The Venetian was on to something when they created their Deep Stack Extravaganza series of tournaments. Not so shockingly, the low-stakes masses flocked to these events where you could compete against sizable fields will skill-rewarding starting stacks for hundreds, as opposed to thousands, of dollars.
This year, several casinos with an obvious love for poker tried something similar … but not all have found the same results. In fact, the Venetian itself was apparently struggling to fill their tables earlier this WSOP. A sign that, damn, poker really is waning? Not exactly …
The Caesar\’s Palace MegaStack tournament series was giving more chips per dollar-buy-in than the Venetian … and lo and behold they took all their players. So the Venetian has reportedly responded by adding 2,500 more chips to their own Deep Stacks … and lo and behold, the players returned.
Meanwhile, downtown, the two big tournament series (they apparently call a series of tourneys \”festivals\” in Europe … I like that!) are the Grand Series of Poker at the Golden Nugget, and the Binion\’s Poker Classic. Upon a quick spot-check at Binion\’s $110 Seniors event yesterday, they seem to be doing fine. They are in their second year of doing this, of course, whereas the Golden Nugget is in their first … and struggling (with or without Montel Williams). Apparently several of their megasatellites have had less than two tables worth of runners, and don\’t make … and a far cry from true \”sit n gos\” … even the single-table satellites are taking upwards of three hours to fill.
I don\’t have full numbers on any of these events … but that\’s the basic gist on summertime mini-WSOP\’s:
Caesar\’s — kick-ass according to all reports
Venetian — maybe not as good as before, but still pretty sweet
Binion\’s — Binion\’s is Binion\’s; there\’s always good tournament action even if some players steer clear of the high likelihood of an opponent spitting on the floor
Golden Nugget — tiny fields=tiny payouts; better luck next year?
2+2 has a great thread running down the daily Las Vegas tourney schedule all summer long.
