2025 Las Vegas Summer Series - non-WSOP
Thread was requested by another user. This is to track all non-WSOP summer series for 2025.
What is everyone looking forw
CardPlayer has a schedule for RWLV 2025, which may or may not be legit. I haven't seen it anywhere else.
https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tournam...
As expected, not a wealth of variety, but steady offerings in the $200-400 range.
Resorts World is a good place for a relaxed room and events. I like their $200 PM Events. I always enjoy their food court!
Who would've thought that randomly checking the V page every day like a degen would pay off? I don't even know if this is on their socials yet. Maybe.
Personally, I think it sucks that they put all the reasonably priced events in mid-late May and mid-late July (when most people won't be there), while towards the middle it's almost impossible to find a buy-in under $1000. Same goes for the Wynn Series fwiw.
Personally, I think it sucks that they put all the reasonably priced events in mid-late May (when most people won't be there), while towards the end it's almost impossible to find a buy-in under $1000. Same goes for the Wynn Series fwiw.
They have the space in mid may, they don't have the space when the summer is in full swing. Aria (get there early) and MGM (same thing) are your spots for less in June/July.
Resorts World is a good place for a relaxed room and events. I like their $200 PM Events. I always enjoy their food court!
Agreed. I expect to play there often this summer.
As for Venetian, I mainly looked at the schedule from a selfish perspective. It has a bunch of seniors events during my block of days and I can't play any of those, so it's pretty much a non-starter for me this year unless I jump into one of the $600 nightly bounties. Venetian runs a nightly $200 bounty throughout the year that is pretty fun to play. These $600s look to be the same thing on a summer scale. Stakes go up in summer because of rising demand and limited space.
For a lower budget, there will be Nugget, RW, MGM, Orleans, and WSOP daily deepstacks to choose from.
I wouldn't put Aria in the budget category, as last year their most common price point was $800. Based on posted results, the fields seemed to be strong and littered with many pro/reg types. That can be a fun challenge, but it doesn't figure to be one of the softer rooms. Most of their schedule was $400 in 2022, then $600 in 2023, and $800 in 2024. They are skewing towards more of a Wynn/Venetian price level.
Agreed. I expect to play there often this summer.As for Venetian, I mainly looked at the schedule from a selfish perspective. It has a bunch of seniors events during my block of days and I can't play any of those, so it's pretty much a non-starter for me this year unless I jump into one of the $600 nightly bounties. Venetian runs a nightly $200 bounty throughout the year that i
WSOP is the smart operator. They knows competition cannot steal their players even they are not playing in WSOP events .
Their Daily Deepstack @ $200,$250 and even $400 are very attractive in comparison with competitors Casino’s daily offerings.
The reason is number of Runners , Prize pool, WSOP atmosphere.
Any given day you will find the between 300 to 1200 runners ( 1 Pm $250 tournaments).
Who would've thought that randomly checking the V page every day like a degen would pay off? I don't even know if this is on their socials yet. Maybe.
Had literally done the same maybe an hour before this hahaha. Thanks!
Agreed. I expect to play there often this summer.As for Venetian, I mainly looked at the schedule from a selfish perspective. It has a bunch of seniors events during my block of days and I can't play any of those, so it's pretty much a non-starter for me this year unless I jump into one of the $600 nightly bounties. Venetian runs a nightly $200 bounty throughout the year that i
Planet Hollywood might have something as well. They have a spring series and rumor is they are opening a poker room on the second floor and bring back the Phamous Poker Series.
Agreed. I expect to play there often this summer.As for Venetian, I mainly looked at the schedule from a selfish perspective. It has a bunch of seniors events during my block of days and I can't play any of those, so it's pretty much a non-starter for me this year unless I jump into one of the $600 nightly bounties. Venetian runs a nightly $200 bounty throughout the year that i
How big are the RW fields? More than the 200 or so that would fit in the poker room? Where do they hold the tourneys?
I don't think they were super big, but obv a lot of the entries are late regs and re-entries.
I played a RW nightly and it was a really well-run and well-structured event with lots of people just dusting off stacks hopelessly. It did run late, so wouldn't recommend if you have an early tourney the next day you wanna fire.
