Which WSOP event would you play?

Seniors. Softer field. Slower structure. More opportunities for people to make mistakes.

If you feel like you are not winning in these events, maybe go with the PLO for the luck factor.

Objectively, seniors should be the better value.

Friendlier? You and I have been playing in entirely different seniors tournaments.

IMO one of the lottery type events at $500 or less would give you the best chance of cashing. Lots of less than stellar players in those.

Thanks for the responses. I enjoy PLO way more and play a lot of free online which I know is a donkfest but it at least keeps me somewhat practiced when it comes to implied odds. And also how the flop changes everything and the value of seeing a turn card, which can change a hand quickly.

So how would a fairly tight/patient PLO player fare in a tournament? I’ve never played a PLO tourney. The low limit PLO cash games during WSOP were really great back in the 2000s and how I paid for my trips. Some of the Euro/Scandi players were wild.

While you may not be new to PLO, the $1k is probably not what you want for your first tournament in that game. If you're wanting to get your feet wet in the PLO tourney world, probably better to seek out some of the lower buy-in events at other venues.

As other have mentioned, there are some pretty accurate stereotypes in a seniors event that can give a moderately good player an edge. Plus it typically has one of the best structures, especially at the $1k price point.

The senior sharks typically self-identify themselves, so they aren't hard to find and are less prevalent than an open event, so you can often avoid them when necessary.

I'll go with the prevailing sentiment, play the Seniors. My experience is that it's a lot of old people who just want to sit around and play cards. While some quite good players, it's much more social than the open events I've played.

For good players, it's got value. For recs, it's not overwhelming.

Maybe I've just been unlucky. I've only played two, that was enough for me. One was full of rocks, and I never got a big enough starting hand to go up against them. The other one had guys with open oozing sores. Luckily I was wearing a jacket, but I don't usually.

I did play a Senior Daily Deepstack, that one had mostly normal people. The vast majority looked under 60.

Thanks for the guidance. I think stepping right off the plane and getting right into the PLO within a few hours of landing would be kind of stressful anyway. If I just play the Seniors, I can take the first day off the plane to register for the second day of the tourney and get some PLO cash in on the first day too. Get my bearings and my east coast time clock adjusted.

Still alive at dinner break. ~50k so not doing that well but not in terrible shape either. Blinds are 600-1200 with 1200 ante when we return.

Missed a river bluff but playing decent otherwise. Haven’t been in many tough spots yet.

Meh, card dead and played badly after dinner. Micro stack to second day. Lose first hand.

I’ve been waking up before 5:00am eastern for decades. I’m just a zombie after dinner in these WSOP tourneys. I should just stick to cash.

Also, PLO bump pots (two boards) are pretty fun. New to me.

I am a super senior but I always come and play the Monster Stack. 50K starting stack beats the heck out of the Seniors starting stacks. Yeah you'll have to contend with the young bluffians but I really like it. The buy in is a manageable $1.5K. I've seen it referred to as 'the poor man's Main Event'. I've cashed a time or two and bagged chips more than that. If I go again this year this is the one for me. It used to have three starting flights. Now it has four. I always reserve the last flight.

None of them!
Boycott WSOP Circuit! With tournament rake over 20% even in $300+ events is proof of fact! All WSOP circuit should be boycotted! I don’t know how anyone thinks they can beat 20+% tournament rake, the pro and semi pro’s are losing the most money. Why don’t pros form a union and boycott the high rake? I’ve met too many players who gladly pay 25% WSOP rakes and they violently defend it when I present my opinion!!! Are poker players really desperate gambling addicts or simply dumb???

I'm playing the $500 Freeze Out and $1500 Super Turbo Bounty the week I'll be in Vegas. Chose these two to help reduce the professional's edge, slightly smaller fields, and time wise it gives me an opportunity to bink something at Wynn/Venetian/MGM/Orleans while still taking two shots at a bracelet. Senior Event will have multiple day ones with re-entry each day and you could be tied up for four or five days to get a pay day of $15k-$30k. I would gamble it up in the PLO with a smaller field and shorter duration. If you want to play a Senior, play the weekly WSOP Senior for $250.

I'm not a fan of the seniors. Yes, the field is what you'd expect, lots of straight up play and pretty easy to identify the few players whose 3-bet might not be a top-5 hand. Unfortunately, the starting stack is tiny, and if you run into an early cooler the 1-hour levels won't help much. They add the 100-100 round to start, but you'll still see people opening it to 500 or 600 anyway, so it's really like having an extra hour of 100-200, pot sizes will end up being about the same. A big chunk of the field will bust in the first 6 hours (a starting stack is already just 25BB at the start of level 7).

I'd much rather play the Monster, Colossus, Warriors, or Ultra Stack events and have a deep starting stack. Monster Stack is my favorite event outside the Main.

