Looking at the Big 50 schedule a bit closer, a rec player who comes to play on Sat won't be in the money till sometime Monday and if they should be so lucky as to make it to day 3, will have to stay 2 extra days when the tournament resumes on Wed. That certainly makes it hard to plan travel.

Given that it's the week of the 27th which is a holiday week in the U.S, I think recs would be more willing to take time off that week as opposed to the following week.

IMO, the WSOP could have made the schedule a little more rec-friendly, especially since it's a rec-oriented event. Something like this:

Wed 5/29 Day 1A
Thu 5/30 Day 1B / 2A
Fri 5/31 Day 1C / 2B
Sat 6/1 Day 1D
Sun 6/2 Day 2C / 2D
Mon 6/3 Day 3
Tue 6/4 Day 4
Wed 6/5 Day 5

This schedule starts a day earlier and ends two days earlier. A rec with little schedule flexibility could play Saturday, be in the money on Sunday, and if they made Day 3, would only have to take Monday off.

The existing schedule also dis-incentivizes people from playing 1B since 2B starts so late (5:00pm) and will go till past 2:00am. With the alternate schedule above, I don't see why any flight would need to start after 2:00pm.

Anyhow, I'm sure this will be a monster event. It just seems they could have made it a bit friendlier for people with less scheduling flexibility.

Just thinking about the proposed weekly Wednesday senior event going off in the mornings. Wonder what kind of draw they will get the week of the two senior events going off Thursday than again Monday. Got a feeling the june 12th morning tourney will draw a HUGE field. Most boomers should be in vegas by then I would think.

2C and 2D will be too big to run simultaneously, and they surely couldn’t start another tourney. Asking WSOP to not have any Day 1 on a Sunday seems really unrealistic.

Also your schedule has the same travel trouble it just shifts it to a different flight.

And it is not friendlier for recs with less flexibility to kill off a Sunday start flight.

In my schedule, day 2C/2D would be busy, but I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be possible. Even if the place is completely packed for the Friday and Saturday 1’s, they ought to eliminate more than half the field each day. So they can combine the two.

And my schedule avoids the travel complication completely. A player can plan to just come for the weekend, and if they make day three, they will be well within the money and will be able to justify sticking around on Monday. As it stands, anyone who plays day 1 on Saturday will have to schedule to stick around on Monday, not knowing if they’ll even be in the money, and then they’ll have to sit around and do nothing on Tuesday if they make day 3. And then theyll have to stay Wednesday to play. That’s three days of midweek commitment based on the complete unknown of what will happen on day 1. Really just awful for anybody who works for a living.

And the idea that most recs are looking for Sunday starting days in tournaments that don’t reach the money till well into day two is just wrong IMO. And it seemed to be your opinion too, not that long ago...

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...&postcount=283

my assumption that saturday should be a relatively "softer" fields is correct right? I assume Saturday is better than Friday or Sunday

Aka,

If there are only 2 start days, I agree that Fri/Sat are the best. If there are 4, I think Thu-Sun is more friendly to a wider range of schedules than Wed-Sat.

I also think it matters if it is a tourney that may “sell out”. For something like Monster Stack with Fri/Sat I can arrive Sat morn and play without any real hassle. For Big50, I may be shut out of the last flight or have to be an alternate for hours if I arrive Sat morn and Sat is the final flight.

Also, you are really handwaving away the difficulty of 2C/2D on the same day, and completely ignored that that would mean WSOP would have a weekend day with no new tourney starting, maybe not even a 2pm deepstack. They would never do that, and it would be extremely un-rec-friendly (new word) to do that.

I feel like the sat flight schedule is really unfriendly to recs for the reasons discussed in the last few posts. That being said, in a avacuum it would obviously be the most popular flight for those with scheduling constraints. It’s hard to say, in this case, whether that will remain the case. In any case, the characteristics of your first table will be more important that whether or not sat is slightly more or less soft. So I would recommend choosing the flight that works best for your schedule and plans as far as re-entering are concerned.

I’m not sure I understand why the number of starting days makes a difference. It’s the weekend that matters. A large number of players (the often heralded weekend warriors) are either locals or are coming from relatively close by like CA and other neighboring states.

And this event is going to be a ****-show on the last day one whether it’s saturday or Sunday. All of your points about the difficulty of registering morning-of apply to either day.

And I agree Day 2C/2D might present some logistical difficulties. But they are already scheduling day 1C /2b on Saturday, so that seems like it could very well be worse. As for the economic factor, I don’t know. My schedule finishes in one fewer day, giving them another day to hold starting events. And the WSOP already schedules afternoon tourneys, including on the Saturday/Sunday of this event. I really don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to do so with a combined 2C/2d on Sunday.

Anyhow, I think it will be a huge event.. bigger than colossus last year. Given that it is sort of a special event (like the ME) I just think they could have made it a bit more convenient

Number of starting days matters because it affects what the comparison is. In saying that Wed-Sat is better than Thu-Sun for recs, you’re saying that a Wed day one flight is better for recs than a Sun day one flight, and I say no way. Saying Fri-Sat is better than Sat-Sun is saying Fri is better than Sun and I say yes slightly.

1 day, most rec friendly - Sat imo
2 days, Fri-Sat
3 days, Fri-Sun
4 days, Thu-Sun

And to your point about arriving Sunday being logistically tough under current schedule, sure. Do more weekend warriors arrive Sat morning or Sun morning?

