Poker Tourneys at Venetian and Caesars Compete

Both the Venetian and Caesars Palace have once again announced that they will hold a big poker tournament series in the same month.  “Is it coincidence? Yes and no. 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,” Jim Pedulla, Caesars’ Poker Room manager.

The Venetian announced the schedule of its Deep Stack Extravaganza V series last week which will consist of 24 tournaments to be held from February 2-25.  Caesars also recently announced the schedule of its third Mega Stack tournament series which is scheduled to be held from February 1-26.  This is not the first time these tournaments have been held at the same time.  The Deep Stack Extravaganza and Mega Stack tournaments were both held during the month of November.

The Venetian’s Deep Stack series features 17 buy in events for $330, most of which are no limit hold’em tournaments.  It does not feature single Omaha eight or better, HORSE or pot limit Omaha tournaments at that level in the series.  There are higher priced events featured at $550 and $1,070 and a main event with a $2,500 buy in.

Caesars’ Mega Stack series consists of 16 $225 buy in events, all of which are no limit hold’em tournaments.  One of the events is a couples tournament to be hosted on Valentines Day, February 14.  Higher priced events are at $330 and $540 and its championship event features a $1,070 buy in.

Players will start with 12,500 in chips at Caesars and 12,000 in chips at the Venetian in the least expensive tournaments.  The Mega Stack tournament attracted between 90-100 players at its least expensive tourneys last November and the Deep Stack Extravaganza typically attracted fields of over 300 players at its inexpensive tourneys.