I think the biggest capacity issue is they ran multiple large field events back to back. If you have a couple thousand players coming back for day 2’s it’s hard to seat a new massive field for a day 1. That happened a couple times during the week of “low” buy-in events.

They can fix that by spreading the events out just a bit. But I don’t know if they want to do that. If people are willing to wait and/or buy in with a handful of big blinds, the WSOP doesn’t have a lot of incentive to change things.

My feeling is it will take a significant technological change for the logistics of re-entering or late-reging these low buy-in events to improve much.

There were days where the wait to get a seat in any game (cash or tournament) at every venue in town was extreme. There were simply more poker players in town than all of Las Vegas could handle. It wasn't just a WSOP problem. It might have been even worse at the WSOP, but on some days, it was a long wait everywhere, for every game.

Food options seemed pretty good, compared with Rio there had to be 10x. Never really going to be “reasonably priced”, that said I went into WSOP cafe once and wasn’t insane as I was expecting. Maybe just used to it.

I’m one of those poker players that doesn’t need food when playing though. Even if haven’t eaten all day

I’m always amazed at the WSOP. Just the amount of events going on daily and things going on and goes over almost always smoothly.

A few events were delayed here and there but that was because they got hit with an increase of 35% and could only handle say a 31% increase.

I apologize for this positive post

One of the delays was that the Colossus tables in Horseshoe were 1.5 hours behind the Colossus tables in Paris. It was weird, because I busted playing the Paris section. Then I re-enter and they have me over at the Horseshoe. I got over there for a long wait and then by the time I am seated, the blinds are basically where they were at the Paris section. A lot of people said it's because they didn't have enough dealers.

Also, someone mentioned that a bunch of players (around 10) got caught trying to re-enter the main event. It was some people that have multiple passports but with different names on them. I haven't seen really much talk online about it though.

Right they didn’t have enough dealers, they could have withstood a 31% increase in turnout but not 35% or whatever they had. But they probably hired as many as they could.

Overall though, given how much the fields surpassed even most optimistic assumptions everything went off well. It’s a major logistical undertaking

It was bumpier than any other year for me. I was part of the Horseshoe delay in the Colossus and also played the $1k turbo bounty, which started 30-40 minutes late.

Overall it went well though. The self-serve water stations have gone a long way towards solving the problem of slow table service. They also use less plastic than all the tiny bottles if you're willing to reuse your cup, which I typically did. Doubt most people care, but for me it's a nice change.

I think most of the problems and complaints stem from people who wait until the last minute to register for events and then are shocked that there are lines. They definitely need to expedite the rebuy and late reg process, but I have no sympathy for lazy people who don't plan ahead and then blame the venue for long waits. I never waited more than 10-15 minutes to register for anything, and I played numerous events. It's not complicated. Buy your ticket the night before.

I played multiple large entry events late in the series and I never waited more than 10 minutes to register, but I always registered at least few levels into the event. I’m not sure if I ran good, they figured it out late in the series or registering late is always fairly quick.

The only problem I had with the WSOP was that the prize pools seemed too top heavy and that there are pay jumps throughout the prize pools.

I know everyone is drawn to the bigger 1st prizes, but it seems like if you outlast thousands of players and have a 18th place finish you should be more than 8x your buy-in.

Instead of having the first 82 players that get knocked out in the closer all get 2.4K and then the next all get 2.6k just make it a steady increase of a few bucks extra for each person that lasts longer.

They hired a lot more dealers than last year and still had more than last year after some of them left. I think they just didn’t manage that particular event very well. They can’t all run smoothly. I felt like things deteriorated as the series went along, which was odd because some of the crazier events like the MM bounty and Gladiators were early and you would think things would run smoother as they learn over time.

Welcome to the World Series of tanking if they implemented that.

I think one way they could reduce the tanking problem would be to not post all the payout details. I’m not sure what the legalities are, but if they just posted the first place prize, min cash and bubble field, players remaining and total prizepool remaining, it would get rid of a lot of the pay-jump stalling.

