So far entries are down from last year. Most notably in the ordinary $365 NL events

2017
Event 1: 1,498
Event 2: 255
Event 3: 180
Event 4: 418
Event 5: 300
Event 6: 329
Event 7: 151

2018
Event 1: 1,074
Event 2: 187
Event 3: 221 (different event than 2017 so not comparable)
Event 4: 333
Event 5: 213
Event 6: 204
Event 7: 153

Good info, thanks for putting in the legwork on that.

i wonder why this is happening. Any theories from anyone?

Other quality events in town at nicer venues. And I think the setup at Rio from last year has kept some people away.

Deepstack over at Venetian and tourneys at Wynn are dividing up the players, can't remember if both were in play at same time last year. The tables are at the quiet end of the Rio casino floor, so noise and smoke haven't been too bad. Been here 3 days and cashed in 2 events (Seniors and PLO), so its working for me. Horse today 4pm.

Played the monster stack. Busted in level 14, not long after the dinner break. I had to start out playing in the Rio poker room, which was not ideal. They had to put about 8 tables over there and then moved us to the masquerade as tables broke down.

I enjoyed it. It's one of the few tournaments available at a lower buy in that is a freeze out these days, which I enjoy. It started iff well with a pretty deep structure but things got shallow pretty quickly shortly before dinner break.

I'm confused.

Why would they collect antes for 10 players if they table was short handed?

Is that how LAPC is doing it?

Anyone have any idea why they are playing the main event day 1’s 3:00 pm to 2:00 am.

I sure making the structures more house friendly doesn’t help. The Wsopc started out with good player friendly structures but keep raising the vig and giving a worse structure.

As far as I can tell, all of the places adopting the BB ante method are setting the ante at a fixed amount. That is, if the old method was listed as 500-1000 with a 100 ante, the BB ante method will list it as 500-1000 with a 1000 ante. So, the small blind posts 500, and the big blind posts 1000 that is a live blind, and 1000 that is a dead ante. Regardless of the number of players being dealt into the hand.

Clearly you could say that the ante is 100 per player dealt into the hand instead, but it doesn't seem that anybody is doing that.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Thats a strange decision on part of MTT operators.

I wonder why they didn't just keep structure sheets as is and have BB post an ante for each player?

One thing they can do to save some time is eliminate the 75 ante level. Just go straight from 50 to 100. 75 is such an awkward amount to ante right before the color up. Like half the players need change every hand, some throwing in 1k chips to change out etc. It's hard work for the dealers.

Can someone give me a rough estimate of when they think event 12 will end? Hard to judge as its unlimited re entries and the only 1 day nlh event on the schedule.

Heading into town for a convention and I do not have work till 10:30am Tuesday but do not want to be up till 7am.

Wow, the main event's number of players went down despite having a higher guarantee.


2017: ($750,000 gtd) 945 entries for prize pool of $1,417,500

2018: ($1,000,000 gtd) 887 entries for prize pool of $1,330,500

Again, as noted above by others, having two decent series going on down the street likely contributed as did some who elected to go play the LAPC which was going on at the same time. I had three ring winners at my table on Friday at Wynn in the $550 who were going from there to LA.

It would also not surprise me if there were some who chose not to plan on the Rio due to the fiasco that table placement was like last year. This year was certainly better but still not ideal.

I would quarrel with the contention that half the players need change every hand at the 75 ante level, but even so, most of the change that is made is exchanging a single 100 chip for a single green chip, both of which are typically readily available and already in the pot at that ante level. In my experiment, the 75 ante only took 1.8 seconds more per hand than the 50 ante, which tool 4.1 seconds more than the 25. Obviously, antes which may require change more often will likely take a bit longer than those that do not, especially as the tournament proceeds and fewer stacks have the smaller chip denominations. But in the end, the difference is not all that big, and, again, the overall time to collect antes is insignificant

Having played both the Venetian and WSOPc Rio this year, I can say that the former was as significantly better experience. I didn't play the WSOPc last year, so I can't compare it to this year, but the location was not perfect. The lighting, while ample, was this weird assortment of stage and spotlights. While it wasn't dark, t was just odd lighting, and not an environment which was great to be spending many hours in. The smoke was not an issue, at least for me.

However, the Venetian had a significantly better structure, much better playing environment, lower rake, lower overall cost and same guarantee.

The WSOP will always get a decent turnout with people chasing rings and playing the whole circuit, but the WSOP needs to step up their game. The Venetian and Wynn are starting to offer significantly more attractive events.