Vegas Poker Rooms Run Series Alongside WPT
In 2022, the World Poker Tour reestablished its presence in Las Vegas in December. The tour celebrated its 20th anniversary by bringing back the WPT World Championship but taking it to Wynn Las Vegas. The series was such a success that the 2023 WPT-Wynn series is scheduled for a longer period of time. In addition, the Main Event offers a $40M guarantee, and there will be a variety of activities for players throughout the month of December.
If poker players are flocking to Las Vegas in December, why not provide more options for them?
The poker rooms in Las Vegas already do this during the summer World Series of Poker. Most poker rooms offer some type of tournament series, ones with unique offerings like more mixed games or lower buy-ins. They’re doing it this December, too.
Caesars Palace Mixed Game Poker Series
As the Caesars Palace poker room continues to try to rebuild its clientele, it wanted to offer something this December. Aware of the growing popularity of mixed games, the room will host a week of mixed game tournaments for a week at the beginning of December. There will be eight events featuring Omaha and Triple Draw and culminating in a HORSE finale.
The room will also continue with its No Limit Hold’em dailies. The $100 buy-ins with $50 add-ons are at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm every day, and the 9pm daily is a $150 buy-in plus $50.
- December 4-11
- 8 events
- No guarantees
- Championship: $1,100 HORSE Championship
MGM Grand Winter Poker Challenge
The MGM Grand poker room was one of the first poker rooms to announce a winter series to compete with Wynn. The MGM Grand Winter Poker Challenge will run similar dates to the WPT World Championship with 14 events and more than $1.7M in guarantees. There will also be nightly events: a $300 buy-in NLHE with $15K guaranteed at 6pm and $130 buy-in NLHE with rebuys/add-ons and $4K guaranteed at 11pm.
- November 30 – December 19
- 14 events
- $1.7M+ GTD
- Main Event: $1,700 NLHE w/3 flights and $500K GTD
Orleans Winter Open
The Orleans off-Strip poker room was early to get in on the scheduling, rolling out a preliminary schedule on November 3 after initially noting the series in mid-October. There will be at least two options each day of December for players, including the nightly Monster Stack events – $200 buy-ins with $20K guarantees with special $25K guarantees on Fridays and $50K promised on Sundays. There are also several recurring events on the calendar, such as the $120 Bankroll Builders.
- November 28 – December 24
- 64 events
- $1.4M+ GTD
- Main Event: $550 NLHE w/6 flights ($250K GTD)
The structures are available on the Orleans’ Twitter account.
Aria PokerGO Tour
High-stakes poker players will have plenty of choices for their December action as well. Some of the tournaments on the PokerGO Tour (PGT) will be a part of the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas from December 5-16, but there are a few Aria High Roller events before that at the PokerGO Studio. For four days straight, high rollers will have $10K events that contribute to the PGT leaderboard.
- November 27-30
- 4 events
Resorts World Mixed Games Festival
This is not so much a series of tournaments as a chance to play mixed games in cash and tournament formats. There are two tournaments on the schedule, a $260 O-8/Stud-8 on November 27 and a $260 HORSE on November 30.
- November 26 – 30
- 2 tournaments, cash games
Resorts World Women in Poker Winter Festival
This is a small series but one that will complement the WPT Ladies Championship. The Women in Poker Winter Festival will kick off with a holiday party and LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) meet-up game at the Sahara poker room on December 5, and the festival at Resorts World begins the next day.
There are several events, with just one of them open to men and women on December 8. The other tournaments are for women only.
- December 6-10
- 5 tournaments
- Main Event: $360 Ladies WIP Championship w/3 flights ($30K GTD)
Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza
The Venetian runs series regularly and will do so again this December. The full series runs longer than the WPT at Wynn and will put up more than $2.1M in guarantees. That is spread across 57 events (some being satellites) on a schedule that includes numerous multi-day tournaments. Notably, two featured events are a part of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT), both of them helping to kick off the series in late November.
- November 20 – December 24
- 57 events
- $2.1M+ guarantees
- MSPT: $1,100 NLHE w/2 flights ($200K GTD)
- MSPT: $1,600 NLHE w/2 flights ($300K GTD)
The full schedule is on the Venetian website, complete with linked structure sheets.
