Yesterday, I was listening to the first archived episode of the circuit on cardplayer.com, on which dn was a guest. At one point, daniel and mike matusow were discussing how they would like to change the standard tournament structure from ten handed to nine handed, referring to it as a more pure form of poker. I was wondering what it was that made this change so key. The only thing that came to mind besides slight loosening of play was that there are now two early positions, two middle positions, two late positions, the blinds and the button, but that seems somewhat arbitrary. thoughts?

Ten-handed play stifles the action, as you have to tighten up too much on starting hands, etc. There's a reason that most cash games only allow nine to a table now.

Basically, I think they're just saying that the tournaments need to catch up to the rest of the world.

Didn't the ME start as 11 handed tables last year? Or was that something they proposed that go shot down.

I wonder how much of a difference there really is between 9 and 10 players. I know I don't vary my game at all at 9 handed tables vs 10. Just see the blinds quicker. I think I prefer the 10.

why not 8 handed then?