Congratulations on the cash, Mr. Rick!

I didn't go this year, but played the Seniors last year. Didn't find the hallway to be a noticeable problem. In fact, I'd say the situation was markedly improved over Rio, both for bathrooms and general movement.

For anyone who played both the first and second years of Bally's/Paris, do you think it's due to even larger crowds this year?

Also, do they stagger start times when there are multiple events in the same room? Seems like that would be a pretty easy way to help crowding--have one start at noon, other at 12:30 or something.

Yeah they could stagger breaks on a Day 1, it’s little possible modifications that caused me to apply an A- as opposed to an A

If it’s a safety hazard we could make a citizens report to the Clark County fire marshal and probably have the Collossus capped at 2K players next year. Do you want to make the call or should I? Lol

Kidding aside I still consider it to be a minor inconvenience. I’ll include dying in a fire due to hallway as a bad beat, like getting one outed on river. Otherwise you are simply walking slowing than you want. It’s not grid lock that completely stops. But if somewhere need to be can leave with a minute or so or left.

More people and they were funneling people more this year - for example, in the Paris ballroom only a couple of doors were open from the hallway as opposed to all of them, so it just created bottlenecks. As previously mentioned they also kept closed the ballys doors to the outside right by the event center. Overall not huge issues though

Re staggering breaks, perhaps an issue we are not aware, either altering start times or technically the structure sheet.

Think purposely done to help control it as security in charge of blocking people from going near tables

What I posted back in February noting the underlying issues with player experience more or less materialized, as many posters here have noted.

It should be no secret that upper management view WSOP as a cash cow, and will defer as long as possible any investment to improve player experience. Instead, their overriding success metric is headcount. Of course, measured that way 2023 was a blockbuster.

Issues such as overflowing toilets/urinals were a complete embarrassment, and I'm surprised county health code enforcement did not come in and shut the event down (backroom deals notwithstanding). Issues such as that will almost certainly leave a lasting impact on returning customers.

Without going into the IT upgrades and infrastructural improvements that would go a long way towards improving the player experience, the simplest way to improve player experience is to reduce peak crowds. That can be done by staggering events, bumping up buy-in $ (which has the effect of reducing turnout slightly but can also reduce rake at the same time), and encouraging usage of kiosks to reduce registration lines.

In the grand scheme of things the bathroom situation and crowding are relatively minor annoyances though. The lines for (re)registering should be fixed - blinding people off actively discouraged early registration which just creates building bottlenecks if the machines don’t print out anything or don’t print out actual seat cards.

They should provide incentives for early, online registration by lowering the rake in early levels and increasing it later, so that the same overall total is achieved based upon projected participation.

They want the people there, so raising the buy-ins doesn’t seem like a direction they are going in. It has been the opposite in recent years since they have added numerous events <$1000, so that idea would definitely be a departure from recent trends. And I have it on good authority that both Paris and HS has tremendous Junes compared to normal, so I doubt very much they will do anything to discourage people from coming while the WSOP is in this venue.

That doesn’t mean they can’t manage things better. It is clear players tolerate having unsynchronized clocks between rooms. There’s really no reason they can’t do the same within a room, as long as they manage the breakdowns properly. There are over a hundred tables on each side of these large ballrooms. They could treat each side as it’s own min-event, at least until after dinner break or thereabouts. Something like that would alleviate some of the bottleneck issues during breaks.

As for reg lines, this is a problem and really one which requires a technological solution. But outside that, as I mentioned in my initial comments on this topic, their biggest problem by far was scheduling these very highly attended events back to back. You can’t have a day 2 of one mega event on the same day as day 1 of another. That just blows up any possibility of a smooth operation.

I played the $1MM Mystery and Gladiators, and both of these were managed reasonably well, despite massive fields. The ***** show only started when they held all the low buy ins back to back before the Main Event. That is definitely something they need to reconsider, or at least tweak for next year.

I doubt very much they would go to providing full stacks to early registration since it would encourage people not to show up on time. They certainly don’t want that as it would reduce bust outs and the ability for them to seat late regs and re-entering players. It would likely make the problem worse, and I think the new policy, at least to some degree, was one of the reasons the mega field events nearer the start of the series were pretty smooth.

As for early reg rake discount idea, this was used at the Venetian this year and I’ve hear it was successful. But that is a completely different situation from the WSOP so I don’t know if it applies. The Venetian has far less capacity to play with. Unless the WSOP is intent on using MOST of their available space on day 1s of these mega field events, I don’t see getting people to register early as the issue. Virtually all of the big events I played had late reg/re-reg lines within the first couple levels. So they had already or nearly maxed out their allotted capacity very early.

