How to solve the late registration debate

Are extended late registrations hurting the game and, if so, what can operators do to get players registered on time?

Every year I make some poker predictions for the 12 months that follow and just for giggles I had a look back at mine for 2020, back when I had no idea what coronavirus was. One prediction which I am pleased to say looks like it has not been impacted by the global lockdown is the one I made about late registrations being reduced.

Just as re-entries have been hotly debated in recent years, so too will extensive late registration periods. They give a significant equity edge to those that do it in regular MTTs and satellites (but not PKOs) even if you buy-in with under 10 big blinds. While I don’t object to them personally, just like re-entries I understand why they leave a sour taste in the mouth of casual players. It can be very frustrating to play from the start, build a stack, then have a professional join at the last minute, win a couple of coinflips then bust you.

Late registration is good for operators for the obvious reason that the longer you can buy-in the more entries you can take, the more re-entries you can get and the bigger guarantees you can therefore offer. This was perhaps highlighted best earlier this year when the Sunday Million broke all records with the help of a Day 2 late registration. Late registration and re-entries obviously go hand in hand.

Artificially extending tournaments

Operators are starting to wake up to the downsides of extensive late registration, most notably Rob Yong of DTD and partypoker who gave something of a call to arms about how his industry colleagues should approach late reg. He suggested not allowing players to re-enter beyond the 30BB level, amongst other things. He also noted that the late registration artificially extends the length of tournaments, which is not a small matter.

RE: If you agree with this please Re-Tweet. If you don't - feel free to block me 🥳💩🙏 pic.twitter.com/9gjbYiZF6q

— Rob Yong (@rob_yong_) July 7, 2020

I personally like late regging for that very reason. I am not looking to play a 10 hour tournament and I want to get to the business end sooner. I am a recreational player and would prefer to play the early levels too, so if the tournament had a much smaller registration window maybe I could have my cake and eat it.

There have been a few recent attempts to persuade players to start on time without reducing the late registration period. GGPoker have a Bubble Protection feature whereby if you register before a tournament starts you get your buy-in back if you bubble. They also only allow staking to happen for players who register early (though I think that might be changing). 888poker have just announced a promotion where you get an extra 10% rake back if you register on time, which I hope is aimed at the high volume players more incentivised to late register. My local card room used to give an extra 2,000 starting chips for buying in early.

All nice ideas but I suspect they are all as much about making it so more people are available from the start to re-enter as it is about anything else.

The only way to change late registration

I personally would love late registrations to be reduced because I want a shorter MTT overall, I suspect many casual players agree with me. I think late registering gives an edge to anyone who does it, not just the professionals, but I do understand why they have the same bad optics that re-entries do to recreational players.

The only real way to solve the late registration problem, if you believe it is a problem, is to massively reduce the late registration period itself. This will be a tough sell for operators because it means reducing the prize pools and the guarantees. That is especially hard to do right now at a time when partypoker, GGPoker and PokerStars are putting on some of the biggest online festivals we have ever seen.

Will we see a Vegas bracelet event this year? Let us know in the comments: