Making Tournaments Better Tests Of Skill

This is my first post, how exciting!

I think the OP proposes a bad idea, perhaps with good intention. I think the assumption that "TV pros" should fill many seats at the WSOP ME final table is faulty. First, the simple fact that there are only 100-200 top pros means it is statistically likely that 2 or so will even crack the top 50. If you figure they are more skilled, I think you can up that but not to the point where you will see 20 or so familiar faces in the last 50. Secondly, I think the general publics fascination with poker has a lot to do with the "anyone can win" philospophy. If you tweak the system in hopes of favoring who you think is the better player would likely hurt the image of poker and possibly turn would-be newbies away.

I think there are other easier ways to make skill a larger factor. Using Greg Raymer et al. calculations that it would take a 6 month tournament to have skill win out over luck, why not have players propose things like longer levels, larger amount of starting chips with respect to the big blind, 30-60 second time clocks to keep the action fast, etc. Anything that lends to the tournament to lasting longer will only increase the amount of skill required to win. My example could be this: what if the structure were so slow that it essentially maintained roughly 250-500 BBs per player throughout the course of the tournament. In the infamous hand between Kantor and Raymer, this would have allowed Raymers opponent to correctly lay his QJ down and Raymer would live on (as both players said Kantor was pot committed to call). Not so if players had more BBs.

Could changes to the structure actually occur? I think the answer is probably no because I can't see both the non-pros and casino favoring a 3 week tourney, without making the vig crazy high. I think most players who have normal jobs could not play, which of course leads to less players and less dead money. In any event, there are real changes that can be made to favor the skilled player that don't involve running it twice...