Summer in Las Vegas Offers Post-Pandemic Poker
For decades, the World Series of Poker hosted its annual WSOP series in Las Vegas during the spring and/or summer months. For the last dozen or so of those years, the WSOP started on or about Memorial Day weekend at the end of May and ran through June into the middle of July.
Considering poker players and fans traveled from around the world en masse for the summer series at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, other casinos began to offer alternate series. Most poker players cannot afford to play any – or many – WSOP tournaments, so other Vegas poker rooms offered lower buy-ins. Some constructed schedules with more variety than the WSOP. Vegas in the summer months became the hub for all things poker.
In 2020, the pandemic broke that tradition. There were no WSOP tournaments at the Rio. There was no live poker anywhere in Las Vegas for that matter.
Enter 2021 with vaccines and a longing for live poker unmatched by previous years.
The World Series of Poker went the way of caution for 2021, scheduling its WSOP 2021 live series for the fall months – September 30 through November 23. It will still be at the Rio, just off the Las Vegas Strip, and there will be a $10K buy-in WSOP Main Event set for November 4-17. Everything else remains in limbo, however, as World Series executives work with Nevada gaming officials to work out the details.
Instead of all casinos switching their schedules to match the temporary 2021 WSOP timeline, many casinos around Las Vegas are hosting their series this summer as per usual. June and July will be prime months for live poker in Sin City, with a range of buy-ins sure to keep every player busy.
Here’s what’s on tap:
Wynn Summer Classic: Started May 27
Each year, the Wynn on the Las Vegas Strip has expanded its tournament options. This summer, the length and scale of the Wynn Classic rival that of many competitors. And this series got underway on Memorial Day weekend.
Not all summer series offer a Main Event, but the Wynn Millions is the one for this series. That will run June 25 to July 2 with a $10M prize pool guarantee. It is a part of the larger schedule.
Start date: Tuesday, May 27
End date: Thursday, July 13
Events: 33
Buy-in range: $200 – $10,000
Guarantee range: $20K to $10M
Location: Encore poker room, connected to Wynn
Announcing the $10,000,000 guaranteed Wynn Millions, the highlight of the 2021 Wynn Summer Classic! Featuring more than 30 events, the Summer Classic will run May 27-July 13. For the complete schedule, visit https://t.co/yS3vIRwnLL. pic.twitter.com/hQCVXsnSWt
— Wynn Poker Room (@WynnPoker) April 27, 2021
Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series: Started May 1
What used to be a month or so has expanded significantly in recent years. The Venetian’s summer series now stretches a full three months. It is available for players no matter when they make the trip or take that summer vacation.
There are several featured tournaments in this series. The first is the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) $1,100 buy-in with a $1.5M guarantee that just finished, but the $1,600 buy-in runs from June 10-14 with a $2M guarantee. The World Poker Tour rolls into town in July for its WPT Venetian on the main tour, a $5K buy-in with a $3M guarantee from July 2-7. There will also be a WPTDeepStacks with a $2,400 buy-in and $2M guarantee running July 9-13.
To offer an idea of how the first featured event went, the first of the two MSPT events tallied 2,790 entries for a $2,692,350 prize pool (the guarantee was $1.5M).
Start date: May 3
End date: August 1
Events: 105 (98 excluding mega-satellites)
Buy-in range: $200 – $25,000
Guarantee range: $6K to $3M
Location: Venetian poker room or Palazzo gaming floor, connected to Venetian
Tons of DeepStack Championship Poker Series action left on the schedule including the $1600 NLH @msptpoker $2 Million guarantee kicking off Thursday June 10.
Full schedule: https://t.co/v8Qv4ah2bq pic.twitter.com/gc7mVyU91s
— Venetian Poker Room (@VenetianPoker) June 5, 2021
Orleans Summer Poker Series: Starts June 11
The Orleans is located a bit off the Strip, but it is and has long been a favorite poker room of locals and visitors alike. This summer series tends to offer a lower set of buy-ins, much friendlier for recreational players and tourists.
The Main Event of this series will be the NLHE Championship running July 16-19 with five starting flights and a $500K guarantee on the prize pool. Notably, the Orleans is the only casino doing a freeroll for all final tablists. Every final table spot during the series earns that player a spot in the Final Table Freeroll on July 22. The prize pool will be $15K, distributed to the top 15 finishers in the freeroll.
Start date: June 11
End date: July 22
Events: 74
Buy-in range: $150 – $600
Guarantee range: $10K to $500K
Location: Orleans poker room
We're hearing that some of you would like a more printer-friendly version. Here you go! pic.twitter.com/8GbljrENpE
— OrleansPokerRoom (@OrleansPokerRo1) May 13, 2021
South Point Mega Stacks
The poker room at South Point at the south end of the Strip is not known for its tournament series, but it is offering several events this summer.
