Boring final table ? For who ? The TV audience, the Pod cast viewers, the players ? Pig as a highly experienced player you know that a flatter final table payout just makes someone appreciate the risk reward and re-evaluate the EV of closer decisions. It absolutely should reduce the occurrence of major Flip decisions so if you like seeing people shove big stacks in with JJ vrs AK well I guess it should make it a bit more "boring". Flattening payouts IMO inevitably increases runners as the additional 5% that sneak into the money have just "won" their next buy in. As a dedicated Rec player I can tell you that no matter how much money I have in the bank its always psychologically easier to use the $+2000 I just "won" to buy into the next $1500 event than to pull it out of my wallet fresh. The reality is the $1500 doesn't honestly mean squat to me on an overall financial basis but mentally it sure as hell does .

I’m not discussing the final table payouts, but the big 50 in 2019 paid out 1524 players less than $1000.
First place paid $1.147 million. If we distribute that $150,000 among the 1524, it only costs ~$98 ($150,000/1524) Per each player. If we trim that from the top 2000 spots, it only costs ~$75 per player ($150,000/2000)
There were literal payjumps in that event for $1 to $3. Paying out 15% of the field and the large first prize due to special event where the first entry didn’t even get raked obviously is a factor. But you could legit just pay out $1000 to significantly more people.
You can still keep the large payjumps for the top finishing players

Smaller initial payouts also encourage more gambling after the money bubble bursts which is good for the WSOP since the event has even faster eliminations.

I don't think this is actually true. I think it's because they played down to 5% of every flight, so every flight had to have a payout structure for each flight, and the payment amounts varied in those structures by small amounts based on the payout table being applied to a different number of entrants per flight. The reported results aggregated every player together sorted by the amount of money they won in their flight, thus making jumps appear tiny.

I wouldn’t define a rec player in that way. To me, a rec player is someone who spends the majority of their time away from poker. I would consider myself a rec player even though in a given year I might play 50 daily tournaments and another 20 multi-day events. I don’t go on vacation to play poker and I would certainly be a bit reticent to spend any time playing poker if I ever decided to take a real vacation.

On the other hand, a poker pro is someone who makes a living (or tries to) playing poker. It’s their job. They play 5+ days a week and hundreds of events each year.

Anyhow, I’m ok with paying 15%, especially in 3-day events where the money really ought to be reached fairly early on day 2. Grinding for the better part of two days and not cashing is not at all fun. I also think first place should be substantial, and min-cashing should be substantial (at least 2.5x) and everything in between can be as flat as you want in order for it to work out. Flattening the overall payout structure would also move things along. Tournaments (especially at the WSOP) have gotten to be too long. Anything over three days in all but a few events is really too much. There’s no reason why you can’t have a very good structure and finish in three days. The WSOP should take note of that.

Anyone booked their travel yet?

Rates seem really bad. I'm leaning towards just staying downtown and eating the daily Uber/Lyft charge as opposed to paying through the nose for something convenient like Rio or Gold Coast. I paid about $450 total for five nights at the Rio at WSOP 2019 and now it would be about $770 for October, with prices even higher around the Main Event starting flights.

I haven’t booked anything yet but I’ve been looking and I agree that everything is sky high. I’m guessing they know things are starting to feel more normal and people are going to want to get out of their houses for a bit so they jacked up the prices. Sucks.

It’s just supply and demand. I’m sure Vegas is killing it right now. But I’m wondering if this is more a reflection of business travel plans picking up vs personal travel. That time of year is usually fairly busy in Vegas, but not because of regular folks taking vacations.

I read somewhere else that it’s not supply and demand. The author believes it’s the opposite. They said there is ample supply but such low demand they’re trying to make up for lost revenue by jacking up prices on those willing to pay. I’m not sure which scenario it is.

The demand is now. Not sure what it will be like in October.

It's simply seasonal. Vegas sucks at 110 degrees. It's more tolerable when it cools down and prices go up.

I am waiting for the schedule of events before I book any flights/rooms. I will book a week around the Senior event as I am not ready for the 'big one' yet. I have been 'reserving' car rentals as their prices are astronomical these days. I can't anything for less than 3 times what I paid in 2019.

Today marks 2 months since the teaser announcement about the schedule. I really want to see the schedule before booking. Any ideas on what is taking so long to put out the schedule? Even the dates for a few key events such as Seniors would answer a lot of questions for players enabling some reservations to be made. I don't think we can blame Covid anymore.

Frigging AMEN ... It is brutal trying to line up Vacation without just taking a blind stab at dates. Senior and Super Senior will be 2 or 3 days apart and the Senior will start on a Thursday or Friday but OCTOBER 7TH OR 8TH OR 14/15TH OR even as late as the 21st (unlikely in my mind) . But all the speculation in the world doesn't help us lock down when to a point we can book with confidence.

Senior week is usually closer to the mid-point of the Series. But if you want to be certain, find out when freak week is. The daisy carnival whatever, they seem to always be at the same time.

Agreed both are normally mid tourney but that is effectively Oct 1 thru Nov 1 for regular events (Main starts Nov 4) so Mid tourney is Mid Oct. It seems like the time frames are compressed this year so instead of a 3 day spacing they may reduce it to 2 days for Sr and Super Sr. My bet would be on a Friday and Monday start Oct 15 and 18 but that means diddly squat. Prices everywhere for rooms and cars are sky high in comparison to prior years and I can only hope the hotels run some specials after they see their initial demand when the WSOP full schedule is finally released. Everything seems pretty damn tight lipped so far without even some reasonable rumors.

The Seniors Event has historically been ongoing on the third Saturday of the WSOP; regardless of whether Day 1 is on a Thursday or Friday. As soon as WSOP released the 2021 dates, I booked the week in October that includes the third Saturday of the WSOP, 10/16. We'll see if I got it right.

https://www.wsop.com/2021/2021-wsop-schedule.pdf

Woooooooo hooo

Most are anticipating record breaking turn out, but with international travel still not up to speed I wonder how it is all going to play out.

Nope. Senior event is Wed/Thurs (2 day 1s) on Oct 27 & 28. Looks like there are several changes to the pre-pandemic batting order.

By the way, who else is interested in a 1/10 flip for $1K to start a NL MTT in the money on hand #2? That's some serious gamble!

Was able to get a M tower room at the Rio for $45 a night the week of Seniors event. Booked and booked!

I just booked Airbnb at Flamingo Palms for all in about $100 a night. Looks to be decent and distance wise should be walkable.

I'm also shocked by the room rates!

I don't know who else is a Diamond/Seven Stars rewards member, but this is the first time since I've hit that tier (2014, I believe) that I've had to pay for a room. Major first world problem, I know, but I've never *not* been comped at the Rio.

Ended up booking 10 days for now (15-25 October for the H.O.R.S.E. tourneys). Haven't played a hand of poker in two years, so I fully expect to be the first one out in every tournament I play. Setting expectations real low.

Help please !

How ? I am only a diamond member but online thru Ceasars rewards with the WSOPM discount code the lowest room cost is $59 and that is only Tuesday thru Thurs PLUS the $35 daily "resort fee"

For a 9 night stay Oct 26th thru Nov 3rd I would be getting tagged a cool $1465 for the stay (all costs included). That is just a standard King non smoking .............. what is your secret ?

If you are a Diamond player you shouldn’t pay the resort fee.

You are correct I misstated typing I am just Platinum.