I know it's early !!! 😎

Yes, I already booked some travel. Saw a very cheap block of nights at Paris in mid-June and jumped on it a while back. Current plan is for 5 nights there and 3 nights at Harrah's. 8 nights total. Obviously I don't know exactly which events will be running yet. It doesn't matter too much to me, as there's always something around town to play during the summer. If I don't like what the WSOP is offering, I can walk across the street to another venue.

I've gone to the WSOP the last 5 years it's been held live, so by now I'm a crusty veteran. I was awestruck by the experience my first year or two, but now I'm decidedly more measured about it. There are some cool things about attending the series and some less than ideal things. A quick breakdown:

+ They run quality events in variants that are otherwise very hard to find (i.e. 2-7, Razz, Dealer's Choice).
+ It's truly the "world" series. You will have opponents from all over the world.
+ From an atmosphere standpoint, it's probably the most exciting series. Everyone is there, the fields are huge, and you get reporters hawking the tables.

- The fields are huge. You can bink a monster prize, but it's hard to realize your EV when you have to get through 4000-5000 people.
- The low budget events feel less like a serious, prestigious tournament and more like a pure lottery. Expect 10-handed play in most <$1k NLHE events.
- On that note, cash lists can get really bad around town with so much demand everywhere.
- Summer is my least favorite time to be in Vegas. This is not specifically a WSOP problem, but it's just not a fun time to be in the desert IMO. Too hot.

Add it all up and I still enjoy playing the WSOP, but I plan to be more selective about how I engage with it. You can play NLHE tournaments in Vegas any time of the year. What makes the WSOP unique are the huge fields, obscure variants, and special events with great structure (Monster/Milly Maker/Main). If those things don't interest you, you might as well just play at Wynn or Venetian in the "offseason" when it's not such a circus and the fields are much smaller. These days I'm almost more excited for my random trips to Vegas outside peak summer months than I am for the WSOP. It's still a unique spectacle though.

Yes, I keep coming back every year too. The Monster Stack has been my favorite event. I added the Mystery (Million Dollar) Bounty in 2023. Win or lose it is quite the spectacle. As a Phoenix area resident I am used to the heat. I rarely spend any time outside when I am there for the WSOP. I am in my 70's. I may not get many more cracks at it. It has become an annual ritual for me. I'll have to check on room bargains at the Horseshoe if any exist.

In previous years, they’ve announced the flagship weekend/special events in December, and the full WSOP schedule in January.

That’s when I wait to make my accommodations.

This is truly a special event. waiting for the announcement

It’s yearly ritual for me too since 2006.

I use to organize Last Longer for smaller buying event. I always got 50-80 interested players whenever I did . A real fun !!

Didn’t attempt since Covid though.

Looking forward to 2024 !!

Very nice summary of the experience. Like you, I have been going a few years now and while it is always fun and exciting and unique, it does not have the same sizzle as my first year.

I would only add a couple of things about the WSOP experience.

You actually get to see some of the TV/high roller players up close. It still seems amazing you can walk by and watch Negreanu or Ivey or Seidel or Galfond or whoever all playing within a few feet of each other. That's a pretty cool aspect.

I also agree that the heat is nearly unbearable there. Folks who may have health issues or who are elderly may want to consider this in their decision to go to Vegas during summer. It just is not feasible for a person who could suffer from the heat to walk around the Strip during the day time. It gets brutally hot and can be detrimental to your health. I would advise those who may be impacted by the heat to either plan on staying at the same venue, or else traveling during the day by rent-a-car or Uber or taxi.

Finally, I have actually found the smaller games and tournaments to be very, very tough. Sure, you can find the table of amatuers and drunks from time to time. But with the internet and all the poker vlogs and knowledge out there, the strategy knowledge has certainly dwindled down to the lower stakes games and that makes them quite difficult, especially in Vegas during WSOP when all the pros --- high stakes and low stakes --- go there. There have been a lot of tough tables out there in the 1/3, 2/5 type stakes, and smaller-ish tournaments. But that's just my opinion.

It’s strange how cyclical my excitement is. After I leave, I’m pretty “poker satisfied” and ready for a bit of a break.

But then November comes around and the excitement starts building again. It’s the same thing year after year after year. Conditioning at its finest.

[QUOTE=TexasKK;58330473]Very nice summary of the experience. Like you, I have been going a few years now and while it is always fun and exciting and unique, it does not have the same sizzle as my first year.