WSOP is the smart operator. They knows competition cannot steal their players even they are not playing in WSOP events . Their Daily Deepstack @ $200,$250 and even $400 are very attractive in comparison with competitors Casino’s daily offerings. The reason is number of Runners , Prize pool, WSOP atmosphere.Any given day you will find the between 300 to 1200 runners ( 1 P
Has nothing to do with being smart. The WSOP has 700 tables. Venetian has 50. Wynn has ~80. Why run a $300 event and have huge numbers of alternates when you can run a $1000 which is logistically manageable.
If there’s something to complain about any of these non WSOP series, it’s that the Wynn charges a premium price and has substandard (at least compared to several of their rivals) structures on many of their events.
Planet Hollywood might have something as well. They have a spring series and rumor is they are opening a poker room on the second floor and bring back the Phamous Poker Series.
That would be interesting. I always thought PH had so much potential given the amount of space they had available to them in the past. But they always had such wack registration processes and structures. Pure cash grabs. Interestingly, Wynn has taken a page from their book, except at higher buy-in levels.
Anyhow, I’d be kind of surprised if PH ever ran a real series so long as they are owned by CZR, unless its purpose would be to somehow offer complimentary events to the WSOP. It’s right next door after all and plenty of WSOP attendees stay at PH.
Not a fan of the Nugget's grand series? They're generally in the $250-600 range depending on the event. And their thurs-SaT series have 9 starting flights that usually get the total entrants close to 2k, and you're looking at a softer field than the other properties you mentioned(with the exception of Orleans, I find the competition pretty similar).
Never tried GN . Will check it out this year.
Thx
Bill, the evening events at RW are more for relaxing. The room is nice, the chairs are comfortable and the competition is ok.
Compared to WSOP 200 you won’t get as many entries, but, you can still win a decent amount and be ready for the events on the next day.
Be sure to register at a decent time, otherwise most of the time is spent waiting than playing the game. There will be a lot of re-entries.
you def should. It is extremely well run. They put you in a ball room isolated from the circus noises of the casino. Great price point for low rollers. Only drawback is catching a car to Fremont Street, although if you bust it's nice to grab a drink cheaper than the strip.
That would be interesting. I always thought PH had so much potential given the amount of space they had available to them in the past. But they always had such wack registration processes and structures. Pure cash grabs. Interestingly, Wynn has taken a page from their book, except at higher buy-in levels. Anyhow, I’d be kind of surprised if PH ever ran a real series so long as
Yes, they ran it in a piss-poor manner. I didn't remember any of the people running the tournament in the real poker room, and it showed. Like trying to re-reg in a rebuy tournament, 4 "workers" all in a cluster BS-ing while I'm trying to re-reg, the clock running the whole time.
Bill, the evening events at RW are more for relaxing. The room is nice, the chairs are comfortable and the competition is ok.Compared to WSOP 200 you won't get as many entries, but, you can still win a decent amount and be ready for the events on the next day.Be sure to register at a decent time, otherwise most of the time is spent waiting than playing the game. There will be a
Ugh. When I spend multiple hundreds of dollars to get to Vegas for the WSOP, I don't want to relax. I can do that at home for free.
you def should. It is extremely well run. They put you in a ball room isolated from the circus noises of the casino. Great price point for low rollers. Only drawback is catching a car to Fremont Street, although if you bust it's nice to grab a drink cheaper than the strip.
+1 to playing at the Golden Nugget. Super soft fields and pretty well run. They also run mixed game tournaments, for anyone interested. Those seemed to be pretty soft too.
Their Daily Deepstack @ $200,$250 and even $400 are very attractive in comparison with competitors Casino’s daily offerings.
The reason is number of Runners , Prize pool, WSOP atmosphere.
Any given day you will find the between 300 to 1200 runners ( 1 Pm $250 tournaments).
Unfortunately, "WSOP atmosphere" means WSOP chairs and dealers. Plus now that the dailies are in the other ballrooms upstairs, I don't know that you can even really say it's the same WSOP atmosphere. I played one last year and didn't care for it. If I'm not playing a bracelet event I'll go elsewhere even though I'm staying at the Horseshoe. For a low buy-in I like RW. Really nice room, comfortable chairs, good dealers, good food available, and, in my experience, soft fields. If I want something a bit higher I'll look to Venetian or Aria.