Any event that requires a player to play on a weekday to cash is less rec-friendly than one which does not, at least from a scheduling standpoint. So I disagree that fri-su is more rec friendly that th-sa. This is even more the case with this event since the prior week is a holiday week. I think a player is much more likely to have wed off than the following Monday.

We will probably have to agree to disagree. Maybe it’s the difference of you living in Vegas IIRC (or maybe Cali) and me living in Texas. Current schedule makes someone take off work to cash. Sat final flight requires someone to take off work to play.

Also I have no idea why you think it is easier to take days off the week after Memorial Day compared to the next week. I think it would be the opposite as you are already missing one day of office time Memorial Day week.

I actually live on the east coast. I’m not referring to myself when it comes to these scheduling issues. I’m referring to people who live fairly close to Vegas. And if prior years’ figures hold up, they make up a substantial portion of the weekend traffic. As for the days off, people often take holiday weeks off. Memorial Day isn’t as big as say Labor Day or Christmas week, but I’m thinking people will be more likely to have flexibility that week as opposed to the following week.

Anyhow, there’s no use going round and round on this subject. I’m sure there will be lots of recs in the Big 50, scheduling notwithstanding.

hmm I would just think thu and fri are bad becuase those are workdays while saturday is a weekend where people just go to play even if monday is day 2 for that field.

wonder if maybe friday or sunday is better then? I thought sunday would be the most difficult otehr than thursday

Who should I adress to make a suggestion regarding late reg??
If days 4 are played for every 10k event, players playing a day 4 could have a few more levels to register into some events on day 2. Otherwise I wouldn't play some mixed 10Ks if they make me miss a few big events.

I would agree people are more likely to take off Memorial Day week than the next week in a vacuum. So if the question was “should they move the tourney back a week” that would be relevant.

But to play this tourney, someone who has one week to take off wouldn’t take off MD week, they’d take the next week. If they can take two straight weeks off, they have enough flexibility where the issues we are discussing don’t matter.


You’re wayyyy overthinking this. What table you randomly draw is gonna be a much larger factor than what start day you pick in an event with thousands and thousands of players. Pick the day or days that work best with your schedule.

I agree with Blackaces. Just pick the starting day that works best with your schedule and other plans. You can get a favorable or unfavorable table/seat draw in any flight.

Agreed. Except if I were a local (or within reasonable distance) player looking to play this event without taking time off from work (unless of course I was guaranteed to money), then the schedule I suggested would work well and the existing schedule does not even come close. How many of those people are there? Will it not really matter since this is a fairly special event and people will make an extra effort to participate in it? I don’t know. I just think they could have thought it through a little better so that the weekend warriors they always tout were better served. No schedule is perfect for everybody. But I don’t think the modifications I suggested (maybe for future events) present any real downside to the majority of players. And certainly have upside to a large segment of the population.

Can someone please explain which days the big 50 plays out like? Im confused on when day 2’s and 3’s are played. Thanks

I’m glad you boys are digging down really deep on important topics like work schedules!


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It’s spelled out here...

http://www.wsop.com/pdfs/structuresh...1622_17283.pdf

But in general, depending on which day 1 flight you are playing (1A-thu, 1B-fri, 1C-sat or 1D-sun) ...

Day 2A: Friday 2:00 pm
Day 2B: Saturday 5:00 pm
Day 2C: Monday 10:00 am
Day 2D: Tuesday 10:00 am
Day 3: Wednesday 11:00 am, field combines and the tourney proceeds like normal

So, for example, if you play flight 1C on Saturday and survive, your day 2 will be on Monday.

The field will be super soft regardless.

Any word on online bracelet events this year? Was hoping to play one when I’m out there the first week.

I think the point of this tournament is to maximize how huge this tournament is, even if it is inconvenient for some players, while not being a nightmare to run. I don't see this as a problem so long as they have other cheap tournaments on other weekends that are more convenient for rec players with limited time off. Given that this is scheduled to run until Friday June 7, this tournament isn't really for those players anyways.

It's possible that they can't start this tournament before May 30 for logistical reasons (for example, if WSOP dealers are allowed to participate in the Casino Employees event, you probably don't want to start the Big 50 until that event is over or at least on Day 2), so they would have to pick another weekend if they wanted to start it on a Wednesday like you propose.

A lot of players dream of taking a week off to pay poker and extending their stay if they do well, so a tournament like this should be earlier in the schedule to fuel those dreams. And it might be better for PR purposes to have it as earlier as possible.

Agree with everything you said about scheduling of this tournament etc, also excellent accidental point with your bolded typo above... at least I think it was a typo...

I like the idea of the Big50 but I don't really want to stay in Vegas that long, after a while it just gets more and more obvious what a scummy city it is.

I was initially very excited about the Big50 and think it has great value. I love the BBA being added for this tourney and think it will help a ton with the horrible dealers that are used in the beginning of these large tourneys.

If I was going to go for the big50 I would have wanted to play Saturday and make sure if I busted Saturday, I could possibly buy in and play Sunday also. This puts me arriving in Vegas on Friday at some point and staying until at least Thursday which is just too long especially with the days off built into the tourney.

I will be going for one of the deepstack events that is listed as a three day event starting Sunday and ending Tuesday instead. Arriving later on a Saturday and leaving earlier on a Wednesday sounds much better for a couple of reasons.
a. I don't have to be in Vegas 6 nights.
b. I don't have to take as much time off work. 3 vs 5