Ok, so I am a Diamond card member and just got back from the WSOP. I stayed 7 nights at Ballys and played tournaments at WSOP, Venetian, and Aria. I was scheduled to stay for 12 nights at Ballys but left early.

Here is a little overview of each of the aspects of my trip.

Ballys: Arrived and was greeted by valet with a nod. No "welcome to Ballys,", nothing, just a nod. No bellman to help with my luggage, there was 1 bell person and he just stared at me. Diamond check in was nice. I did the $20 tip slip and she gave me a room that looked at the roof of the parking lot. Sweet. Was told I would be in the "renovated" tower. Apparently "renovated' me repainted. Room was ok, lots of scuffs and chipped paint. No plastic laundry bags. Ballys is not offering laundry service. Ballys also does not have the Nosh food bar open. So good luck finding food.

Giordanos Pizza: Fantastic as always. Highly recommend.

WSOP: WSOP registration for Diamond card holders is easy. No lines. If you are not a Diamond card holder, good luck. You are fu**ed. 1-3 hour wait. Cash games are minimal. You don't have to wear a mask at the table, but in the hallway, etc. you do. So all you hear is every security guard yelling, "MASK PLEASE", "PULL UP YOUR MASK SIR". Fuc**ng irritating. Payout line was horrific. Minimum 1 hour wait time. They had 1 window paying out for 2 different tournaments going on at the same time. Brilliant. Dealers were about a 6/10. They are definitely overworked and tired, but even on 8 hours sleep some of them were mediocre at best. Food is horrific in the cafe. HORRIFIC. Possibly the worst hamburger I have ever eaten Overall grade: B-

Venetian: Tournament entry was easy. Room was impeccably clean. Dealers above average. Tournament run well by floor, alternates done properly. Overall grade: A.

Aria: Shitshow of a tournament venue. Line for registration was around the outside of the poker room. At one point they only had 1 window open. FFS. They didn't have enough dealers so floor people were dealing. Alternate list was ridiculous. Over a 2 hour wait for alternates. Which is fine, however, the only way an alternate would know if they were up is if they stayed at the poker room and watched a clock with the current number. Their Bravo software was "broken". Overall grade: C

Diamond Card: All the Diamond lounges are closed (COVID). Diamond no longer gets to cut in line at restaurants, only Seven Stars (BULLS**T). However, half the restaurants are closed anyway so who cares. Diamond does get to cut the line in cash games. No resort fees. They gave me a celebration dinner for 2021 AND 2020 which was shocking. Overall grade: B

Vegas: Vegas is really turning into a dump. Homeless and thugs roam the strip looking to either rob you or stare you down looking for a fight. Mind you, I am over 50 and guys are looking at me like I am a threat. WTF? All the Caesar's properties look run down and dirty. Even Caesars. Just old. Every 2 seconds a security guard is yelling at someone about a mask. You can't even smoke without getting shi* from someone. You also can't smoke at table games at Venetian. I don't smoke, but it if I did this would really suck. Overall the employees at all the casinos were on the "what is the least I can do" train. The nicest employees were the ones that didn't work for the casinos, like waitresses at Grand Lux. Overall grade: D

tldr: vegas sucks with masks, ballys is a dump, eat Giordano's pizza

Ok, this part was pretty good.

I went around the same dates and I didn’t find this to be true at all. Registration during evenings was about 20min and for the Colossus was about 30-40 min 1 hour before the event.

There were about 5-7 tables running on evenings for cash games. Seemed plenty to me.

Hahaha @ the $20 tip. I wish that had worked. Would have tried it next time.

My reference on the wait time was for the Seniors Event and the $600 Deepstack Event.

Not sure if you have been to the WSOP before, but 5-7 cash games is pitiful compared to other years.

Cutting in line is the only reason I get Diamond. This perq costs them nothing other than the cost of a sign and some velvet ropes.

Resort fees and $100 dinner are my main motivators.

So the two events with the highest demographics that would likely have issues figuring out clear.

Makes complete sense.

Ballys closed all of their restaurants except maybe the pseudo-Starbucks place. And maybe the gas station sandwiches in the gift shop. Which is a big reason I didn't stay there. Plus, it's a huge pain to get out of there, and across the Strip over to the Rio.

Otherwise I generally like Ballys and their poker room. Since they closed their poker room for the WSOP, and PHo's room is gone for good, it just makes it an even worse location.

El Dorado is squeezing every last dime out of CET, so all the tiny amenities, like free water in the Diamond check-in, are gone. The Rio Diamond check-in doesn't even have any hosts any more, they are only "upstairs". I think they fired a lot of them since they don't plan on giving much away any more.

I've been going for so long (15 years) I think I've subconsciously avoided the worst times to do anything at the WSOP. Except for the payout window. No way to avoid that disaster. Thankfully I seldom had a need to visit it.

Don't forget free parking!

But seriously, the Diamond registration at the WSOP turns a nightmare into a minor inconvenience. I probably wouldn't WSOP without Diamond, and if I quit the WSOP, I wouldn't spend the money to make Diamond.

For registration and payout just go at off hours, early AM is best. I've waited on average zero to 90 seconds.

I am seven star and it still does surprisingly little when it comes to restaurants. Much more effective just going the day of at nice restaurants and tipping the maitre d or manager

He’s pointing out issues that he has experienced this year that were not problems in years past, don’t be a jerk about it.