WSOP preregister or register in person day of tournament

I am heading out to the WSOP for my 1st time. Wife is sending me for an early 40th bday present. Is it important to pre-register or is it just as easy to walk in the day of the tournament?

Thanks in advance for posting!

 

Do you know which tournament(s) you intend to play in? If it's goin to be one of the big ones, you should seriously consider either going through the advance pre-registration process or, at the very least, heading over to the Rio the night before your tournament starts and registering then. This is my first WSOP as well, so I don't have any direct experience but from everything I've read and heard, leaving registration until the morning on which the tournament starts could have you waiting in line for a very long time and possibly not being in your seat when the tournament starts.

Good luck, and you have a very nice wife!

 

I'll be playing event #45 which is on a Monday. It is a $1500 buyin and last year had 1700 entrants. I don't fly in until late sunday night and I am not sure if the RIO has registration available after the midnight hours. I have read that some people pre-register and send a cashier's check, which makes me a little nervous.

 

Registration is 24/7 beginning 8am May 27th

 

As Basil says, on-site registration is a 24/7 operation for the entire duration. Having said that, if you're only getting in late on the Sunday and it's not convenient to get to the Rio that night, you should be Ok for Event 45. I see it's a noon start, so would recommend getting to the Rio around 10. It makes registration more leisurely and allows you time to take a look at the room and get used to your surroundings before you take your first ever player seat.

 

You will have ZERO problem getting into this, and as long as you register by 10-11 a.m. Vegas time you shouldn't have to wait in a long line.

Seems like last year I won a single-table satellite, headed to the registration line for a $1,500 NLHE at around 11:30-11:40 and was in my seat by the time they started dealing.

I think it'd be worth your while to arrive even earlier than that, walk around, play a single-table satellite and try to get in cheap. Those things tend to be pretty soft. They also have mega satellites where you can win $1,500 in lammers (tournament buy-in chips) for like $125.

 

If you pre-register and show up the day of the event, don't you still have to wait in the long line to get your table assignment?

 

There are separate wndows for on-the-day registration and "will call" and you will get your seat assignment at will-call if you've pre-registered. Historically, the experience has always been that the line for will-call is much, much shorter than the line for on-the-day registration. Although I believe pre-reg is way up on previous years. In fact, at the WSOP conference call last week, it was reported that pre-reg for this year at this stage is currently higher than pre-reg for the last 5 years combined. A lot of that, however, is for the Colossus which is an enormous $565 event on the first weekend of the series. That one is going to be jam packed.

 

Do you know if I can get a local to register me? Or would they ask for ID?

 

You have to register yourself and have an ID and a Total Rewards card.