How does the alternate system work?

[Equal]

Here's my understanding, but maybe someone who's actually been an alternate can chime in:

When a player busts out of the tournament, he is replaced by the first alternate, who comes in with the starting number of chips.

So my question is this: is it an advantage or disadvantage to being an alternate? Secondly, is it an advantage to being an early alternate or one of the last alternates?

Do they set a time limit on when alternates can come into the tournament? Are alternates guaranteed to get into the event?

[Kevmath]

I think they give the person the starting chips, minus a round of blinds every 15 minutes? Yesterday, it looks like they stopped adding alternates at the end of the first level.

Kevin...

[ryachris]

Iv'e been an alternate at smaller B&M tournaments I can think of no reason why being an alternate could possibly be a real advantage.

Fewer starting chips, missing out on hands in level 1, unless you are going to hemmorage chips before the first level is over, I would rather fold ever hand pf rather than not even see the cards

[James Lang]

At the WSOP circuit, they gave the alternates the same number of starting chips as if they weren't an alternate. The disadvantage I see is that if you are a late alternate, you might get in when the blinds are 25-50 or 50-100. So you wouldn't have seen as many hands as a non-alternate had. But the advantage is that you probably have more chips than some people at your table.

[ryachris]

you can also have more chips than those same people by winning a single pot of medium size, I think that minor advantage is far outwayed by everyone else being comfortable with the way the table plays and seeing a few to many more hands

[AlwaysWrong]

If they take away chips to account for the blinds you miss, it's obviously better to not be an alternate. No further discussion needed, as you could effectively make yourself an alternate by just sleeping in.

If they don't, it's better to be an alternate if you think you stand to lose chips early - ie you think you're a below average player (at least early on.. maybe your postflop play stinks). If you think this about yourself, it seems like a bad idea to buy-in at all.

[burningyen]

Once a player busts out the average (mean) stack becomes bigger than the starting stack. So when you enter as an alternate you enter with a below-average stack, even if they don't take out the missed blinds.