After a somewhat abrupt suspension of play last night at 189 players, the Main Event of the World Series should play out something like this over the next three days:
Thursday Day 3: 1308 played down to 474
Friday Day 4: 474 played down to 189
Saturday Day 5: 189 playing to 81 or 72 (or less)
Sunday Day 6: 81 or 72 playing down to 27
Monday Day 7: 27 playing down to November Nine
November: Final Table
Today is the critical day, with a full five levels scheduled the field will definitely go under 100. Trying to anticipate the pace of play is a skill developed by good tournament directors but about as accurate as predicting the weather (we had lightening last night in Las Vegas; 90 degrees at midnight and lightening). The key to today's decision is a balance between the number of remaining players and the stack sizes. When the field is full of stacks of similar sizes, play takes longer; when there are a good number of short stacks, play is quicker.
Because the staff has the option of stopping play at any time, we know they definitely want to make tomorrow (Day Six) a reasonable length day getting down to 27 but even with this in mind, no one would be surprised if a fast pace lowers todays field to 63 or even 54 and then on Sunday we go for a final two tables at 18.
This is all about managing the pace of an unpredictable game at ten or twenty different tables. What we do know is that Monday evening or early Tuesday morning, we will have nine players left standing.
A potentially long day (or two) awaits the 112 remaining players in the Main Event of the 2007 World Series of Poker. Before the end of tomorrow's action on Day Six, the 112 players must play down to 9 for the Final Table.