They just need to schedule fewer events, or at least not have them piled up so close together.

Btw, in discussing the questionable scheduling, I forgot to mention the Lucky 777’s event. It was certainly a luxury to have all that room at the table, especially when they made a pure cash grab play with 10-handed tables at $1500 events. But does the WSOP really need to have a low buy-in, unlimited reentry short-table event? That just seems like asking for trouble.

Yes, I am aware they are focused on headcount (thus driving the overcrowding issues). My suggestions would address that issue and provide opportunity for sustaining revenue growth along with building the brand via positive player experience.

IMO WSOP discourages early registration because it requires more dealers on hand, even though many players do not show up on time. Late reg allows staff to fill open seats without adding dealers.

IMO they need to add more events, but WSOP's headcount model prevents them from doing that. This includes SNGs, DSS, multi-table satellites, and other bracelet events. Adding events provides more revenue for WSOP, which enables rake to be reduced per event, as players are buying in to more events than otherwise.

It reflects a general lack of concern for player experience. Add these up and players take notice. They can go elsewhere, which was reflected in good turnout across other LV events.

I mentioned above why WSOP discourages early reg. If they get more dealers that could go a long way toward solving the problem as they could encourage early reg and get the late reg lines down. Although many players are catching on that late reg gains an advantage over the field.

We’ve kinda crossed this territory, but encouraging fewer people to come and improving the experience for some of those who do come while making the event inaccessible to people who won’t pay higher buy-ins, hardly seems like a good strategy to build a brand. At best it would be a wash, revenue-vise, and would make the event more exclusive, by definition. This is not what the WSOP is about.

However, there is a limit to how “good” the WSOP can be given logistical constraints, and if they want to grow the brand, they will need to find ways to move beyond those constraints, either with more resources, or improved processes.

I’m not sure I’m following the logic about filling open seats here. But regardless, what evidence do you see of the WSOP discouraging early entry? They seem to have introduced numerous ways to enter early in recent years and, as far as I can tell, encourage players to use them.

In a vaccuum, more events would be better for the WSOP. But they don’t have the facilities/staff to handle more events, unless they start capping entries in more vents. And that would sort of work against the revenue benefits of having more events.

They had tons of headcount early in the series and not the same level of chaos which occurred later. Something was different, and I think that something was largely in the WSOP’s control.

You talk about the headcount model being a bad thing. I’m pretty sure the executives at the WSOP, Paris, HS and El Dorado would strongly disagree with you. But I understand how people who don’t want to deal with the crowds would view it that way. On the other hand, that’s just what the WSOP is. It’s inclusive. And it’s broad-based. And it’s big. This entire discussion, at least from my point of view, is not lamenting the crowds, of how crazy the WSOP is. It’s simply extolling the WSOP to make better decisions, or try to tweak a few things to avoid some of the more extreme situations. IMO, outside of basically one week, this year’s series ran smoother than last year, and probably smoother than any other year in recent memory. And that is in spite of record attendance. They did a good job. And I would have labeled it a fantastic job, if not for shooting themselves in the foot with the schedule leading up to the Main Event.

Simply hiring more dealers is not the answer. They had a lot more dealers this year compared to last. Even after they lost a bunch of dealers this year, they still had more than last year.

But it’s a delicate balance. The WSOP needs to have enough dealers (and enough extra when you lose some of them for whatever reason) to handle the capacity. But not too many either. Dealers want hours. If their hours go way down because there are lots of extra dealers, then those dealers aren’t going to want to deal the WSOP. That’s what happened this year. There were actually too many dealers at the start of the series.

I’m not going to criticize the WSOP on this point since it is a tremendous challenge getting the perfect labor force to meet the demand. I’m sure there are things they could do better, but it doesn’t seem like they do a bad job. The floor/cage/peripheral staff has been excellent. And even the dealer quality overall has improved markedly compared to a few years ago.

I’ve heard a number of arguments made for and against late reg, both in theory and in practice at the WSOP. You seem to be sure it’s an advantage. Why do you think so?

The reason late reg is an advantage concerns only tournament earnings per hour. You increase your chances of making the money.

If you miss early levels in a tournament especially at the WSOP where the field talent varies widely, it is a disadvantage in terms of going deep in the tournament. The reason is that most of the bad players will bounce early (or at least lose chips early). Also there is always an advantage when you can avoid playing super talented players and focus on the bad ones.

