2025 Las Vegas Summer Series - non-WSOP

Reneging on guarantees is one thing. It’s a bad look, but players need to chill about it. Guarantees are not contracts. They are just marketing tools. No one is getting screwed.

But cancelling events is really bad. It directly hurts players because it might prevent them from playing something else. This just can’t happen. I don’t really understand what’s going on with the GN. Before COVID, they were legit.

Maybe there’s just too much competition at similar buy ins. Add to that the proliferation of WSOP events with lower buy ins, and the market could just be saturated. Next year, GN would be wise to focus on their strengths. It will be difficult for them to pull a ton of players from the strip in order to hold large-field, large guarantee events. But they also have a fairly captive audience. There’s no reason they can’t have a successful series with a bunch of good single day events.

So let me clarify something here, because frankly there are a lot of untruths out there, and even pokernews has changed the wording of the article/title I've been told.

What happened today:

A player showed up who did not realize that the changes were made on June 10th.....over 2 weeks ago. These changes included the AWFUL decision to go with expected prize pool over guarantees for the Main Event ($500,000) as well as the Goldennaire ($1,000,000). Do I agree with the changes? Nope! But that's neither here nor there.

I say again, these changes were made over 2 weeks ago.

Player shows up, buys in and gets short-stacked pretty early. He then goes around and convinces all the other players (19 in total at the time) that they should all band together and demand a refund based on these changes that were made over 2 weeks ago.

The player should have never been allowed to do this in the first place, but questions on that lie with day shift and why it was allowed. Had I been there, he would have been warned and then disqualified and escorted out. It's blatant collusion.

The decision was made to grant the request of refunds. Let me state this very clearly, we did not cancel the flight because of low turnout or whatever has been put out. Those working day shift simy chose the path of least resistance and decided to grant this request.

Flight B is still on as scheduled for Thursday.
Flight C is still on as scheduled for Friday.
Flight D is still on as scheduled for Saturday.

Now, if we get no players tomorrow? I have no idea and I've been dreading that thought all night. I really hope I don't wake up to a new bag of worms tomorrow afternoon. So much so that I may go in and be there in the morning as well.

None of this is good, but seeing Kessler and everyone pile on because they don't understand what actually happened is pretty wild.

I don't know if the Nugget is going to invite me back as a TD next year because I've been incredibly vocal on the back end about most of the bullshit that's been going on. But know one thing, if I am back then you have my word that things will be different. Consistency will be a priority, and not having 57743589632 changes is where that will start. A whole lot of knowledge has been gained this year, and many tough discussions and decisions will be made between now and next summer. As frustrated as the player base is, believe me when I tell you I'm 100x frustrated.

This summer has been an incredible challenge, and despite that I'm proud of the product that we've put out in-house for those who come play with us. I'm much less proud of all the stuff that's happening before players even make it to us.

I'm either going to fix it or I'll go down trying. This summer has been totally unacceptable.

Yes.

First @ BigJayPoker, none of what I am about to post is directed towards you. By all accounts you have done a dam good job and your participation on this board has provided excellent insight to the BM's.

A week ago I jumped into this thread when "dimeat" posted the tournaments were no longer guaranteed and I posted that he should read the flyer that was posted again. As it turned out I was the one who did not read it carefully as the fine print said that the prize pool was estimated. The term "estimated prize pool " is a brand new creation by Golden Nugget director of poker Joel Garcia. I have never heard this term associated with a poker tournament which previously posted and advertised that they had $5 million worth guarantees for the series. Based on the fact that the $500,000 and then $1 million dollar tournament guarantee were eliminated this number should be reduced to $3.5 million not including all of the other guarantees that were reduced.

While using the term "estimated prize pool" may enable the Nugget to fend off a lawsuit or a complaint to the Nevada Gaming Commission it is a horrible look. By leaving the amounts of $500,000 and $1 million[B] in bold would certainly cause confusion among some players. It has also created a PR nightmare for the Nugget which has caused the Nugget significant reputational damage. It was a completely unforced error by Joel Garcia.

I have played the Nugget summer tourney off and on for a number of years, Roughly 10 years ago the Nugget had a horrible reputation in terms of its summer series. The dealers were poorly paid which meant they had a hard time attracting quality dealers. Andy Rich was hired as director of poker, and he began to slowly build up the Nugget poker room and improve it's reputation. Perhaps his best move was to hire Kurt Dau to run his summer series. Kurt has a national reputation as a tournament director working primarily WSOP circuit and other major series. He also has a following of dealers, who work at other events for him around the country. Andy and Kurt came up with the idea of offering their dealers rooms on property at discounted rates and improving the dealers pay which enabled the Nugget to hire quality dealers and improve its reputation within the poker community. At the conclusion of the 2023 summer series Andy left Nugget to take a job as Director of Poker Operations at the WSOP. Kurt stayed on through last summer, 2024, but was not brought back this year. He is also at the WSOP running flights of their tournament series. Not bringing Kurt back was a huge mistake.

