Las Vegas Summer Series Report

Much of the attention this summer was rightly focused on the World Series of Poker, which broke attendance records as players looked for live poker tournament options after Black Friday. The Rio attracted a total of 68,807 players from 98 countries and awarded $127,468,010 in prize money.

The WSOP wasn’t the only game in town though, and unless your name was Tom Dwan (52 WSOP events entered) or Shannon Shorr (42 WSOP events entered) you probably ventured to one of the other casinos in Vegas this summer to play in one of the mnay tournament series running in town during the busy season of June and July.

The schedules for the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III, Caesars Palace Summer Mega Stack, and Binion’s Poker Classic almost mirrored the schedule of the WSOP, with late May or early June starting points which ran through mid-July. The Bellagio Cup VII and Wynn Classic Summer Guarantee ran for shorter stretches on the Strip, while the Grand Poker Series ran at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street to offer a little competition for Binion’s, the birthplace of the WSOP.

Let’s take a look below at how each non-WSOP Vegas summer series performed this summer:

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III (May 27-July 15)

Number of Tournaments: 49
Total Prize Pool: $15,497,403

Largest Prize Pool: $5,000 NLHE Championship — $1,750,414
Largest First-Place Prize: $5,000 NLHE Championship — $420,092 won by Adam Elpayaa (1,776 POY Points)

Marquee Winners:

Event No. 2 ($550 NLHE): Steven Burkholder — $35,434 (372 POY points)
Event No. 13 ($550 H.O.R.S.E.): Frankie O’Dell — $33,091 (300 POY points)

Caesars Palace Summer Mega Stack (May 30-July 15)

Number of Tournaments: 91
Total Prize Pool: NA

Largest Prize Pool: $1,000 NLHE Main Event — $1,561,700
Largest First-Place Prize: $1,000 NLHE Main Event — $269,382 won by Adrien Braesco (1,200 POY points)

Marquee Winners:

Event No. 50 ($340 6-handed PLO 8OB): Leif Force — $14,007 (204 POY points)

Binion’s Poker Classic (May 30-July 11)

Number of Tournaments: 44
Total Prize Pool: NA

Largest Prize Pool: $1,000 NLHE Main Event — $289,351
Largest First-Place Prize: $1,000 NLHE Main Event — $55,635 won by Todd Breyfogle (744 POY points)

Marquee Winners:

Event No. 19 ($200 NLHE): Julio Rodriguez — $4,650
Event No. 27 ($150 NLHE): Chad Holloway — $2,758

The Grand Poker Series at the Golden Nugget (June 4-July 4)

Number of Tournaments: 67
Total Prize Pool: NA

Largest Prize Pool: $1,080 NLHE Grand Finale Championship — $227,950
Largest First-Place Prize: $1,000 NLHE Grand Finale Championship — $54,713 won by Marvin Rettenmaier

Marquee Winners:

Event No. 2 ($230 pot-limit Omaha): Chip Jett — $3,076
Event No. 39 ($225 NLHE): Seth Bailey — $3,569
Event No. 40 ($225 PLO 8OB): Chip Jett — $4,162

Wynn Classic Summer Guarantee (June 23-July 12)

Number of Tournaments: 20
Total Prize Pool: $1,359,396

Largest Prize Pool: $200 NLHE — $96,612
Largest First-Place Prize: $200 NLHE — $26,571 won by Arjun Pasricha (204 POY Points)

Bellagio Cup VII (July 10-July 18)

Number of Tournaments: 2
Total Prize Pool: $3,032,400

Largest Prize Pool: $10,000 NLHE main event — $3,032,400
Largest First-Place Prize: $10,000 NLHE main event — $669,692 won by Elio Fox

Marquee Winners:

Event No. 2 ($5,000 NLHE): Stephen O’Dwyer — $259,452 (768 POY points)

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