The Pace of Play
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The table with Paul Sharbanee, Mel Judah, Oliver Gill, Paul Mac, and Vadim Pinsky brought up the issue of their table playing hands much faster than the other table, citing the chip differences as the reason. The table asked the tournament staff if they could play hand for hand or even round for round, but that request was turned down. They were told that if all of the remaining 10 players agree, both sets of five from each table, they could combine to a final table of 10 instead of waiting to combine at nine.
The table that brought up the request all agreed and then the other table was asked. The other table argued they weren't playing any slower, and both Jeff Lisandro and Gary Benson spoke up the most. That said, the tables will remain at five and five to play on.
Our observation is that one table isn't playing any faster than the other in terms of time per action. The table with the shorter stacks containing Sharbanee, Judah, Gill, Mac, and Pinsky is seeing more hands thanks to a simply preflop raise taking down the pot with everyone else folding. On the other table, more flops, turns, and rivers are seen, but the action per decision is very similar to that of the other table. This could be because of the larger stacks allowing the players at that table to see more streets of action as opposed to the other table.
The tournament staff is going to monitor the situation for a bit with the possibility that they will redraw all 10 players if the pace of play does differ a lot from table to table.