After Andy Rich left in 2023 the Nugget made the unfortunate decision to hire Joel Garcia as their director of poker. I'm not sure why they hired Joel over other more qualified applicants, including Mike Godfrey, who was a shift boss then and is now at the South Point doing a dam good job running their tournaments. Reputations are a funny thing they are hard to establish and sometimes easily destroyed. In addition to the summer series the Nugget also had a number of floors and shift bosses in the cash room who had been with the Nugget for some time and were popular with the players. Garcia ran all of of them off. During this years winter poker series Garcia' mistakes caused the series to close for a few days and cause damage to the Nugget's reputation by causing articles such this:

https://www.poker.org/latest-news/low-turnout-cancels-tourneys-in-golden-nugget-winter-series-am45w0w0hxpi/

poker

Low turnout cancels tourneys in Golden Nugget Winter series

It seems as though Garcia is quick to push the panic button even though in most cases lowing the guarantee was not necessary. In many of this year’s daily tournaments the Nugget has exceeded their guarantees demonstrating that just because they had a few slow days at the start of their series doesn't mean they had to reset the entire series. In terms of numbers, I went back two years to look at their numbers for their two largest tournaments. In 2023 they had 1,073 entrants in their $500 K guaranteed tourney creating a prize pool of $547,000 and in the million dollar guarantee they had 2331 runners taking in over $2.5 million in entry fees and establishing a Nugget record. In 2024 for their $600 multi day with a $500 k guarantee they had 1838 entries crating a prize pool of over $937,000. in the $1,200 buy in mystery bounty they had 1702 entries far eclipsing the guarantee of $1 million. Just last week they beat their previously advertised guarantee of $500 k with a prize pool of around $540k or about $400,000 less than last year. It is impossible to quantify how much they lost due to all the bad publicity surrounding the tournament but it had to have some effect. This year’s $1200 mystery bounty is off to a horrible start as day 1 was just cancelled , we will know in a few days what the final numbers are.

Going forward the real issue for the Nugget big wigs is how much longer are they going to tolerate Garcia's incompetence which is destroying their reputation the poker community? If he is still there past the end of July, then you know he has real strong juice at the Nugget.

Here https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/w... it says there is a 6:10pm 600$ Venetian tournament today, but on PokerAtlas and the Venetian I cannot find it. What is correct?

Venetian is on pokeratlas so that would be correct. Might be some copy paste errors. There's no way there's room for a 6pm event today. They have two big morning flights with all cash games closed.

Structure sheet has Event Numbers: 27, 29, 31, 32, 34, 42, 50, 52, 65,
67, 68, 77, and 78

Event 65 is on June 28th

Even if it were directed at me, we deserve all the **** we're getting right now. It's not a fun time to be in my shoes, as I'm stuck in the middle of fight for mine, the dealers, and the summer series' life and trying to fight some of the stuff that's been happening in-house.

I care about this thing and think we can salvage it in the coming years. But time is definitely running out on the ability to salvage it

As long as that weasel Joel Garcia is there the golden nugget has no chance of surviving.

This song should be dedicated to Joel Garcia and all the Muppets in upper management at the golden nugget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPn0KFlb...

GN all but dead in the water. Maybe next year they just run mixed games and low buyin nightlife. But no one is going to for large gtd next year. Doesn't appear 1B is even running per bravo clock.

I get you trying to save GN and your staff but it might be time to jump ship.

Tough spot for GN. I’m not sure what the solution is. Seems like there’s inner conflict and debate between player experience and bottom line, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

It also seems the focus was trying to shift from lower priced buy-ins to higher guarantees. It’s very difficult to have both when you’re an off-strip location.

Furthermore, I suspect the ease of use and registration with the WSOP+ app compounds the difficulty as a lot of players would be more inclined to avoid the hassles of driving, parking, and lines by just playing at HS/Paris.

I think the best option for GN at this point is to work out internally who their target demographic is. I could be wrong but it seems mixed games had a better turnout than HE.

Perhaps GN focusing on lower buy-in mixed games with no guarantees is the best play going forward from here.

Personally, I would like to get into mixed games more but have a hard time finding somewhere live to play. I would welcome a lower priced mixed game focused tournament location to get my feet wet in these variants.

GN shouldn’t try to compete with WSOP. Instead, offer something they don’t.

The circus show would continue even if they had a 4 table tournament series. Incompetence bleeds through these Muppets.

I appreciate you taking the time to post on a community like this. I also want to tell you I have seen you hustling around trying to run multiple tournaments at the same time and every floor call I have seen was reasonable and fair.

Regardless of what happens at the Golden Nugget, I'm sure you will land on your feet. Work ethic and authenticity are valuable (and unfortunately rare) so you will get a position in poker somewhere.

That being said, I strongly disagree with your assessment. I don't want to pile onto Joel any more than necessary, but my first-hand opinion of the situation was exactly as I described.

