"The Cash Games In Cyprus Are Incredible" - Interview with Matt Savage Part 2
In the second part of our interview with WPT executive tour director Matt Savage, we talk about the upcoming WPT season, and this week's WPT Merit Cyprus Classic.
Earlier this week, we spoke to tournament director Matt Savage about the unusual niche he has carved out for himself on twitter. This time, we sit down with him to talk about the upcoming World Poker Tour season and the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic.
Matt also tells us about the "Matt Savage Golf Challenge" which takes place during the first event.
"The action is incredible, the field not that tough"
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| WPT Cyprus |
PokerStrategy.com: How did this golf event at the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic come about?
Matt Savage: [Golf] is definitely a passion of mine and there are so many great places around the world to go to, Cyprus being one of them - there is a great golf course and we want to play it.
In the summer there are a lot more people in town - friends and poker players - that want to play golf, so I tend to make it out a lot more for the summer than I do for the rest of the year, because I'm working more.
As far as Cyprus goes, we put it together so that there was something else to do at that destination. It is important, with so many events going on and the travelling, that you have other things to do when you reach the locations. Golf is one of those things.
PokerStrategy.com: What can our members expect from WPT Cyprus?
Matt Savage: Well I've never been there but the thing that I've heard the most is that the cash games out there are incredible* - there is a lot of money in the area, it is a destination spot for the people in that area, and they all converge when the tournaments go on. So the action is incredible and the field is not that tough, which is always great for a poker player.
*We hear from our friends at the WPT there will be a large selection of No Limit, Omaha, Razz and mixed cash games between $5/$10 and $100/$200.
PokerStrategy.com: What about the new season of the WPT in general: what is new this year?
Matt Savage: There are a lot of new stops on the tour. The locations are not only unique and new, but also exciting for us. I look at Cyprus for one, then we follow it up with Parx Open Classic, which is a great new burgeoning casino on the American tour.
These are exciting additions to the great stops we have always done like Paris, Borgata, Jacksonville, and the ones I run like Commerce Casino, Bay 101 Shooting Star, and Florida are always doing very well.
"The European WPT stops are growing every year"
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PokerStrategy.com: There seems to have been a move towards the overall experience of a poker event, not just the tournament itself.
Matt Savage: Recently there has been a need for some consolidation. To put things in perspective, there was a time when you could play a $10,000 event every week of the year, and it's just too much.
There were too many stops, too many places, and too much money being put out for people to travel.
I really like what we have done with the WPT, to put out a tight schedule with not only places you would want to visit, but also places where you can do other things - for example, as well as the golf, we also have a VIP players' beach party in Cyprus on August 7.
PokerStrategy.com: The European legs of the WPT seem very different to the US legs, almost like a separate tour - how does it feel to you?
Matt Savage: We have taken great strides in making the WPT a legitimate European event, the tour as a whole has done very well and our European stops are growing every year. I've been involved with running the Vienna event for two years and we have great numbers there.
There are just so many players in Europe, and there are so many destinations; I think while the European side is the same tour, it does have a uniqueness.
PokerStrategy.com: What are your predictions for the US legs of the tour, given that there is still no resolution to the online poker problems over there.
Matt Savage: It's obviously problematic, we miss having online sponsors and having online winners qualify for these events. I really stress to the casinos and properties we do business with that they really need to drive business into their own events through satellites, and to cultivate their own players.
Those that do the best at it will have the bigger numbers, I think the success is down to how much the property itself puts into it. We have the Borgata Poker Open coming up soon and last year they had 1,300 players. They reduced their buy-in to $3,500, but the prize pool didn't suffer because they had so many players.
There have been some positive changes to the buy-ins - we'll see less $10,000 events, but the numbers will be good as they were last year.
"I'd like to see flatter payout structures"
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| Matt Savage |
PokerStrategy.com: The WPT was one of the first major tours to try out re-entry events, what are your views on them?
Matt Savage: I started them at the Commerce five years ago, hosting a $300 event with a $1,000,000 guarantee.
You couldn't re-enter on the same day. I didn't like rebuy events because I felt they gave an unfair advantage, and this was a way to minimise the advantage of someone who was starting all over again.
I am a fan of the re-entry, not as much as I used to be because they are getting overused. I don't like re-entries where you can re-enter the same day, because I feel they take money out of the poker economy.
The main goal with these tournaments is to bring people back day after day, and re-entries where you can only buy-in once a day does that.
PokerStrategy.com: It seems most tournaments end up in deals at the final table, do we need to flatten the payout structures?
Matt Savage: I have put together a couple of payout structures for the WPT, payout A and payout B, that I am suggesting all the properties use. I think there is a need for a change - while top heavy prize pools are attractive, they may not be in the interest of everybody that plays them.
Payout A is the standard payout that we use the most, payout B is a new payout that pays 12% instead of 9-10% of the field. In addition to that it is flatter on the top, meaning if you make the final table, the difference is not as stark as it would be between 1st and 9th.
The problem is it has always been about making the top three to make a lot of money. It seems unfair, you get these events where it might be $1,000,000 for first, and $60,000 for 9th, but the difference between 1st and 9th is not that much. I'd like to see something a little bit flatter than what we have now.
WPT Paris and Malta qualifiers now running
This week we will be bringing you coverage of the opening event of the new World Poker Tour season, the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic.
It is too late to win your seat into that event, but two more major European legs of the World Poker Tour are now open to qualification on PartyPoker and WPT Poker.
You can win a $6,500 package to WPT Malta that includes $4,200 entry, five star accommodation, and $850 spending money.
On Sundays at 14:50 ET you can win your package in a direct $350 qualifier, with feeder satellites running around the clock starting at freerolls.
Or you can win a $13,000 package to the legendary WPT Grand Prix de Paris, which includes accommodation, $1,400 spending money, and the $9,500 buy-in.
$700 direct qualifiers take place on Sundays at 15:20 ET, with feeders running 24/7.
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By Barry Carter
