[tek]

Okay, I'll go slow.

The HPT tournaments have entry fees ranging from $275 to $550. There are anywhere from two to four days of qualifying.

That means that everyone who pays the entry fee, $440 in the November event for example, has to be in the top 20% of the players in that days qualifying round. If there are 90 players, the round is over for that day when 18 players are left, with at least one chip. Those 18 plus the players from the top 20% on the other qualifying days advance to the Sunday playoffs where everyone will start with a new stack of equal chips.

Yes, there are satellites for around $65 to get into the qualifying round (instead of paying $440). That's fine. I don't have a problem with that.

The issue is this NEW idea they have where instead of paying $440 to enter the qualifying round, one can pay $2200 and NOT HAVE TO QUALIFY BUT GO DIRECTLY TO THE SUNDAY FINALS.

So yes, the extra $1780 increases the prize fund. Great. But these guys get special treatment because they don't have to put forth the same effort to get to the finals.

As Greg stated in one of his emails to me, he doesn't think that more than a few guys will do this.

So therefore, the prize fund won't go up that much and the extra money will not benefit the finalists that much after the extra money is filtered throughout the payoff spots. So basically he is giving special treatment to a select few guys who admit they can't make through the qualifying round based on their skill.

I'll keep saying it. If this is fair then I'll pay $4k to go directly to the final table...