Sorry I misread the initial question. plz ignore earlier.

nice...you shoulnd't be allowed to fold the button in regular poker either imo

FWIW, I prefer to start each round with the same stack size.

I was looking at the 10k heads-up $550 sat structure. Starting stack is 4k, but you get your stack in thirds. How do they do 1/3 of 4k? Or did they mean 12k total in 3 lots of 4k

2 other qns:

1. Will the daily deep stack structures be the same as last year?

2. What are buy-ins for the single table sats this year? Do they also start at 9 with the megas?

Aussie Rhino - It's probably 3 bullets of 4k each, you start with 4k and can use the other two bullets immediately or as rebuys. That's the way the actual heads-up events were run last year.

And 1 more qn...

If one wins one of the $330 / $550 megas - are you able to use the satellite chips for multiple events other than the ME? (ie. a combo of smaller buy-ins)

yes

You can also sell the lammers off easily for cash at the cage. People registering will buy them (have to sell to other players, the Rio won't buy them obv).

Yes I have sold lammers too. You can wait for someone who is buying in with currency and sell them for face value. A word to the wise however, people will ask for deals on the lammers and want you to take 5% or 10% off or something like that. There's enough people buying in to these events that I would never go for that. You can find people who will buy them for face value.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible practice because it encourages people to grind the sats? This in turn means less casual players in the WSOP events.

^^^^ I don't really think so. There's enough casual players that I don't think selling lammers for face value is bad practice. But I do think it's bad practice to sell them for less. In the very least I hate giving up money just for selling them more expediently.

Are lammers the same each year?

I found one in my luggage when I got home last year, hoping its not worthless...

Does anyone have any information on structures for the single table satellites for winning lammers? I've always played in the small ones which really sucked. All I remember is 1000 in chips and the structure went up really fast.

is it worth it to prereg to the $1.5k and $1k NLH events? manny pacquiao is fighting one of the weekends i'll be there so there may be more entrants than usual.

I pre-registered for my events last year. The line to pick up seating cards/waivers was always shorter than the line to the cage. Also, wiring the cash made me less nervous than carrying a brick through security.

Afraid it's worthless.

I normally pop into the cage the night before when I'm done playing. Never waited more than 5 - 10 mins during the first couple of weeks of the series. I don't pre-reg in case I'm still in other events, but if you know that's not going to be the case, then go for it.

generally speaking, seating occurs from the inside out - meaning, the tournament expands outward as the number of registrants grows. So if you register early, your table is not likely to break until deep in the tournament. That said, you can still be moved out of the big blind if the tournament staff needs to balance tables.

Anyone know if the structure is much more aggressive than in years past? Reason I ask is that I looked at a few of the $5k events and they seem to start steep.

eg., $5k Stud 8
50 ante
50 bring in
200-400 betting

theoretically, a person could lose more than half their stack (8,100 checks) on the very first hand of the tournament. This seems crazy for a limit tournament with a 15,000 chip starting stack. Anyone have any first hand experience with this WSOP and structure?

Structure was changed this year. Higher levels up front to force bustouts. I don't like it.

playing a 42+BB pot and only losing half your chips? Doesn't seem bad at all.

I doubt this makes much difference in events with 3000+ players.

I always pre-reg. The line the morning of the tournament can be quite long. You can always unregister.

the 5k limit events' structures are glorious, if only i were playing any of those tournaments, i would love to partake in the fun

Casual players are there for the money and the glory of a WSOP event. Sats are essential to giving some of them a means to get in for cheap. And most of them won't even think about selling lammers once they get them unless they win more than they need.

You might lose a handful of turbo SNG addicts to the sat section on a given day, but even they will want to take their shots at a bracelet at various points in the series. And keep in mind that at some hours of the day, those grinders are helpful in keeping the sats going. If they couldn't sell the lammers, those grinders would be gone and the sats would die down more often.

I think that's the main reason they stick with the lammer system. Besides, vouchers would be a pain in the ass. I suppose they could set up a system where you build up WSOP credit on your Total Rewards card, and only you can use those tournament dollars. But at the moment it's still all about the lammers.

If they're going to fix something with the sats, they should change the lousy system they have for signing up. People can grab a seat card and then disappear for a half hour without buying in to the table. So the other 9 people are left staring at each other for 15 minutes until the boss gives up on the missing person and enlists someone else. Just like a real event, you should have to post the buy-in right then and there when you select your table and seat.