Vegas Summer Series Preview (May Ante Up Column)

Here's my latest Ante Up Column, or at least the version I submitted. As you can see, it is a preview of five of the big poker summer series that are coming starting this month.  The rooms missing, Aria & Planet Hollywood, were covered in my previous column, which you can find here.

You should be able to find this issue in your local poker room by now.  Enjoy!

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Golden Nugget hosts the Grand Poker Series, May 28 – July 8.  The $600 main event has three starting flights beginning June 27 and offers a $600K guarantee.

Most weekends during the series will offer $200 buy-in, multi-flight NLH events.  Each will have three starting flights a day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a day 2 on Sunday.  The guarantees for these is $250K, except for the first one, starting May 30, which has a $300K guarantee.

Once again, a staple of the series is a $150 buy-in NLH tourney at 1 p.m. that runs daily, except during the weekends that offer the $200 multi-flight event.  The guarantee on most days is $25K.  A nightly $120 tournament with a $5K guarantee runs at 7 p.m.

There are four seniors events starting June 15, including Omaha 8/B with a $10K guarantee on June 17.  A $150 Ladies event with a $10K guarantee is set for June 19.

Disciplines other than hold-em are offered most days at 11 a.m., usually with a $250 buy-in. Guarantees vary between $10K and $20K. There are also $360 events in this time-slot. Big-O, with a $10K guarantee, runs June 24. A $20K guarantee HORSE event is offered on June 30.  A PLO Bounty event with $100 bounties and a $10K guarantee plays on July 1.  Seven-card Stud with a $10K guarantee follows on July 2. On July 3, an Omaha 8/Stud 8 championship event with a $25K guarantee is offered.  

VENETIAN:  The Deepstack Championship Poker Series runs May 13 – July 28 and offers more than $24M in guarantees.  An $1,100 Summer Kick-off event with two starting flights and a $400K guarantee starts May 27.  On June 3, a three-day MSPT event with a $3M guarantee gets under with the first of its four starting flights. 

Another MSPT event with a $3M guarantee starts on June 17. It has a $1,600 buy-in and three starting flights. On June 24, a four-day, $3,500 buy-in event with a $2M begins. It has just one starting flight, with registration open until 5 p.m. on day 2.

Two $1,100 "Summer Saver" events are offered in July, each with $1M guarantees. The first of the two starting flights are July 5 and July 9, respectively.  New this year are a couple of "Epic Stack" tournaments, which are $600 buy-in events with five-starting flights each and $750K guarantees.  The starting stack 50K.  The first flights for these are June 14 and June 23.

The LIPS Ladies tournament, with a $500 buy-in and a $50K guarantee, runs June 17-18. An $800 Seniors event with a $750K guarantee has the first of its two starting flights on June 10.

Fans of disciplines other than hold'em can find Limit Omaha8, PLO, PLO8, PLO Bounty, Big O and HORSE events throughout the series.  A one-day, $600 Omaha 8/Stud 8 tourney with a $50K guarantee runs June 22.

The main event is a four-day, $5K buy-in with two starting flights beginning July 16.  It has a $2M guarantee.

ORLEANS:  The Summer Poker Series runs May 28 – July 7.  A $150 NLH tourney with a $25K guarantee runs at 11 a.m. most days.

 

"Championship" events, with $400 buy-ins, run throughout, in a variety of disciplines.  There's Omaha 8/B June 1, HORSE June 2, 8-Game Mix June 8, Stud Mix (Stud, Stud 8, Razz) June 9,  PLO June 16, and PLO 8 June 23.  All of these have $50K guarantees.

The NLH championship, also a $400 buy-in, has three starting flights beginning June 29 and offers a $200K guarantee.

The $300 LIPS Ladies championship, with two starting flights, begins June 21. The Senior Poker Tour hosts its $400 championship event beginning June 15.

Except for the events already noted, most days have a NLH tournament in the day and a non-hold'em event in the evening.  These are priced between $150 and $300. There's plenty of Omaha, Omaha 8/Stud 8, Triple Draw, 8-Game Mix, Triple Stud,           and HORSE.

The Orleans is offering a Player of Series award. A total of $10K will be awarded, with the top point getter earning $5K.

WYNN: The Summer Classic is set for May 30 -  July 16.  The first big multi-day event begins on June 11 with a $1,100 buy-in, three-starting flight NLH event that has a $1,500,000 guarantee. The first of two-starting flights for the $1,100 PLO championship is June 25.  It has a $500K guarantee. 

The $1,600 NLH championship event has three-starting flights beginning July 11. It has a $2M guarantee.

There are two $1,100 Seniors events, on June 9 and July 7, each with a $250K guarantee.  A $400 Ladies events with a $50K guarantee is offered on June 25. A $550 PLO tournament with a $100K guarantee plays on June 16.

The rest of the schedule is filled out with one-day NLH tournaments with solid guarantees.  The biggest of these are the $1,600 buy-in events with $350K guarantees running June 4, June 23 and July 9. Single day $1,100 events with $250K guarantees make up a good portion of the schedule. There are also $55   0 single day NLH events with $100K guarantees throughout the series.       

BINION'S: The Summer Series runs June 1 – July 1.  This series specializes in games other than hold'em.  Except for Sundays, the featured daily event for the first two and a half weeks is a $550 event. June 1 is PLO8, June 3 is HORSE, June 5 is Limit Omaha 8, June 6 is 7-Card Stud, June 8 is PLO, June 10 is Triple Stud. June 12 is Stud 8, June 15 is Limit Omaha 8/Stud 8, June 17 is PLO8, June 18 is Razz and June 27 is Triple Stud.  There's also a $550 NLH event on June 14

Championship events with $1,100 buy-ins run later in the series.  These all have two starting flights.  PLO starts June 19, NLH starts June 23 and HORSE starts June 28.