Also in the tech world. The WSOP would have to contract out as they don't have the in-house staff to undertake such a project. Whatever contractor they went with will charge a lot of money and billable hours, from requirements gathering all the way to post go-live support. This could easily cost anywhere from $1,500,000 to $7,500,000.

How was your experience with WSOP this year? Mine has not been great.

I played a while ago before COVID and had to line up for over an hour at midnight to register for the millionaire maker. Too many people registered and they had to make another session and I had to play a later session.

So, this year I registered online and paid extra $18 to bravopoker. I still had to go there to show my ID to get my seating card. To my surprise, there was hardly a line the day before the tournament! Sweet! Should have saved the $18. Oh well.

I got to the table. To my dismay, WSOP decided to play 10 handed. A player commented that maybe WSOP will get creative and start to use 11 handed! Dynamic is different with 10 people cramped in the table. Restroom issue was terrible also. Over 6000 people going on break and only a few restrooms nearby. I think Rio had more restrooms that you can use.

Dealers are hit or miss. I can't blame them.

Since everyone was there to play poker, cash games had been crazy! Over 90 people on waiting list. At least 2 hrs to get a seat. Too frustrating trying to play poker during WSOP in Vegas.

yada yada yada

My results were less than great, but from an experience standpoint, I thought it was okay.

As far as registration goes, I never had any issues. I've never understood people who show up 1 hour before an event and then complain about lines. If you know you want to play, buy your ticket the night before. I never waited more than 10 minutes to register. You are courting disaster if you wait until the last minute.

Bathroom lines are better than the Rio. I'll give some advice earned from experience. There are three bathrooms that usually have short waits if you're willing to walk a bit. #1 is by the main entrance doors in Paris, roughly near Mon Ami Gabi and the sports book. If you're playing in Paris, you have enough time on a 20 minute break to get there and back. #2 is near the food courts downstairs in the Horseshoe, past the Twilight Zone golf area. If you're playing in Horseshoe, this is going to have shorter lines than the side bathrooms directly outside the MTT area. #3 is in the events center in the Horseshoe. A lot of people don't know there are bathrooms in there and the crowds in that room are smaller.

On a negative note, I did not enjoy playing 10-handed. We were 10-handed in the Colossus, Deep Stack Championship, $500 flippament, the $1k turbo bounty, and several of the nightly turbos. Not only is the poker more boring than even just 9-handed, but you also feel physically squeezed and suffocated at the tables. I'm probably done playing the cheap mega-field lotteries. If you have the budget to play a little higher, it seems worth it to spend more for a better experience.

Apart from that, they obviously seemed stretched with dealers/tables this year, reflected by delayed starts in certain events and all the 10-handed play.

You can certainly find faults with many aspects of the WSOP, but it still provides a unique spectacle, scale, atmosphere, and experience.

If I’m going to play in some smaller buy-in events and don’t want to play the first few levels I can’t register the event the night before and show up a couple hours into an event and start with a full stack, correct? If not, what is the optimal strategy to register a few levels in to minimizing wait times to register?

Early in the series, the WSOP handled record-breaking fields pretty well. But then they had some labor issues combined with a schedule which was simply too condensed and things sort of fell apart. Hopefully they learn from this. They don’t need to have massive field, low buy-in events starting on consecutive days, especially when the second event has only one flight. That is just a recipe for chaos.

As usual, they managed things as best as they could, but some of their issues are self-inflicted.

Theoretically they couldn’t have planned for x dealers quitting after they got their first paychecks (narrator: they should have), which as far as I can tell was the main issue with the Collosus. Whether they actually charged dealers $80/night instead of $20/night for lodging or they just limited hours for people who planned for significant OT, CET is being pennywise and pound foolish with some of these decisions.

I went to play cash during the series. The trick to avoid the lines is to come early. I started around 8am each day and got seated within 20 minutes.

At which venue

Bellagio, Wynn and Aria.

To be fair, I've played the Colossus every year since 2017 and it's always been 10 handed. I feel like a lot of the other small buy in events were as well. So this is not something new for this year. And I think if they went to 9 handed, they would use it as a justification to raise the rake even more. So probably a lose/lose situation. I do think it's bad for events greater than 1k. I didn't play either of the weekend $1500s but I would've been pissed to play 10 handed in those. And same goes for a super turbo, those should definitely not be 10 handed.

I think a big part of it was they didn't expect a 10-20% influx of entrants to every event, and they scheduled way too many events. I didn't hear the usual panic before the series about them being short of dealers. So I wonder if they were planning for a bigger turnout, had the staff, but the turnout ended up being even bigger than they expected.

