Venetian and Caesars Poker Tournaments Square OffLas Vegas Casinos Both Select February for Tourney Series |
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It has happened again. The Venetian and Caesars Palace have once again selected the same month for their big poker tournament series. Coincidence?
“Is it coincidence? Yes and no,” responded Jim Pedulla, Caesars’ poker room manager. “When we schedule these things, we look at what’s in the best interest of the company and what’s in the best interest of the players.
“We think that when you look at the competitors, and their price range is in one person’s pocketbook or bankroll, we think that it’s appropriate to go against them and have a lower-priced product, which I believe is higher caliber,” Pedulla said.
Caesars recently announced the schedule of its third Mega Stack tournament series, which will run from Feb. 1-26. The Venetian announced the schedule of its Deep Stack Extravaganza series last week, consisting of 24 tournaments from Feb. 2-25.
The last Deep Stack Extravaganza and Mega Stack tournaments were both in November.
The Venetian’s Deep Stack series features 17 $330 buy-in events, mostly in no-limit hold'em. But it does host single Omaha eight-or-better, H.O.R.S.E., and pot-limit Omaha tournaments at that level in the series. The higher-priced events are at $550 and $1,070, with the main event priced at $2,500.
Caesars’ Mega Stack series features 16 $225 buy-in events, all in no-limit hold'em. One of those events is a couples tournament on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. The higher priced events at Caesars are at $330 and $540, with its championship event at $1,070.
At the cheapest tournament of their respective series, players will start with 12,500 in chips at Caesars and 12,000 in chips at The Venetian.
Last November, Mega Stack attracted between 90-100 players for its most affordable tournaments. Deep Stack Extravaganza often hosted tournament fields of over 300 players, with a peak of 452 players competing on Nov. 20.