Player Can't Make Championship Tournament

[Catch22]

In my league, the top eight players by points and one wildcard play in a championship tournament at the end of the season. A player who is a lock for the top eight cannot make it to the championship game. How should this be handled? Should only  the remaining top seven and the wildcard play in the final, or should it include the next highest player to maintain nine total player in the championship? What if we know that two players can't make it? Does that change anything?

[Martini]

First of all, this possibility should have already been accounted for in your league rules. But now that it is here, I would say that it depends on your league structure. Is the championship tourney a freeroll? Or do players need to pay? If the top eight get in automatically and there is no entry fee I would find it difficult to argue against him being blinded off in case he makes it into the money as unlikely as that may be. If he would have to pay to get in then I assume he would just not pay or play in which case I would think taking the next played in the standings is reasonable.

How does your wild card player qualify?

[Catch22]

The championship tournament is a freeroll.

The wildcard player makes in by winning a freeroll tournament comprised of every player not in the top eight that played in at least half of the regular season games.

[Martini]

Well since the absent player is "bought in" by virtue of his performance throughout the season I feel like he has the right to have his stack on the table. However, unless the tournament has a horrible structure or it is a mega-action table I doubt that he would cash and having his chips on the table would likely only be a distraction. At this point I guess I would just go with top eight (including absent player) plus the wildcard, blind him off the absent player for the first round, then remove his stack. It might seem silly to handle it that way but there is another thread about a player who thought he wasn't going to make it but ended up showing up after his seat had been given away.

I would then amend your league rules to account for missing players. Personally I don't like the idea of a freeroll at the end of the season. If there were a buy in involved then that would simplify the situation since the absent player wouldn't be bought in and you could just take another player. I still think that a freeroll entitles the qualifier to be represented at the table but a compromise might be to take an additional player, so in your case eight including absent player + an extra + wildcard = ten stacks but only nine players.

[Dr. Neau]

In ours, if you can't make it everyone below you is promoted one spot.

We also advertise the championship date 10 months in advance.

[Catch22]

In ours, if you can't make it everyone below you is promoted one spot.

We also advertise the championship date 10 months in advance.

I am leaning toward promoting everyone one spot.

The championship date was set in March. The guy just made plans without looking at the schedule.

[Detroitdad]

In ours, if you can't make it everyone below you is promoted one spot.

We also advertise the championship date 10 months in advance.

I am leaning toward promoting everyone one spot.

If our rules don't state with an absent player everyone is promoted, I think you should just play short. Whether its beneficial to anyone or not it just looks bad adding changes/rules at the last minute.

What if the guy promoted wins the entire thing. 7 other guys will be pissed off because this guy shouldn't have been there.

Fix the rules for next season.

B

[Martini]

In ours, if you can't make it everyone below you is promoted one spot.

We also advertise the championship date 10 months in advance.

I am leaning toward promoting everyone one spot.

If our rules don't state with an absent player everyone is promoted, I think you should just play short. Whether its beneficial to anyone or not it just looks bad adding changes/rules at the last minute.

What if the guy promoted wins the entire thing. 7 other guys will be pissed off because this guy shouldn't have been there.

Fix the rules for next season.

B

Good point. Another thing is that someone might have played the last tournament differently under the assumption that 9th in points has no shot to get in. For example, if there is a tie for 8th and 9th place going in to the last tournament and one of the players is a huge chip leader then the other player is going to (or at least should) play hyper aggressively to place higher than the other even at the risk of not coming away with any points. So instead of trying to accumulate points which would have locked him into 9th place, he takes more risks and goes out early and gets passed in the standings.