raised concerns about accurately measuring skill, maintaining reliable rankings, and distinguishing a highly successful amateur from a professional.

Kwan responded that existing databases, such as Hendon Mob, are not designed for this purpose. Instead, he said he is developing his own player ranking system, PSkill, as part of the EV1 Poker project.

Despite disagreements over specific proposals, even many of Kwan's critics acknowledged the underlying issue. The prevailing view was that live tournament poker needs meaningful changes to remain attractive to recreational players, although there's still no consensus on what that change should look like. For that reason, Kwan's post has evolved into a broader conversation about the future of tournament poker and how the game can continue attracting new generations of players.