I agree that the closer you are to the money, the better. But buying in short-stacked has it’s own disadvantages. And what you are claiming is that better players buy in later. So you are buying into a field that is already more saturated saturated with better players, and even more good players are buying in at the same time. And you’re short stacked.

The return on time invested is certainly a factor. I guess it comes down to how many tournaments a person is actually playing. I can see if they are playing every day, then buying in from the start every day could be problematic for a variety of reasons.

Anyhow, I’m not comfortable flat out disagreeing with your assertion. I just don’t think it’s clear cut. There are a lot of variables. I would love it if someone actually did some scientific analysis of it. Of course, if that was done and became public, tournament organizers would probably change their reg rules to discourage late entry.

That seems like a bad idea to me. I never saw a reason for it. What benefit did it provide?

Tables would be full more often early

In other years, you'd often be playing 4-6handed in early levels but no one would show up in the other 3 seats because they were sold and could check in whenever.

This year, stacks were either blinded off so people showed up or people didn't prereg so it was filled with people that were here.

It helps the bottom line too since you don't need as many dealers at the start.

10 tables filled with 7-8 players costs less than 20 tables filled with 4-5 players waiting for people to come in.

The 10 tables eventually fill up and they need to make a new table pulling blinds but that still less dealer hours plus the bustouts to fill late reg.

I played my first WSOP events this year 2023 (having visited Vegas in the past for cash games).
As a first timer I was super excited to play my first event which was the Monster Stack. I picked this event because the buy-in suited my bankroll and the 1hr blinds and 50,000 stack was perfect for me.

I researched before my visit where to stay (Horseshoe is a no brainer as you can get to your room in 6min for the 20min breaks to use toilet, freshen up, grab some snacks/food) where to eat healthy, etc.
I arrived a day early and registered at 7.30am (as i was awake) on the day of the event. I was the only person awake in the hotel lol.
Walking into the Horseshoe ballroom for the 10am start was a dream experience... looking around at 4000 players thinking how can I get through this field but understanding its one hand at a time and one table at a time. I felt that the massive crowds is all part of the WSOP experience and with some advance planning you can make it work for you.
The main aim was to get through DAY 1 and then try to cash my first event.
I ended up cashing in 588th place for $3850 with AJ v QJ all in pre-flop and the usual QJ2 flop. I was happy how i played and looking back dident make one mistake over the two days which i was so proud of!
The only issue for me was the access to some decent food but as I said with advance planning you can overcome this.
I think that the organisers do an amazing job and still cant understand how they deal with the 8000+ fields. AMAZING WORK

I enjoyed the overall experience so much that I plan to return in 2024 for 3-4weeks and even left Las Vegas with a new business concept related to playing such big field events ;-)
Roll on 2024

I’m not sure it plays into the number of dealers to start at the WSOP since they use most of their capacity from the start. However having players at the table actually playing poker instead of taking the first x levels off helps churn seats and will lead to the tournament breaking down faster. This benefits the venue since they can process more registrants in a given amount of time. It also benefits most players, since most do not want to either be sitting on their hands and waiting for the minimum # of players to show up, or be playing 4-5 handed.

All in all I see the stack policy as a good one. It solves a bunch of problems with the way these events begin for the venue and for players. And the only people it hurts are those who don’t want to play the early levels of these events. I can understand why some might adopt that preference, but at the end of the day, late reg was designed as a way for venues to get more registrants and as a courtesy to players who couldn’t show up on time for whatever reason. It wasn’t designed as a poker strategy.

One way to satisfy all sides might be to tweak the structure by eliminating some early levels. We already kind of see it with many events starting 100/200. You could also just reduce the starting stacks, but I’m afraid that ship has sailed. My guess is, in a few years we’ll have a bunch of events that start with 100k in chips and 300/500 blinds.

Congrats! I agree that was a great structure. I busted before the first break on Day 2 and was super disappointed.

Nice man, congrats

Yeah agree they do amazing work. I’m not sure people realize how hard something like that is pull off logistically. A few small delays here and there but all things considered in what is going on, very minor roadblocks

+ 1

They do amazing work of handling 8000 to 23000 runners in each events.!!

Their management efficiency is stands out much larger when you compare them with the skills of poker directors from the north east casinos.

It looks like Adults vs Kids management!!!!!

The casino is well paid for that "amazing work".

Correct. Inefficient use of dealers dealing to tables with 4 or more open seats is a bad look, and costs both the players and WSOP money.

It sure tilts people commending them on a job well done, and it was