I also agree that the heat is nearly unbearable there. Folks who may have health issues or who are elderly may want to consider this in their decision to go to Vegas during summer. It just is not feasible for a person who could suffer from the heat to walk around the Strip during the day time. It gets brutally hot and can be detrimental to your health. I would advise those who may be impacted by the heat to either plan on staying at the same venue, or else traveling during the day by rent-a-car or Uber or taxi ...

Finally, I have actually found the smaller games and tournaments to be very, very tough.

TexasKK: I wouldn't let the extreme heat deter anyone from going to the WSOP. Then again I am dumb enough to have settled down in the Phoenix metro area which, BTW, is a decent poker town. Poker is an indoor sport. In the Rio days it was the cold inside you had to be concerned about, always needing an overshirt or hoodie to throw on and long pants as your uniform. For those driving to Vegas from Cali, Phx, Utah or where-ever of course you need working air conditioning in your car. On the way back home from the WSOP one year I ran into a biker who was very near heatstroke at a stop in Wikiup. Don't even think of riding to the WSOP. Inside though? No problem-O. I agree that the smaller games can be very tough. I found the daily deepstacks to be a bitch.

Way too early for me to think about wsop. I’m hoping the schedule fits with me work time off for July 4 and Juneteenth. I’m considering using 5-8 days of vacation for wsop. It’s hard to get excited now because I have to see all of the schedules to plan out an attack. I wish they would release schedules much earlier before the summer but it’s going to be months.


Btw wsop- I think it’s cool and all- I have 2 circuit rings. I still think it’s all a money grab. I would much rather play at the Wynn or Venetian bc I feel the dealers are better and the service+ rooms are much nicer. I’m fine with taking a shot or 2 at wsop glory but field sizes are so big, the main room and is kinda meh, some tables have odd felt so looking at your cards can be difficult, new dealers are really really bad, no card shufflers etc, field sizes are gigantic especially for smaller buyins so variance can be just insane.

The WSOP is cool but I would rather play at the Wynn or Venetian. The WSOP does have great structures for their smaller buy in mtts though I must admit.

This is how I feel about visiting New Orleans on a regular weekend vs Mardi Gras weekend. The food, service, crowds on a normal weekend are better and just as fun but you have to experience the spectacular of Mardi gras every so often.

Structures are ok for some small buy-ins but pretty bad for others. But the worst part is them making it 10-handed. I get why they do it but last year they sat me at an 8-player table with 10 players and I literally couldn’t even scoot close enough to check my cards without bumping elbows on either side of me. I could never get into the game and never got into a rhythm. It was a very bad experience. Another event was fine but that one was a doo-doo show.

I do agree about 10 handed play sucking- I’m fine with it because they need to do it if they are going to run cheaper wsop tournies where field sizes are gigantic. 10 handed sucks but it’s a necessary evil if they are going to run $400-600 WSOP events that have a decent structure and attract all the low stake players looking for a wsop tourny and glory.

I feel the small buy in events aren’t super prestigious per se as they get gigantic fields and are just a huge variance trap. I wish I was a baller that could afford say $3k-10k events with more
Manageable field sizes but my bankroll isn’t even close to that point and I don’t sell action.


I’m hoping the schedule is good for low rollers around Juneteenth or July 4. I love Venetian but they tend to run $800s at the smallest which makes sense bc field sizes need to be limited. Gold nugget has some good small stuff also but not a fan of the room and chips honestly- seems soft but the room to me is just so meh and kinda dark in comparison to a Venetian/ Wynn but they attract a different clientele type.

I'm 100% done with 10-handed poker after WSOP 23. Just not worth it. I'm pretty nitty, but I still hate the cramped tables and tight action. And like you said, the gigantic fields just make them a huge variance trap. Congrats to the people lucky enough to FT the Colossus or DeepStack Championship, but I'm done with that hustle. I'd have to play these events every year of my life to get a decent payout. Rather try my luck in some smaller fields where it's less of a crapshoot.

I'm with you in the sense that I can't really afford to jump into $3k-5k stuff. $1k is about my limit, though I did fire the Monster Stack the last two years. What I'm actually thinking of for 2024 is to play lower stakes stuff at other venues ($400-1100) and then maybe fire some satellites to the $3k-5k type stuff at the WSOP. That will give me a chance to dabble in some serious events without breaking the bank. Also may fire the Monster again since it's such a great/unique structure.

Generally just going to avoid the low stakes NLHE clown fests at the WSOP though. Been there. Done that.