It will be interesting to see how limited they are this Saturday with Day 2D of the main and a $777 7-handed flight kicking off around the same time. Maybe they will make us play 10 handed in the 7-max?

I do think the WSOP is something every poker player should do at least once in their lives. I live here and am lucky/thankful to have the opportunity to punt a few events every year without the added travel expenses. The first years I played I was annoyed by the lines, annoyed by playing 10 handed, annoyed by everything. Eventually I changed my mentality to more in line with going to a music festival, and I've found the experience to be much more enjoyable. Now when I go in, I know it will be a complete madhouse, I know that some urinal is going to overflow with piss on a break and I'll have to stand in someone else's piss while waiting for the next functioning urinal, I prepare for sitting next to someone who smells/is annoying/whatever. I think too many newcomers to the series expect a top of the line experience because it's the World Series, but the reality is that we are all just cattle, and until you win 17 bracelets and get your own private break room, that's never going to change.

Well said. My instinct after dabbling the low buy-in stuff for a few years was to avoid the huge cattle call events, but ultimately the WSOP is about mixed games and massive fields. You can get good NLHE events in town almost any time of the year, but this is your chance to bink ridiculous in a 5,000+ person field or to play a quality event in a random variant like 2-7 or stud 8. If you're going to be in those mega fields with wall to wall crowds, embracing the circus is probably the right mentality to have.

One of my favorite memories from the Rio is playing part of my Colossus flight in the bowling alley with Andy Black, Allen Cunningham, and others. You just have to laugh at the absurdity of it. The scale of the WSOP is unlike anything else in poker, so from an "experience" standpoint, it's certainly unique.

They hired a lot more dealers this year and I believe, even after they lost some of them, they still have more this year than they did last year. IMO the issues were primarily due to scheduling. Just too many massive field events stacked up. Add to that a registration /seating system which is fairly antiquated, and chaos will prevail.

Has anyone been asked for proof of address after cashing something? Reason I ask is my DL is currently still for my old address and currently in transition mode.

You're good. I hate to out myself as an irresponsible bastard but I've lived in Houston since 2021 and cashed out with my Virginia DL.

Edit: Noting that for those reading who are from outside the US, you *will* need proof of address if your ID is international.

Horseshoe also has a bathroom in the casino near the room elevators, and another one where the hallway from Paris joins Horseshoe.

The Paris bathroom last year was great. It's huge wrt urinals and the line moves fast. This year, late in the series, many of the sinks were broken. They did put a "bathroom director" in there to direct people to the nearest open john. Because of the layout, that was very helpful because you can only see a limited part of the bathroom from the line.

Any ideas on this? I'm going out next weekend when there are some smaller BI events. I'm willing to pay $20 or so to pay with a credit card via the app, but only if those who have tried it say it is worth skipping the line.

Skipping the first few levels of a tourney are important to me as is starting with a full stack so if registering on the app the night before means my stack is in play at the start of a tourney it likely isn't worth it to me.

I agree with this. RDP’s early vlogs involved a lot of the other characters on his orbit - Joey, Tom, Caity, his dad - I’m not saying go full on sitcom but the overarching story arc of the change in lifestyle, embarking on the adventure, can you earn enough playing poker to make it work etc etc could
Drive strong engagement.

I can say that I was not asked for ADDITIONAL proof of my international address. They just asked "is the address on your driving licence up to date". I asnwered YES which was true, but it didn't seem like there would have been any issue if it was actually in need of updating (i.e. they did not try to double check).


Now ... I expect if I were trying to cash out just with passport (which for the UK does not have an address) then I might have needed a document with address.

Imagine having to tell loved ones and family that you're a bathroom director for a living. Yea, I stand around directing people to open potties and smell the worst smells and listen to the worst sounds .. all.. day.. long.

YUMMY!

If you register before the start time, your stack is in play and you will be blinded off in the early levels. If you register after the start time, you get a full stack when they seat you.

I don’t think this guy’s title was “bathroom director”, though “bathroom attendant” is a position in some establishments in the world. In this case, he was probably just a member of the custodial staff who had bathroom duty that day. It certainly isn’t the most glamorous job, nor is it high paying, but someone has to do it. And custodians typically work hard. We should be glad there are people willing to do these types of jobs. I’m not sure how much longer that will be the case with the way work ethic is trending these days.

Yeah no need to shame custodians

+1. It's honest work, and I've done it in the past.

The guy in the Paris bathroom by the ballroom during the seniors event / tag team event was one of the hardest working bathroom attendants I’ve ever seen. I’m not exaggerating he probably made $750 in tips. Just a constant horde of people during breaks and he was there handing out paper towels, directing people to open stalls etc. and wiping down sinks. it was amazing to behold. I gave him $10.