Ceasar's Competes with WSOP
Looks like Ceasars is ready to tackle the WSOP headsup! By offering lower buyin tournaments and larger stacks.
"The largest poker room in Las Vegas is inside Caesars Palace, and this summer, the poker room is running its first-ever Mega Stack Series, running June 1-July 9.
Competing against the draw of World Series of Poker events, the Mega Stack Series is looking to attract players who want smaller buy-in events with a major tournament feel. All 38 preliminary events have buy-ins that range from $200 to $500 and feature deep starting stacks.
“Players are going to get more value for the dollar than they will find at any of our competitors’ rooms,” said Poker Room Manager Jim Pedulla. “They are going to get huge starting stacks and a great structure that gives them more time to play. Also, our poker room has the ability to host 600 players plus alternates all in the same room, so no one will have to feel segregated from the tournament.”
Registration begins at 10 a.m., and the events begin at noon. All preliminaries feature 50-minute blind levels. Most events are open no-limit hold’em tournaments, but the series also includes an Omaha eight-or-better event, a pot-limit Omaha event, a limit hold’em event, and a seniors event."
Sounds like a great alternative to the larger game, but I'm not sure how they can hope to compete as an equal. Going to be uphill for them to come close, but I think they hit a market base with this one, and at prime time as far as number of players that are going without playing, or bust our early.
"The largest poker room in Las Vegas is inside Caesars Palace, and this summer, the poker room is running its first-ever Mega Stack Series, running June 1-July 9.
Competing against the draw of World Series of Poker events, the Mega Stack Series is looking to attract players who want smaller buy-in events with a major tournament feel. All 38 preliminary events have buy-ins that range from $200 to $500 and feature deep starting stacks.
“Players are going to get more value for the dollar than they will find at any of our competitors’ rooms,” said Poker Room Manager Jim Pedulla. “They are going to get huge starting stacks and a great structure that gives them more time to play. Also, our poker room has the ability to host 600 players plus alternates all in the same room, so no one will have to feel segregated from the tournament.”
Registration begins at 10 a.m., and the events begin at noon. All preliminaries feature 50-minute blind levels. Most events are open no-limit hold’em tournaments, but the series also includes an Omaha eight-or-better event, a pot-limit Omaha event, a limit hold’em event, and a seniors event."
Sounds like a great alternative to the larger game, but I'm not sure how they can hope to compete as an equal. Going to be uphill for them to come close, but I think they hit a market base with this one, and at prime time as far as number of players that are going without playing, or bust our early.
Comments
Edit: If they're smart, they'll hold their higher limit tournaments on the days where the WSOP plays a non-NLHE game and eat the WSOPs own lunch.
It will be like a kid in a candy store everyday, trying to choose between the WSOP's 55 events with PF of 11-158, Caesars Palace's 45 events with PF of 23-34, Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza's 45 events with PF of 15+, WPT Bellagio Cup IV's 8 events, Binion's 2nd Annual Poker Classic's 43 events, and Golden Nugget's 30 events. I was thinking of playing in the WSOP turbo satellites, but I now plan to play instead in the Mega Stack Series every day I'm free. If anybody is interested, I can try to post my analysis of the various tournaments.
Fair enough...just a nice way of ensuring they capture the lower buyin market during the series. Still, I DO like the structures...just wish I could get away to play some of them.
Good luck to any who head down.
I read WSOP reporters wondering why he didn't even play to defend his championship in this year's $1500 Event (#39). The current streak is now 43 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events. Robert had a good excuse - he was busy in the WSOP Pot Limit Hold'em Event #38 and won 6th place!
Maybe he was playing for practice for the ME? Just a guess.