February is usually a slow month in Las Vegas, with the Los Angeles Poker Classic running at The Commerce only four hours away. But this year’s offering from the LAPC isn’t terribly ambitious and the poker rooms in Vegas are giving players a reason to stay home this month. And that makes for an excellent start for our first monthly Vegas tournament preview.
From the lower buy-ins of the Venetian’s Deep Stack Extravaganza series to the bigger buy-ins and a $10 million guarantee at the Wynn Millions, and a host of high-roller events hosted at the Poker Go studio at Aria, there’s something for everyone in Sin City this month.
Be aware that COVID is surging in Vegas at the time of this writing and booking a trip may be a risk since any or all of these events could still be canceled. You may think that this would mean overlays for some of these big guaranteed events, but there are a lot of poker players in Vegas, and a simple “overlay alert” tweet usually brings them flocking to the tournament in question. Actual overlays are quite rare in Las Vegas. Assuming that most of these events go off as planned, we expect to see more than $20 million in prize pools this month.
Venetian Deep Stacks
The Venetian Deep Stacks are one of the most recognizable names in tournament poker. They’ve been running for years with good structures, an excellent staff, and usually feature large fields. In recent years, the series has run quarterly, though The Venetian runs other series as well and seems to have something running every month. The rake has crept up a bit in recent years, but the dealers and floor staff are still excellent and the structures are still solid.
The series will run from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28 and features $400 and $600 buy-ins on most weekdays, with smaller $300 events at 6:10 pm on most nights. There are some nice guarantees, including a $1 million guarantee for the $2,500 Ultimate Stack. The full schedule PDF and structure sheets are available here.
The Wynn Millions
It’s great to see an ambitious series from a property like The Wynn. This annual series usually features one big guarantee, and this year they’ve really put up a big number. Sometimes, tournament series are under-promoted or just ignored at high-end properties where the income from a poker tournament is just a rounding error to the casino’s overall income stream, but The Wynn is serious about this one.
We love to see tournaments at the Wynn because the staff is fantastic, it’s a beautiful place to play poker, the parking is free, and the structures are always excellent. The rake and structure information hasn’t been released for this series, but if it follows their most recent series, the rake should be around 10% less than in a similar tournament at The Venetian.
The big news for the Wynn Millions is a $10,000 event with a $10 million guarantee. Expecting a thousand entries for an event with a $10K buy-in is ambitious indeed, and we’re excited to see it. Expect all of the high rollers to show up, and quite a few traveling pros to make the trip as well.
The series starts on Feb. 21 and runs for nearly a month, with buy-ins from $400 to $1,100 for the mid-tier grinder. Expect lots of tourists and some rich gamblers, which is our favorite thing about tournaments at The Wynn. View the full schedule below or download the PDF.
PokerGo at Aria
PokerGo also has a nice selection of high-roller tournaments running in February at their studio inside Aria. The PokerGo Cup will run from Feb. 2 to 9, with buy-ins from $10,000 to $100,000. The PokerGo Heads Up Championship, a $25,000event, takes place on Feb. 12, and then the studio takes a break for a few weeks before the Aria High Roller runs from Feb. 24 to 27.
Structures and rake schedules haven’t been announced for this series, but we expect them to be good, given the high buy-ins. Final and featured tables should be streamed on the PokerGo app daily throughout the series.
