The Cronus Structure Explained: Why Gods Of Poker Closes Registration So Early

Anyone dropping into a Gods of Poker event for the first time tends to notice one thing on the structure sheet almost immediately: registration closes after just two levels. On most major tours, late registration runs for the better part of a day. GOP’s signature Cronus Structure does the opposite by design, and founder Lloyd Fontillas has a clear reason behind it.

The quotes below draw on an earlier interview with Fontillas from December last year, as well as a fresh sit-down with the founder during GOP Manila 2026 , where he walked Somuchpoker through the thinking behind the structure in more detail.

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Interview With Lloyd Fontillas: The Man Behind Gods Of Poker

Somuchpoker interviewed industry veteran Lloyd Fontillas, General Manager and founder of Asia's newest brand Gods Of Poker, whose three-decade journey in the

2025.11.14

What Is the Cronus Structure?

Named after the Greek god of time, the Cronus Structure is Fontillas’ answer to what he sees as bloated modern tournament days. “Cronus is the god of time, and time is gold in poker,” he said. “Players are tired of 14-hour days, late-reg abuse, and shallow late entries that ruin the flow of tournaments. So I redesigned everything.”

In practice, that means most GOP events open with 120 big blinds, close registration after just two levels, and cap the latest possible entry at 30 big blinds.

Why Gods of Poker Has Only Two Levels of Late Registration

Fontillas traced the idea back to a high roller event he watched start with two tables and balloon to twelve by the time registration finally closed. “I watched players who showed up on time constantly get moved, while others wandered in seven or nine hours late. It just didn’t feel right. So I rebuilt each of the structures from the ground up.”

The philosophy, as he put it, comes down to three principles: “Respect the players’ time. Respect the purity of competition. Make poker fun again.” Speaking on the floor at GOP Manila, he expanded on the mechanics behind that stance, arguing that a tournament’s bust-out rate has less to do with how fast the blinds climb and more to do with how many hands actually get dealt. “It’s not about the progression of the level, it’s how long they can actually play. This is why turbo flights or shorter levels become a crap shoot at the end – you’re not dealing enough hands to actually bust players.”

How the Levels Break Down

Every GOP Main Event flight follows the same shape: two long levels to open, then a jump into much shorter levels once registration closes. Flight A, for example, runs like this:

Every other flight in the series follows the identical two-level opening and the identical blind progression from Level 3 onward – only the level length changes, getting shorter with each later flight to bring players to the money in roughly the same window regardless of start time.

Flight B: The Two-Day Exception

Flight B breaks the mold. It’s the only flight in the Main Event that spreads across two days, and the only one that plays down to the money on Day 2 rather than Day 1. Fontillas built it for a specific type of player.

“There’s different types of players. There’s pros that like to play longer levels – they feel there’s more value for their money, that it’s not more of a crap shoot. But there’s also players who want instant gratification, who want to get to the money in a single day. Flight B is the only flight that takes two days, following that Chrono philosophy where you only get two levels of registration, but achieved over a longer format.”

He also pointed to an unexpected source of feedback: cash game players making the jump to tournaments for the first time. “The transition from cash to tournament, when they played that four-hour Level 1 and Level 2, it kind of eased them in. They’re not used to the blinds going up every 30 or 40 minutes, so they don’t feel that pressure.”

Flight B’s spot in the schedule has also moved. At GOP’s Incheon stop, it opened the Main Event as Flight A. In Manila, it was pushed to the middle of the schedule instead. “It just didn’t look good enough to open the Main Event, because players were regging into Day 2 at 30 bigs – it looked weak as an opener. I wanted to get some players into the money first, for the hype of the whole thing.”

Built Around a 12:30 Start

The structure’s late morning start time is deliberate too. “I was taught growing up that lunchtime starts at 12:00. Why is everybody starting tournaments at 11:00 in the morning? The only reason is they’re trying to extend registration to squeeze more re-entries out of players. But the market’s telling us over 70% of players are entering in the last two levels before registration closes anyway. So why prolong it?”

Fontillas is candid that shorter registration windows cut into re-entry revenue, but says that’s a trade-off he’s made peace with. “If you want to make more money on re-entries, just add more events, more flights. That’s what you actually want to do.” For him, the bigger win is getting players home at a reasonable hour without sacrificing the depth of play that makes a Main Event feel like one. “By right, this is a better experience – I’m getting players to the money in a single day, with a structure that still respects the purity of the competition.”

Images courtesy of Gods of Poker. 

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