Really wish I had mixed games cash running in my city so I could get sharp enough to blast the $1.5ks at the WSOP, but there are no games anywhere except very select spots in LV.

I think you guys have all the wrong ideas about the gigantic field, low buyin WSOP events.

To me, tournaments are all about comparing the buyin size to the potential first place prize. I’ll only go up in buyin size of entry if there’s a commensurate increase of prize money up top. That’s the whole point of donkaments!

Yes ten-handed play sucks, and yes the variance means there’s a wide spread of outcomes for relative skill level vs money won.

But that’s true of every tournament, and maybe more so in a smaller field, higher buyin event…. Where your relative edge will necessarily be smaller.

The Grand Poker Series at Golden Nugget isn’t all that fancy but it is hands down the softest field I have ever played, maybe anywhere. The only problem with that series is how much the house takes. It’s in the 20% range which is wild!

I agree with this. Have you tried the Daily Deepstacks at WSOP? No bracelet glory to be had but the level of play is moderate. Might be a viable alternative to bracelet events.

As far as the large prizes go, the trade off is obviously the insane field sizes. It doesn't really matter what the winner gets when there are 5000 people in the tournament because you have effectively no chance of making the FT. In a 200-300 person field, I know I can get down there with a major dose of rungood. I'd rather take the moderate chance of a nice prize than the minuscule chance of a massive score.

Oh yeah, I once final tabled the prestigious 4pm $200!

Those tournaments are fun, but also pretty bad from a structure and rake standpoint. 20-30 minute levels and they take a straight $50 out of the 1pm $250, which is 20% rake. Venetian and Wynn usually run in the ~15% range for their lower budget stuff if I'm not mistaken. $400-600 is about the sweet spot for me from a skill/challenge/budget standpoint, and that's slightly beyond most of the WSOP dailies. They're fun to play and great if you're on a tight-ish budget though. I tend to blast them in the evening if I bust my early event.

I might play some of those my next trip if I need to lower my average buy in per se. Are they really soft because that is only way I could see them being value. The rake is high and the structures look so meh/ it seems like it turns into a shove fest early (not always a bad thing if trying to knock out some extra tournies though). They also seem to get decent field sizes so variance is prolly a tad high with the structure.

I assume those events get a lot of the lower buy in and casual players though so they gotta be pure value I would assume. The $1ks at Venetian and Wynn are soft no doubt but also get some damn good players. Wsop big fields- I like them and think they are great with solid structures but you are always going to need to fend off some bosses during end game as so many play and some of them are bound to run well. I’ve said this before- I would rather play tournies that I know I can beat and not have to worries about playing the top notch players.

I've played several of them the last two years. I bricked all of them after cashing a bunch at the Rio, which I attribute primarily to variance.

They aren't super tough events, but they're not necessarily a cake walk either. A lot of people bust out of their AM events and want to immediately jump into something else, so the nightly $400 and $200 will actually scoop up some of the eliminations from the bracelet events, which will tend to be decent/capable players. You also get your garden variety assortment of nits and casual tourists, but it's not like people are shoving K5o for 100 BB. You'll have to play reasonably well to be +EV.

The big issue I have with these events is the shallow/fast structure. The early afternoon $250 has some play in it and probably has a more casual player pool (because the stronger players will play higher stakes in the early day when there are more options). However, the nightly turbos are not much more than a glorified flipping contest. You'll just need to run pure and win a lot of all-ins to make a big score. That's the nature of turbos in general though.

You guys must be young.

The Senior and Super Senior WSOP events have the worst possible fields. And if its 10 handed it just means there is a greater possibility a really bad player will be sitting at your table. Limping preflop is somewhat common.

As for other tournaments (aside from the Main) I do find it hard and 10 handed makes it more difficult but I will be there earlier next year than past years.

As for the Venetian and the Wynn I play a lot there especially the Venetian. The Venetian's structure is probably the best in Vegas aside from WSOP larger events though the senior events have 60 minute levels (but only 20,000 chips to start). The Wynn on the other hand has the toughest fields I have played in Vegas. I used to love Planet Hollywood tournaments but they shut down post Covid.

ok I have a good one- what are your wish lists for WSOP and just vegas mtts in general for this series? Ill send out my goofy ones that will not happen


WSOP- a smaller buy in shootout would be cool. I think like a 2 or 3 table shootout would be cool where maybe groups of 18 or 27 players play down to a winner or final 2 and make the final day etc. I like shootouts and think they are cool- wish they happened more often in mtt series.

hmm more small buy in stuff but more like $800-1100 level. I feel 400 brings in too many players and the field sizes are too big which lead to logistic problems. Think it would be better to increase price point with maybe very few small buy in events. I don't think the jump from $400-500 to $800-1100 is that big and wouldn't really make most players go oh gee i cant afford that.