I was tempted by million dollar bounty events but will add the Milly to my usual Monster Stack.

I had to check to make sure I hadn't written this. Yes, this is my assessment exactly. Monster Stack is what I play every year. I will likely add the Milly this year.

I am on budget Sr. Citizen.

Planning to play :

1, WSOP Event #1: $550 No-Limit Hold'em Mini Mystery Millions

2, WSOP Event #10: $600 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack

3, WSOP Event #18: $1, 500 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack

Optional:

WSOP Event #25: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Freezeout

WSOP Event #34: $500 No-Limit Hold'em Colossus

Seniors NLHE if you want the best shot at a cash. The field skews heavily toward players who haven't adapted to modern preflop ranges and a solid TAG approach picks up chips just by default. PLO at even $1k pulls a surprising number of people who genuinely study the game, and if your PLO is rusty the variance will eat you alive before you get deep. Play both if you want the experience but go into Seniors as your serious run.

Seniors is a joy. Plays fast. Nobody tanking on every decision. Nobody arguing about rules because everyone plays straight. Lots of talking and laughing. 90% of the players are there to have fun. Good players, bad players, but always fun players. Doesn't get better.

20,000 chips with 100-100 is still 200 BB with 60-minute levels. Much better than years ago when it was 5000 starting stack and 25-50 blinds to start.

Plus, early start time means that if you bust after 4 hours, there are still many options for alternate events or long cash sessions.

I'll be playing my 10th seniors this year. See you at the tables!

What I play depends on early results.

I'm playing $600 O/8 at the Orleans 5/23 (1 day) and Venetian 5/25 (2 day)

If I cash either of those, I'll play the WSOP $1500 O/8 on 5/27.

I'll definitely take a crack at the $500 Colossus and Warriors events.

If I strike out on all of those, I'll play small buy-ins at the Orleans.

I'm not a fan of the Seniors. It's just too short a starting stack. It's not really 200BB deep because in my experience (4 times), everyone treats the 100-100-100 level the same as 100-200. I don't think I saw an open raise of less than 400. 500 or 600 was more common. There's not a lot of room to survive an early cooler or two. The number of players busting this event in the first 3-4 hours is pretty big as a result. Of course, if you're on the right side of a big early pot or two, then those hour long levels start to really come through. Still, I'd much prefer the structure of the Colossus to the Seniors (or Ladies, Tag Team, Super Seniors - they all use this short stack/long level structure).

That said, yes the tables are generally far more friendly and talkative than other events. I did have a couple of guys with big egos going at each other at my first table on Day 1A last year which really killed the vibe, but that was definitely the exception.

The Monster Stack is the best value tournament for lower stakes players.
So much play early on.
The seniors seems too small a starting stack as on level 4 you only have 50bb and level 8 20-25bb depending on how many players bust out.
The Monster Stack will have 100bb+ at level 4.

For NLH events <= $1, 500, I'd rank them like this:
1. $1, 500 Monster Stack (162 S-Points)
2. $500 Colossus (108 S-Points)
3. $1, 500 Millionaire Maker (141 S-Points)
4. $500 Salute to Warriors (108 S-Points)
5. $600 Deepstack Championship (104 S-Points)
6. $1, 000 Seniors/Super Seniors/Ladies (133 S-Points)
7. $1, 500 6-Max (97 S-Points)
8. $1, 000 Mini Main (85 S-Points)
9. $600 Ultra Stack (85 S-Points)
10+ Everything else

Notably absent: Mystery Bounties and Tag Team. Poker already has enough random chance for me, I don't need to add more by diverting a big chunk of the prize pool to a lottery, and I tried the Tag Team once and for a number of reasons I really didn't care for it.

Seniors, which tournament would you play?

On 6/13
$500 WSOP Colossus or
$1100 Venetian NLHE Seniors ($1M guaranteed)

I will be in Vegas for my third straight WSOP summer after taking many years off from playing poker. My goal is to play the $1k WSOP Seniors (SP=133) starting on 6/15 or 6/16. It will be my first WSOP seniors tournament ever. As a "young" senior, I have only ever played in one super small (around 70 players) local seniors tournament, but that is the entirety of my seniors tournament experience.

I get in to Vegas the weekend before the WSOP Seniors (fly in on 6/12) and have been planning on playing the $500 WSOP Colossus (SP=108) on Sat 6/13 (day 1D). I have never played the Colossus either. But on the same day as the Colossus is day 1C of the Venetian $1100 Seniors tournament (SP=103). This is a two day tournament ending Sunday 6/14 and will likely pay $150k for first place.

My default plan was to mix up my play experience a little bit and not have an all seniors poker tournament Vegas experience, but the Colossus is a long slog to any real cash, assuming I do well. Are the senior tournaments so +EV that I should consider skipping the Colossus and playing the Venetian Seniors? Anyone play it before? It has a solid S Point score.