Unfortunately, "WSOP atmosphere" means WSOP chairs and dealers. Plus now that the dailies are in the other ballrooms upstairs, I don't know that you can even really say it's the same WSOP atmosphere. I played one last year and didn't care for it. If I'm not playing a bracelet event I'll go elsewhere even though I'm staying at the Horseshoe. For a low buy-in I like RW. Really ni
That's where I am with it. The ballroom up there is cramped and detached from the "real" WSOP. The WSOP dailies are 10-handed nitfests. Painfully long lines for the 1PM. They also charge much higher rake than RW. The only big advantages I can see are convenience if you are staying central strip and larger fields if you want the thrill of chasing a big score. There's also the weekly leaderboard if you want to engage with that to try to win the free $600 seat for the PokerNews event.
Overall, I prefer the playing experience at RW in the $400 and below price bracket.
Yeah, GN is super soft and ran well. Just make sure you don’t go to the regular poker room for the tournaments. They have it in the ballroom thing. Oh and be sure to get your players card first.
Played at MGM Grand last year and took 16th in a tournament. I hated every second of it. Their room is out on the casino floor and is crazy loud and distracting. Couldn’t hear the dealers and the floor man was talking about what a joke their poker area is. He knew they suck and openly admitted it.
MGM didn't update their results on Hendon Mob until super late. While that doesn't matter in and of itself, I do think it reflects a lack of care and effort.
I generally consider MGM to be a superior operator compared to CET, but in the poker tournament space they are relatively low-effort.
Feels like they could do a lot better with the Aria and MGM summer series.
The Bellagio is right across the street from the WSOP and has a prominent history in poker (Bobby's Room, Five Diamond, Festa al Lago). There's untapped potential there, but they're a nonfactor in summer besides high cash game traffic.
Yes, they ran it in a piss-poor manner. I didn't remember any of the people running the tournament in the real poker room, and it showed. Like trying to re-reg in a rebuy tournament, 4 "workers" all in a cluster BS-ing while I'm trying to re-reg, the clock running the whole time.
Yeah, they just weren’t on the ball. Remember how they kept changing their schedule after they released it, to the point they had to brand them as “preliminary” schedules. Getting player feedback is one thing, but at some point, you’re supposed to figure things out without needing feedback. Let players complain afterwards and make any necessary changes for the next time. They just never really found their groove even though the lane was wide open for the < $1000 buy-ins and there wasn’t as much competition, including from the WSOP.
That's where I am with it. The ballroom up there is cramped and detached from the "real" WSOP. The WSOP dailies are 10-handed nitfests. Painfully long lines for the 1PM. They also charge much higher rake than RW. The only big advantages I can see are convenience if you are staying central strip and larger fields if you want the thrill of chasing a big score. There's also the we
Are they deepstacks? If I'm playing a deepstack, I'll punt off a third of my stack early on. Then another third an hour later. Then I try to make the remaining last as long as possible. If it's not a deepstack I might be gone in the first hour.
Many moons ago tournaments just started tacking on the word "Deepstack" whenever they want, it means nothing. Anyone on 2+2 knows that starting chips is only one piece of the formula, many times venues will increase starting stacks but reduce level times or skip levels etc... PLOG's site is the best for comparing quality of structures.
General page for last year's tournaments.
https://rainbowspuppiessunshine.com/poke...
If something isn't listed you can use his calculator for any tournament etc...
https://rainbowspuppiessunshine.com/poke...
This page has a good comparison on casino vs casino broken down by buy in range.
https://rainbowspuppiessunshine.com/poke...
You can see a lot of variations, i.e. Nugget on average has the best structures for sub $300 but the worst for $300-500, but then back to good for 500-1000, so its best to always compare like to like when considering 2 tournaments of equal buy in from different properties.
For anyone who has never seen his site the premise is that the higher the "S" number the better/slower the structure is. (https://rainbowspuppiessunshine.com/poke...)
