This year they will have 500 tables! That is 5000 players per day.

From what I can see the decision for 10mm GTD for first isn't a direct response strategy...ie it doesn't exist to immediately attract more players and ultimately the immediate entrant count is the measure of success of the decision. Its a long term branding strategy to basically become the most recommended/recognisable/loved poker brand.

Also 70mm GTD isn't actually something thats tangible for a novice poker player but 10mm for winning is. Imho if there is any tournament in the world for life changing money where I where I would say fark you ICM...it would be this.

(also interesting that this is such a big issue, yet I don't think anybody made a deal at WSOP 2014 ME..wasnt even discussed according to the pokercast)

WSOP already is and has been the most recognized poker brand for a long time.

Why would you say *** icm when the $ amount you are making the decisions for would be the highest you have/will ever play for?

At first, I thought you would be absurd in saying that 15,000 seats might not be enough but seeing the numbers for the millionaire maker (and the monster stack), you might be right.

The millionaire maker was a $1500 event. Now, $1500 isn't that much to a lot of people but it's still a decent chunk of change for amateurs (esp ones that didnt win a satallite into the event). A $565 event (assuming $500+65 (which is a sick rake)), will attract those amateurs to play without even winning a satellite.

Maybe 2 Day 1s is needed for this. Day 1A for the first 10k and Day 1B for the 2nd 10k.

Assuming $500 is the prize pool per entry x 15k = 7.5million prize pool x 13.5% for first = 1 million.

I think Colossus 5M GTD event should also have a guarantee with winner = 1 million. At worst he takes 20% of prize pool, and that's not absurd.

Degen's gonna degen bra

ummm, ok your probably right on the brand..but doesn't mean you should rest on your laurels.

Yeah but simply skewing the payouts to make first pay more doesnt actually do anything to build the brand.

A better strat would be getting online sats back in action, giving seats to fantasy sites or changing their marketing strat.

Yeh it kinda does for the reasons I've already said. Also I thought Online sats were back in action on legal online us sites. Wasn't wsop.com offering sats?

The Millionaire Maker and Monster Stack had 8K people with a $1500 buyin and no re-entries. The $5 million guarantee on Colossus is a joke. Way to put your dick on the chopping block Jack and guarantee 9K entries. At 1/3 of the price with re-entries it should easily surpass 20K and possibly 30K. Literally anyone that plays poker can stretch to afford this.

not getting the sarcasm? It's the opening event lol

I don't think it's gonna be enough. Firstly, players aren't going to play in an even distribution, the later flights will have more people than the earlier flights

then there is the matter of reentries and that is going to be an absolute nightmare.

The more I think about it, the more I think the Colossus is going to be a giant Cluster f***...

I anticipate ridiculously long lines and easily a couple of thousand people and/or reentries that don't get in...

If ever there was a ticket to buy early or online, it's a ticket for this event. Standing in line for 2 or 3 hours would make me want to slit my wrists

yeah, this will probably be the biggest live tournament (in terms of # of entrants) in poker history...

My best friend deals for the WSOP. Many prognosticators were putting the number of people for the Monster Stack at 3-4k. Jack Effel and crew were also expecting that much. You can only imagine what it was like for them when they got almost 8k instead. This will be a much bigger nightmare but I'm sure they will pull it off somehow. There will be plenty of stories to tell, that's for sure.

By starting the WSOP with "The Colossus" $565 buy-in, $5,000,000 Guarantee" they showed us that they know how big it will be.

All the 500 tables will be available on Day 1 1st flight. No one arguing about " if"!
It will be the biggest event !

Naturally the flight will be getting bigger and bigger as it goes along.

My guess is all the pro's will be playing Day 1A as they can afford to buy in as much as 4 times (And there will be many of them ).

I am ready to bet that Flight 1 A 10AM will be sold out to start with and later flights will be" a giant Cluster f***... ' (:

Will day 1 of Colossus have 30 minute levels?

Opening open event. Casino employee event is always first

No it's not.
The series starts on May 27th. The Collossus starts on the 29th.
Event 1 will be the casino employees, starting on the 27th, as usual. There will probably be a high buyin event starting on 28th and possibly another event that day too.

Don't really need to be pro to be thrown down 2K

They pulled it off for the Monster stack...i'm sure they'll manage this as well too.

Of course they pulled it off during the monster stack but at what cost? Importantly the lines and delay in playing . Isn't it true that some began to play much later into start time than would be expected?
the cost was to the players to a significant extent( dealers also).

If minimum 4 rounds of 2500 you'll still need the dealers and the ability to register without long waiting lines. Hope it works and no one gets turned away for whatever reason.

It does take planning and that's up to the chief and so he's been forewarned because of the monster stack last year. Can't make the same mistakes twice....

I don't know the collosus was re-entry. That's dumb IMO.

One entry per flight. It says in the promotional teaser article they posted the event in.

This is what annoys me to no end, when they screw up, it is we the players that get the shaft.

Imo though, we should anticipate this is going to be a huge problem. I'm buying my ticket online or the day before the event. No way in hell I'm standing in that line for 3 hours.

Unfortunately, most rec-fish aren't going to and thus they will be the ones standing in line all day...

Day 2 flight 2 is going to be the biggest nightmare in WSOP history. I can easily see up to 7,000+ people trying to cram in that last flight.

You will have everyone that busted out the previous flights, even players that made it to day 2 but want another crack at it, then you have rec-fish flying in Saturday to play or rec-fish driving from LA arriving to play. Not to mention the buzz generated drawing other rec-fish in the area who had no intention of playing but now want to play...

I just had a thought, DraftKings should make up a line for betting how many players this tournament will get

Make it a jellybean guessing contest, closest person to the actual number without going over wins it all
$5 per guess...

Anybody know if they'll let us reg for all flights in advance?

I don't think it does at all. I mean sure it does to you and me but to your average moron "the winner gets 10 million" sounds a lot more concrete than a 70 mil prize pool.

Every additional flight after the first will get worse. They'll fill every seat at every table on day one flight one, and everyone that busts will want to rebuy back into flight two. However, a lot of people will show up after flight one starts and buy into flight two, filling all the available seats before the rebuys can get them. It'll be a cluster f.ck, just like the monster stack last year. Trying to walk down the hallway on break, when EVERY table broke at once, was ridiculous. There's no chance I'm showing up to witness that mess this year. Last year was enough.

I plan on regging for both 10am flights and just unregging the second one if I make the end of the day on the first, hoping the lines will be short enough by then to do so.