With live tournaments now becoming the center of attention in the poker world, PocketFives.com sat down with Jesse Jones, founder and President of the World Poker Association (WPA). The organization seeks to “promote poker as a sport by advocating professionalism and uniform rules and standards of conduct, and by helping to create increased economic opportunities for players,” according to its website, WPAPoker.org. Jones is a poker veteran who has competed around the world in just about every major poker tournament you can name. His experience has led him to seek standardized tournament structures, codes of conducts, and payout schedules across the industry. When players cough up $10,000 to enter, they should understand exactly what they’re getting into.

The World Poker Tour’s seventh season is in full swing. From Las Vegas to Foxwoods, the WPT showcases some of the world’s premier casinos and top poker pros. However, the rules for each tournament on the WPT circuit, including starting stack sizes, payout distribution, and tournament structure, is determined by each casino hosting a WPT event. Jones comments on the differences between the different WPT tour stops: “The World Poker Tour has buy-ins that range from $5,000 to $15,000 plus the WPT Championship event. Starting chip stacks range from 20,000 to 45,000. Blind levels vary between 75 minutes and 90 minutes. The number of hours played in a day range from 7 ½ to 12 hours, not counting breaks. Some tournaments have a set dinner break, some don’t. Some tournaments have 10 minute breaks, some have 15 minutes. Some events’ blind levels start at 25-50; others start at 50-100.” As you can see, as a player, planning a strategy for attack at each WPT event can be difficult.

In order to procure information on each event, a player must call the actual casino and ask for the tournament structure to be faxed or e-mailed. Alternately, some casinos will post the structures on their own websites. In the event that a player goes into a tournament ignorant as to what the structure will be, he or she may be in for a big surprise. Jones talks about what happens next: “You tell your fellow players or friends about why the tournament’s structure isn’t right. You might also mention it to a floor person, but that’s generally the end of it. That’s what we’re looking for at the WPA. If there is something out of whack, we can represent the players and the venues.”

The World Series of Poker changed its own tournament structure this year. The result: The Year of the Pro was born. Pros reversed a three-year trend in which amateurs absolutely dominated the bracelet count in the WSOP. Just like the U.S. Dream Team at this year’s Olympics, the pros returned to form in 2008. Jones gives his praises to the WSOP for its structures: “I give the WSOP kudos. Their structure has been determined by feedback received from players. Overall the players said that the structures were better.”

If you watched the $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament on ESPN, you saw the questionably ethical behavior at the HORSE event, where four-time WSOP bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen, who was in pursuit of bracelet number five, crossed the line in terms of his behavior. Under WPA guidance, a strict code of ethics would be in place in all tournaments. Jones comments on what the response from Harrah’s officials should have been: “Harrah’s fell down with how they treated the Scotty Nguyen situation. I question how long Milwaukee’s Best Light will remain a sponsor of the WSOP if that kind of behavior keeps up. If I were a sponsor, I’d be on the phone immediately requesting a change of their standards. That doesn’t make for good television for their paying customers. If I saw my logo behind Nguyen’s head, I’d be embarrassed as a sponsor.”

For the WPA’s purposes, any $10,000 buy-in tournament in the United States or $5,000 buy-in tournament elsewhere is deemed a “professional event.” By its standards, “At any professional event, the blind levels should be 90 minutes long. Sixty minutes should never be the case. If a casino’s tournament has 60 minute blind levels, they’re using the event for other purposes, whether it’s profit-motivated or another reason. You’re trying to establish who the best poker players are. You can’t do that with 60 minute levels. In addition, 12 hours is too long to play. You’re giving an advantage to the age factor and the disadvantage to professionals who are older. It’s not fair or equitable to the players.”

The WPA has 1,400 members from 41 countries. PocketFiver Blair Rodman, 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem, and Michael Binger serve on its Board of Directors. Memberships begin at $20 and are available on the WPA’s website.