First, there is a series this month, one with a reasonable buy-in and a solid guarantee.
Start date: June 11
End date: June 22
Events: 12
Buy-in: $250 each night
Guarantee: $50K each night
Location: South Point poker room
June 11 – 22 @ 6:00 PM. Come join us for our guaranteed NLHE events. Every night we will payout at least $50,000! pic.twitter.com/bdrOsvNe7s
— South Point Poker Room (@SPPokr) June 4, 2021
South Point is also hosting the Benny Binion Summer Shootout June 10-12. It is a singular tournament with a $2,200 buy-in. The field will cap at 128 players, which will put the prize pool at the guarantee of $256K. It will give $100K to the first-place finisher $50K to second, and decreasing payouts to the remainder of the top 16.
In addition, this poker room is running a $250K Summer Freeroll. This isn’t exactly ideal for tourists and players in town for a week or two, but it is a freeroll for all players who play at least 150 hours of live poker at South Point between May 1 and July 31. Qualifiers will receive $150. The freeroll will then guarantee $40K for first place, following a payout scale that hits $200 for every finalist in the tournament.
PokerGO Tour
In lieu of the Aria Poker Classic, it seems that Aria is using its partnership with PokerGO to host a summer of high roller tournaments.
The US Poker Open is currently playing out in the PokerGO Studios at Aria. It is a part of the PokerGO Tour that runs throughout the year. The dozen tournaments continue through mid-June with buy-ins of $10K, $25K, and $50K.
The U.S. Poker Open is part of the recently launched PokerGO Tour, a series of high-stakes tournaments with a comprehensive player ranking system. https://t.co/b19R2KFR2P
— Las Vegas RJ Sports (@RJ_Sports) June 3, 2021
When that concludes, the PokerGO Tour will offer a slew of tournaments, mostly at Aria and all for high-stakes players. The schedule from June 15 through the middle of July is:
-June 15: Aria High Roller #19 at Aria = $25K buy-in NLHE
-June 25: Wynn Millions at Wynn (part of aforementioned series) = $10K buy-in NLHE
-July 1: PokerGO Cup #1 at Aria = $10K buy-in NLHE
-July 2: PokerGO Cup #2 at Aria = $10K NLHE
-July 3: PokerGO Cup #3 at Aria = $10K NLHE
-July 5: PokerGO Cup #4 at Aria = $15K NLHE
-July 6: PokerGO Cup #5 at Aria = $25K NLHE
-July 7: PokerGO Cup #6 at Aria = $25K NLHE
-July 8: PokerGO Cup #7 at Aria = $50K NLHE
-July 9: PokerGO Cup #8 at Aria = $100K NLHE
-July 12: PokerGO Heads-Up Championship at Aria = $100K buy-in NLHE
-July 13: Aria High Roller #20 at Aria = $25K buy-in NLHE
-July 14: Aria High Roller #21 at Aria = $25K NLHE
-July 15: Aria High Roller #22 at Aria = $25K NLHE
WSOP Online 2021
Poker players who head to Nevada in July have one more option for tournaments. And these tournaments offer real World Series of Poker gold bracelets to the winners. The events just happen to be online and exclusively for players in Nevada and New Jersey. It is the US-based portion of the multi-platform WSOP 2021.
Anyone of legal age located within the borders of Nevada can log on to the WSOP-dot-com website, create an account, and play in any of the daily events from July 1 through August 1.
Start date: July 1
End date: August 1
Events: 33
Buy-in range: $333 – $7,777
Location: Online at WSOP.com
Stay Tuned for Fall
As mentioned, the WSOP will take place through October and into November. The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas is moving its Grand Poker Series to the fall with September 28 as the start date and October 20 as the projected wrap date.
We have a very exciting announcement……………. pic.twitter.com/TSeo7D6hZ9
— Golden Nugget LV (@GoldenNuggetLV) June 6, 2021
It is unclear if there will be a version of the Aria Poker Classic, which usually runs through the summer. It seems that the PokerGO Tour may take its place this summer, but there’s always a chance.
Binion’s certainly won’t host a summer series as it did in the past, as the poker room isn’t even open.
If it’s cash games you seek for the summer, all of the aforementioned poker rooms offer action. All offer cash games, and some offer low buy-in daily tournaments as well. In addition, check out the Westgate, Bally’s, Sahara, Bellagio, Bally’s, Resorts World, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, and Planet Hollywood. Poker Atlas offers a comprehensive list of poker rooms, locations, number of tables, and availability of tournaments.
