Vegas Summer Series Preview Part 2 (May Ante Up)

Here's my newest column for Ante Up  This is the second part of my preview of the summer Vegas series,  Part 1 can be found here.  With this, I've now covered the entire summer poker season. For my own personal take on the summer tourneys, a few weeks ago I published this blog post here.

The link for it on the Ante Up website is here.   Remember, my contribution is embedded in the entire West Coast report.  So below is just my Vegas report. 

The magazine should be in your local poker room by now. 

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Planet Hollywood’s Goliath Summer Series runs May 24-July 15 as the $2,200 main event has a $2M guarantee and starts June 30 with two starting flights. There are two more starting flights July 1. After a combined Day 2 on July 2, the event finishes July 3. The tournament is one of many that will use the big-blind-ante format.  

There are two tournaments that have $1M guarantees. The first one is the “Milly” that has two starting flights for three straight days beginning June 6. The buy-in is $600. The “Ultimate Goliath Stack Milly” has a $700 buy-in and has three starting flights beginning June 16. 

If high rollers are too pricey for you, Goliath offers a number of $250 “Low Roller” events. These all have four starting flights and the players are in the money on Day 1.  The tournaments that start on June 13, June 20, June 28 and July 2 have $200K guarantees. The last one starts July 10 and has a $100K guarantee. There’s also a “Big Low Roller” version that begins June 4, also with four starting flights and Day 1 payouts, that has a $300 buy-in and a $300K guarantee.

If you prefer one-day tournaments, the series offers a number of “$40K in a day” events.  A $200 buy-in gets you eligible for a $40K guarantee. There also are plenty of $100 NLHE tournaments with a $10K guarantee.  

Disciplines other than NLHE are well-represented. The series’ lone high roller is a $3K PLO tourney June 21. There’s also a $1,100 Big O event June 15 with a $50K guarantee.  

Most non-hold’em events are $250 with a $10K guarantee. You can find HORSE, Omaha/8, stud, PLO/8 and more.

In other Planet Hollywood tourney news, Benjamin Zamani from Boca Raton, Fla., took home $192K for winning the $1,675 main event at the WSOPC in April.  Ben Palmer of Las Vegas earned $119K for second and Barry Hutter of Hollywood, Fla., scored $87K for third. The event had 600-plus entrants and a prize pool of $915K.

BINION’S: The Dog Days of Summer Series runs June 1-July 1. If the thought of a series where only six of the 25 events are NLHE sounds appealing, this is the series for you. This series features PLO, PLO/8, stud, Omaha, razz, deuce-to-seven single draw, HORSE and an event called Crazy Seven Mix that rotates razzdugi, stud/8 and stud hi-lo with no qualifier. That one runs June 20 and, as with most of the regular daily events, the buy-in is $365. There’s also pot-limit hold’em June 19 and limit June 27.  

Of course, the $1K championship event, which has two starting flights beginning June 12, is NLHE. There’s also a $1K PLO championship June 21 and a $585 HORSE championship, also with two starting flights, June 28.

All NLHE events feature the button ante. It’s similar to the big-blind ante but instead the button posts the ante each hand. This is the first series to offer this variation and you may want to try it here to compare it to the big-blind ante most of the other series will be offering.

WYNN: The Wynn Summer Classic runs June 1-July 16. The $1,600 championship event has three starting flights beginning July 9, with a $1.5M guarantee. There are two $1,100 events with $1M guarantees, also featuring three starting flights, June 14 and 26. There are several $1,100 one-day events with $200K guarantees. Most of the rest of the events are $550 with $100K guarantees or $400 with $50K guarantees.

A $550 PLO tourney with a $100K guarantee runs June 13. The $550 seniors has a $100K guarantee June 11.  

ORLEANS: The Orleans Summer Series features a nice mix of NLHE and other disciplines June 1-July 1. Most Mondays through Thursdays offer a $150 NLHE event with a $25K guarantee. Every Friday evening the popular $130 NLHE tournament still will be offered, with a $15K guarantee on June 1 and a $20K guarantee thereafter.

The $400 SPT Senior Championship starts the first of its two starting flights June 22. There’s also a $340 SPT Seniors Omaha/8 Championship on June 24.  There are several LIPS events, including a $200 Omaha/8 tourney June 28.  The $250 LIPS National Championship starts June 29 with two starting flights.

The non-hold’em events include Omaha, HORSE, Big O and Omaha/8-stud/8. Most have $7,500 or $10K guarantees.
Saturday evenings feature the Tournament of the Week, which starts June 2 and are triple-stud mix, triple-draw mix, big-bet mix, 10-game mix and Omaha/8 mix, all with $7,500 guarantees.

MGM: The room’s newest promotion is the Quads Jackpot. Any player getting quads will draw a canister out of a drum for the prize, which could be $25 or $100. Other canisters also reward the players on either side of the winner or the winner’s table. If two specific canisters are drawn, the jackpot is awarded, with 30 percent given to the player with quads and 70 percent shared by all the active players in the room. The jackpot starts at $25K and increases $2,500 per week until it’s hit.

Before the WSOP, MGM will move its $2-$5 game to a special featured table that will resemble the tables you see on TV. The minimum buy-in will be $200 and the maximum is uncapped, new for the MGM.