Venetian- Hmm run more small buy in stuff. Maybe a big $600-800 multi day flight gtn would be cool. I kinda wish venetian would run 2 flights a day for some of their events to get more #s. I love ven so i would love if they ran say a 10am flight and a 5-6pm flight even though i know thats kinda crazy and late into day- maybe play down to 20-25% of field and just run a big day 2 idk? I kinda wish venetian would run $600s and 800s more during wsop but i know space is sigh limited.

Wynn- idk improve structures a bit. I feel the room gets some good players but a lot of rich lol bad tourists that have no clue. Wynn is the type of place I want to run good one day (ive played maybe 10-30 tournies there- dont know exact figure lol and always go damn some people do cray cray stuff there- like if i went deep i feel i could pwn) Wynn gets some good players but idk a lot of stuff i see earlier even in non dailes can be a little lol.


other rooms in general- More deep stack multiflight events with big gtns. A $600- 200-300k to me is the niz. as said before- wish we had more 2 flights a day events so structures could be a little better and not the type where they run 3-4 flights a day in a turbo. Solid 1 day events with very good structures where day might go to 2-5 am if you run deep and final table. i like 1 day events however you feel most get a meh structure. Venetian one days they run in normal series 40k starting stack for a $400-600 are fairly good but not too long i guess?

Hates- I think mystery bounties are goofy and so meh- Ive done well in one and pulled $2500 in a 600 tourny but idk its just so much luck and you gotta run godly to get a bunch of kos to perform well. I like tournies where the top 3 get the $$$. Getting a lucky pull and winning the top prize just seems so lol to me. I hate mysterys also because the prize pool is so damn diluted so if you win and dont somehow get a bunch of pulls- you did worse than a normal tourny.

I like normal bounties more where maybe you change the bounty or make a mystery bounty for each player starting on day 1. Maybe make a tourny where certain players have a special bounty- like maybe one in five-eigth players have a 4x bounty ?

Random cash game thoughts- I think it would be cool if you could have an action cash game. Maybe $1/3- every player needs to ante a dollar and a double straddle every x number of hands. I feel cash NLHE would be more fun if we made it more gamble where skill was still part of it but variance of chip stack distribution occured. I find normal 1/3 or 2/5 cash just so boring. I'm there to gamble. If I play 1/3 at a 300 max table- I'm fine if i lose $600 or 2 buyins if i know i can spin it up to 3k at a fun lucky table. Normal cash i just find the big stacks are so hard to get unless you run godly and chips fall into your lap from megh players. I straddle once in a while but i find it annoying to do if nobody else will do it. I think straddles, double straddles, antes are good for action. Straddles to me are so exciting bc players will attack sometimes and ranges get blurred. just makes game tree more interesting.

Just realized PokerGo has uploaded some of the old school WSOP episodes back to YouTube.

Been watching the 2004 WSOP and it has kickstarted me back into WSOP mode.

first off, i say this is a player who prefers cash versus tournaments. i would like to see that type of tournament where 10% or 15% of the top finishers split the prize pool equally. so, all winners win the same amount, and it would take less time. that way, there's more of a "chunk" to be sought and won, versus all these embarrassing min cashes or less-than-min cashes I see awarded. and yes, I mean "embarrassing." to buy in for $400 and spend hours upon hours, sometimes even multiple freaking days, and only get like $786 total.... is ridiculous and, yes, embarrassing.

i agree in general, but you still want a couple small buy-in + huge field sizes to bring in amateurs, like the "big 50" and colossus. to me, these are the most fun weekends to be at the wsop, because it's so crowded and quite literally everybody is in town.

while i disagree, and prefer the old fashioned non-straddle games because i dont want my game to get out of hand..... i have an idea. you could always just ask the floor person to see if they would just let you start one of those special tables, no? it couldn't hurt. you know they would accomodate a high stakes game for special ante/blind/straddle, maybe they would allow for the same for one or two small stakes games.

This seems way too complex. Personally, this would make me not willing to sit at the table.
Simpler solution is for the pokerroom to offer a deepstacked table with a larger minimum buyin ex. 2/5 minimum buyin of $1000. Maybe add a $5 button ante.