There were sufficient players to run two tables of the Big-O tournament. In the absence of any guarantees, two tables is always sufficient to run a tournament. However, if you are a tournament director afraid of missing yet another guarantee, two tables is a terrible situation. Additionally, a short, Hispanic gentleman in a suit, sitting behind the registration table was quick to cut off conversation between myself and the cashier regarding the reason for the tournament cancellation. He was rude and curt, but that is irrelevant to my main complaint and the reason I have been telling everyone to avoid the Golden Nugget tournament series.

If you announce a mix game tournament with a guarantee then cancel the tournament AFTER it was scheduled to begin, no mixed game players will want to visit your poker series in the future. If you happen to be located far away from the bulk of summer poker events and you do this: you might as well cancel the remainder of your mixed game events for the summer.

This analysis is spot on. I have never, ever, seen an "estimated prize pool" on a structure sheet. The entire phrasing reeks of shadiness.

That would be bad enough. Coupled with the bold, large font on the money amount and the "estimated prize pool" in fine print, it is clear the person who designed the flyer is trying to bamboozle the customer base.

This situation reminds of first year undergraduate marketing students who think up ideas to trick customers into making a bad purchase. That very well may work for some customers one time. It certainly will fail for most of the customers over multiple interactions.

A few years ago the Golden Nugget summers series was great. The Tag Team tournament was a load of fun and the quality dealers made the entire series enjoyable. Whoever concocted the "estimated prize pool" flyer should be fired. After that happens, perhaps the Golden Nugget summer series can slowly regain a tiny bit of trust from poker players.

anyone know how late into the night those Wynn $1k turbos run if you win them (starts around 6 pm)?

What a debacle. Do we think Golden Nugget even has series next year?

Do they eliminate poker from the casino?

There is no market they could make money in that isn’t already cornered by a casino doing it better.

Even though the old limit locals spend every hour complaining, they aren’t leaving free easy parking at Orleans to play cash and mixed tourneys.

PLO is at Aria, NLHE everywhere and appropriately capped.

GN I think as a company would rather not deal with Orleans player base in the casino, loitering around VP machines and arguing with cocktail waitresses lol.

I see them maybe getting rid of the series and the room will be an after thought.

This is probably going to be discussed amongst the suits at the Nugget, We dont have the financial information on how much the poker room and the summer poker tourney makes the Nugget so it's hard to guess if it's worth it to the big wigs. By now they have to realize that hiring Joel Garcia was a huge mistake and getting rid of Kurt Dau was also a big mistake. Garcia's mistakes have driven the Nugget into a big ditch, the question is does the Nugget want to try to dig out of it and just fold up the tent?

Another issue that the Nugget has in the low roller market is that their competition mainly the Orleans, South Point and Resorts World run daily tournaments all year which gives them a built in source of players who already play in their rooms. On the other hand the Nugget runs a short series in January and the summer series so they have no regular tournament players. The daily deep stacks at the WSOP have been putting up big numbers helped by the fact that people can sign up for their tourneys using their app which has eliminated the huge lines they previously had.

Hadn't thought of the tournament regs thing, but it makes a lot of sense.

We saw Orleans cancel tournaments a few years ago and I think MGM had a rolled back guarantee as well. They both seem to have recovered. Hopefully they fix the problems as the grand ball room is a great place to play. I have found the dealers to be excellent as well.

Any word on whats happening at Aria today? 4 tables running with huge list? Is it their main event?

Edit: the betmgm event had 740 entries and looks like they used cash tables

So i just went down to the Golden Nugget for their $1,000 eight game championship, which just this morning they advertised on twitter with a 12pm start.

I got there around 12:20pm only to be told it had been pushed back to 2pm. This was not posted anywhere on their social media.

I suspect it won’t run at 2pm either if there aren’t enough players.

I immediately got in an Uber back to the strip never to return or spend another dollar there.

I think they’ve tarnished their reputation for poker beyond repair this summer.

While competing against the strip and perhaps the handful of other quality off-strip series like at the Orleans and Southpoint may be difficult, I find it hard to believe the GN can’t have a successful summer series. They’re pretty much the only venue downtown now that Binions series is gone. That’s a huge captive market. They just need someone who knows what they’re doing running the show.

Pretty much the same story with me. I was in there at 11:50 when I heard them say they were postponing until 2. I told my buddy I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t run at all and headed back to WSOP to play the weekly PLO deep stack.

I mean......it ran.

Last day, many dealers made plans to travel today in advance of the holiday weekend, which left us a bit shorthanded, and thus the delay.

The day shift crew had pulled 9 dealers out of the cash room to try and get things running as quickly as they could, but many can't deal the 8-game mix and this was not a ton of help to getting that started.

As for the rest, I'm going to let my thoughts marinate through the holiday weekend and enjoy some much-needed days off. I'll come back with a synopsis of the summer at some point next week.