The Giant sounds like fun!

*sees structure sheet

"20min blinds."

this

That's how long the blind levels are at a $40 nightly at the Excalibur and this is a bracelet event?

It's a 7PM tournament that will have hundreds of runners and needs to play deep into the money on Day 1 and end at a fairly reasonable time.

First time going, can't wait!

The Giant doesn't have the best structure, but it's not appreciably worse than the other sub-1K tournaments. If I'm in town I might give the last flight a shot at that price.

With no auto-shufflers, you're lucky to see one orbit per level. Same with the Colossus going from 40min down to 30, people just take way to damn long to act.

No pot-limit Hold-Em? I thought this was a popular variant? And a rare chance to play it (yes I see the contradiction. I suck)

Is there a good reason to be in the Vegas area for other reasons during the series? I'd like to attend my first WSOP this year wondering when there's other stuff to do besides Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam type stuff. No thank you to Burning Man ... I'm not cool enough to do that.

What are suggestions for places to stay? Is the RIO too easy to pass up a room? Other nearby hotels? Or bit the bullet and find an Airbnb or something else?

What is the colossus / Main Event registration like? Should I expect to take an hour or four? What about the smaller 1 k - 3k events?

Giant is $365 unlimited re-entry, so I think those two factors might make a difference in play speed. No auto-shufflers is a big drag, though.

Last year when I was going to register for tournies there were dudes outside the tourney registration line quietly trying to sell cash chips for money. Anything shady behind this? Always wondered why but never thought to ask anyone...

Rio is awfully convenient if you are only playing WSOP events. There will also be series going on at Venetian, Planet Hollywood, Wynn, Golden Nugget, so that will impact where you want to stay. Gold Coast is also convenient to Rio and often cheaper on weekends.

Colossus registration was much smoother last year. If you go during 'off' hours, it shouldn't be bad. Main Event shouldn't be bad other than the morning of the final flight. Smaller events usually not bad at all, better to do them the night before though, rather than walking up at 10:55 and expecting to be seated by 11. Definitely reg the night before for Milly Maker and Monster Stack for example.

These chips are the lammers that are won in the single table satellites. Some players grind the satellites and then sell the lammers. Some earn lammers but end up not needing them (for example they make day 2 of a tourney, so aren't buying in the next day). Often staff gets bitchy about them selling, so that's why they try to do it quietly. If you have any worries, just have them stand in line with you and wait until the lammer is accepted, but I've not ever heard of anyone getting sold fake lammers.