Summer in Vegas is Tourney Player's Dream

Anyone know where there is a decent poker tournament?

Better come to Las Vegas this summer.  There are no less than six major poker events being held simultaneously.  It's not just the World Series of Poker anymore, and the competition is so fierce, that tourney players are getting better and better deals pretty much everywhere they play.

The first direct competition for the WSOP came from the World Poker Tour, which added another event at The Bellagio.  While this venue still maintains the best high stakes live action games in town, their tournament fields, when compared to those over at the Rio, have not been very impressive.  The last couple of year's the favored tournament alternative to the WSOP has been the Venetian's Deep Stack Extravaganza.  With modest buy-ins, lots of chips, and a decent blind structure, this room has attracted the value-minded tournament players in droves.  It has been so successful, that the Venetian is now replicating the formula three times a year. In the past, it has been all No-Limit Texas Holdem, but this time around they have added a pot limit Omaha event, a limit Omaha hi/low split event, and a H.O.R.S.E. event to the mix.  There is still plenty of NL Holdem, though, there are no less than 13 $330 buy-in events that start with 4,500 tourney chips, 19 $540 and 8 $1060 buy-in events that start with 7,500 tourney chips, as well as a couple of $2500 and a $5000 final event that start with 10,000 tourney chips.  All of these events have an "optional" $10 staff bonus that adds 1,500/2,500/5,000 more starting chips.  Not that you would care to compete without this add-on, but I dare you to try and decline the option.  Their staff will scoff at you and tell you that the registration system really isn't set up that way.  Sort of funny in a way, but I am all about paying the dealers!

Last year, Binion's tried to wrangle back some of its poker glory by running its own Binions Poker Classic series, and it was quite successful, drawing large crowds for modest buy-ins.  With very few exceptions, they run an event similar in structure the day before each WSOP event.  The tournament buy-in is 10% of the bracelet event at the Rio and can be viewed as a very decent warm-up for those events.  Cashing in these events will more than afford you a buy-in at the Rio too, as the field sizes create very nice prize pools.  The blind periods are about half as long, but you start with the same number of chips and for a $10 staff bonus you can add another 2,000 starting chips to any of these events.  Event winners all get their photograph on a special display near Binion's famous Wall of Champions and Hall of Fame.  Somehow, they still manage to run almost all of their very popular daily tournaments as well.

Joining the fray this year, will be the inaugural Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget.  This recently revamped property is pulling out all the stops to create its very own event of stature.  A recently released film, titled "The Grand" portrays a fictional world championship of poker theme.  It was created in a semi documentary fashion, with much of the interaction between top professional cameos and very good celebrity players being improvised, and I am told this gives it more of a live tourney feel than a Hollywood production.  A brand new convention space, named "The Grand" provides home to more than 50 additional tables.  Most of the events are No-Limit Texas Holdem, but there are a couple variations of Omaha and H.O.R.S.E. events thrown in, with a ladies-only, a seniors, and a charity event as well.  All of the buy-ins are in the very affordable $225 to $550 range except for the charity event, where half of the $1080 buy-in goes towards Multiple Sclerosis research, and the The Grand Finale, a $1080 by-in main event.  Starting chips are comparable to the Venetian and Binions tourneys and they also have a $10 staff bonus that can add a couple thousand more tournament chips.  I haven't seen any structure sheets for these tournaments yet, but based on the promotional emphasis, I would expect them to be competitive with the other poker series in town.  They are also holding nightly $125 (midweek) and $225 (weekend) second chance cash tournaments.

Even though its sister property across the freeway is host to the biggest show in all of tournament poker, Caesars Palace isn't laying down to the competition.  They have one of the nicest run poker rooms in town, and a large separate tournament section that need not lay fallow during this busiest of poker seasons.  After all, the entire world will be in town playing poker, how can one not offer up a another option?  Deep just isn't a sufficient enough adjective to describe their starting chip stacks.  The first Caesars Palace Mega Stack features No-Limit Texas Holdem events at noon every day, with buy-ins ranging from $225 to $540 up until the $1080 Mega Championship final event.  There is also a seniors event, a pot-limit Omaha event, and Omaha 8 or better, and a limit holdem event, each of these varieties start at 3pm on a Tuesday.  Starting chip stacks are pretty impressive.  The $225 event starts with 5,000 tourney chips, the $330 events start with 10,000 tourney chips, the $540 events start with 12,500 tourney chips and the Mega Championship starts with 25,000 tourney chips - and, a $10 staff bonus adds another 2,500 chips to any of these events.  Blind levels are 50 minutes long for all but the Mega Championship, which has 60 minute levels.

So, how will the venerable Bellagio respond to all this tournament poker pressure?  Well, they slid their start date back just a little bit in the schedule, but they aren't rolling over.  Just the day before the World Series of Poker blows up the poker world with a deluge of press releases and media coverage, The Bellagio announces that it will give its players what they want - event deeper starting stacks.  Their famous daily tournaments ($540 buy-in on weekdays with 3,000 starting tourney chips, and $1080 buy-in on weekends with 5,000 starting tourney chips) have been revamped for the summer.  Weekday daily tournaments will now have a $1080 buy-in and start with 10,000 tourney chips and weekend daily tournaments will now have a $2100 buy-in and start with 20,000 tourney chips.  Blind levels are 40 minutes long.  These daily tournaments will be suspended during the Bellagio Cup IV, which starts on July 11th, but will resume after completion of the WPT event.  Further, all of the events for the Bellagio Cup IV will feature "Triple Stacks".  The preliminary events will feature 60 minute levels and three times the buy-in in starting tournament chips.  The $15,000 buy-in championship event will have 90 minute levels and 45,000 starting chips.

And the value doesn't stop there.  Last year the World Series of Poker doubled its tournament starting chip stacks for all events and the players advisory council also reworked the blinds structures.  Still, some of the limit events were a bit fast towards the later stages, so the players advisory council had lots of input and added/modified the levels to create even more value to players at the WSOP.   There are no staff bonus add-on options at the WSOP, but the tournament management team in charge there has utilized this sort of promotion at WSOP circuit events recently, so don't be surprised if this isn't used down the road (I hope so!).  But the schedule and player value at the WSOP has been improved in other ways as well, with expanded mega-satellite schedules and daily evening $340 second chance cash tournaments.

Then as these big events wind down, the great locals-friendly poker room at The Orleans is holding its annual Orleans Open.  This event has always been quite popular for the hard core tournament poker players that don't get enough from the WSOP.  Buy-ins range from $200 to $1000, with a $2000 championship event, respectable starting chips and blind structure.  It is one of the best run smaller events on the poker tournament calendar, with a variety of different format events over the last two weeks of July.

Also, every one of these major events is promoting a full satellite schedule and other daily or second chance cash tournaments for more modest buy-ins.  If you can't find a decent poker tournament in this town this summer, you simply aren't looking.