Or randomize within every 200, then 100, then 50 places

I thought about that too. Am interesting idea but it makes the event even more luck-based and it would add logistical headaches.

Not necessarily. Would be the same two step process but when you get your card showing what place you busted you also get a sealed envelope with the payout.

I view it as a headache to have to create hundreds of envelopes. And again, I think my idea solves the issue without having to do anything else.

Quite simply, I think many more people showed up than what was expected even with uptick projections

If you allocate way too many dealers/tables it will probably cause something else to either be cancelled or not put on the schedule to begin with causing a different type of complaint.

So it’s a balance between offering so many choices versus one of limiting events to ensure every single one had virtually no chance of being delayed.

I think overall handled well and I was actually part of the Collossus Horseshoe crowd delayed by a few hours.

I agree. I’m just saying the mammoth fields early in the series were handled better then the ones later in the series, and I think that largely goes to scheduling, not dealer shortages.

I’m just saying I think it was handled just fine and Collossus wasn’t handled worse than stuff like before such as Gladiator

They weren’t far off in their projections, they were only off a small amount so just had to wait for some tables to collapse in ladies. When you think about all the assumptions they have to make it’s pretty massive. Not only are you forced to make assumptions on how many will show up you have to project how fast people get knocked out.

Having a few events be delayed by just a little bit seems perfect. If nothing got delayed might be a sign that more stuff could have been offered.

Something must have gone wrong with the regging into Mini Main. In the morning, before 10, a huge line stretching into Horseshoe.

I certainly wasn’t behind the scenes to know if something went wrong. That line was reminiscent of years past. To my surprise and delight, you didn’t see a whole lot of stuff like that up to that point.

But that whole week of <= $1k buy-ins was just too compressed. I think they had over two thousand people coming back for day 2 of the colossus. And then they’re trying to hold the only flight of a large field event at the same time?

They got rid of the traditional “satellite day” and replaced it essentially with the Mini-main. In the past they could cap satellites and run traditional
satellite structures which were faster, had no re-entries and ended sooner by design. Not so much with the mini-Main.

IMO the WSOP just bit off more than it could chew that week. They tried to stuff the schedule with events too many people would want to fire multiple bullets into. It was certainly profitable, but a huge logistical challenge which they were not capable of handling smoothly, even with more dealers and tables this year.

I think having most events be a re-entry (while great for the prize pool), causes massive logistical nightmares.

Unpopular opinion: maybe keeping certain marquee “rec-friendly” events as a Freeze Out could be best. *certain events, not ALL

Then of course the balancing act by the WSOP to bump up some rec-friendly events with one another so folks who can (at max), only stay in Vegas for 7-10 days max, have an opportunity to play in more than one marquee WSOP event.

All such a balancing act. And while not perfect, I think they do an above average job most days.

Maybe the WSOP should keep some space at the RIO.
They could hold the 10k and high roller events, daily deepstacks, and satellite tournaments there.

If they wanted to, they could make the Mini Main a freezeout so it’s even more like the Main Event. I also think it wouldn’t hurt them to revert the Monster Stack to a freezeout like it was a few years ago. That event is way to long to begin.


CET will turn over operation of the Rio to the new owners at some point this year, and I’m not sure they even have control over the conference space now as it stands. Plus that would be a logistical nightmare. If they really wanted to expand the footprint, PH is a 5 minute walk from the ballroom in Paris and has a ton of space. But setting up a space for the WSOP is an enormous undertaking. Something tells me they are just going to ride things out as is with their 3-year contract and then see what’s what in the future.

Problem there is that "more rake is better" from the WSOP's perspective, so we get 10-handed play and lots of rebuys. They want to cram those tables full and let as many people buy in as they can find. This is also why late reg is so flagrantly long in so many events. It's just more money for the house.

They haven't hit the tipping point yet where quality of life is so bad that most players will look elsewhere, but I find myself increasingly jaded with certain specific aspects of the WSOP experience.

To be fair, late reg and rebuys are not strictly WSOP problems. Most venues are looking to milk every event for the most rake possible without rendering the event a complete competitive farce.

They still have more space at Paris, and maybe Horseshoe too.