Thanks for the info. I was looking at last year's schedule. Good thing I checked in

I appreciate the deep structured tournaments. As long as only the final table has to go to day 2 with the table having the option to vote to finish on day 1, that is fine.

Agreed!

What about parking? Does tourney entry cover parking in their self park or is it easier to just valet.

Above quote was from last year's GN Grand thread. I prefer staying downtown, so if I end up there this year I may end up giving them another shot, but if I end up staying on the strip, will probably not make the trip downtown specifically for these events.

I realize that during the WSOP the competent dealer pool is really stretched with the multitude of tournaments going on in town.

Perhaps I was just unlucky with the dealers I drew last year. Any others have problems with dealer competency during this series in the past? Incompetent dealers at other venues?

It's not just you.

I've never played anywhere -- at any time -- where there wasn't at least one incompetent dealer, and all venues have trouble getting enough dealers at this time of year, but my worst (and bizarrely hilarious) experiences have been at the GN. I've also heard this from other players.

Since all people make mistakes, it is how mistakes are corrected that makes the difference, and in a poker tournament the task of correcting mistakes falls upon the Floor. I haven't played GN tourneys in a couple of years, but in the past some of the floor staff seemed incompetent, inexperienced and/or unknowledgeable. I have reason to believe that steps have been taken to correct this, and I plan on playing several events this year.

Didnt really have a problem with any dealers last year during Big O tourney.

I agree with Mack. Last year, I was playing a PLO8 event there and they didn't have enough dealers available for any dealers to be pushed out. Alternates were being sat as players busted, so no tables broke and we got about 4 or 5 straight downs with the same dealer.

My table lucked out as we had one of their few very competent dealers, but half of the field must have gotten hosed with a knucklehead for 2+ hours straight. We were complimenting our dealer, who was getting more and more annoyed with the lack of a push/break, until he finally said "I'd rather go take a piss and smoke a cigarette than hear another compliment."

Eventually the alternates dwindled down and a table broke and that dealer was used to give other dealers a bathroom break.

I believe they will stamp (validate) your parking garage ticket at the tournament registration desk. At least that's how they do it during the Golden Saturday tournies.

About three hours ago, I was playing at a table in South Florida and I mentioned to the guy on my right that I was thinking about playing in the GN tourneys. First thing out of his mouth was something along the lines of: "They have the worst dealers I've ever seen anywhere."

Some are quite good, but there are definitely some clunkers. But remember that they are usually dealing a lot of non-holdem at GN which some of the dealers rarely deal normally. I saw one truly horrible dealer, but the tournaments at Binions seem to include an even higher percentage of bad dealers including several with truly unpleasant attitudes.

There are good and bad dealers all over Vegas in June. You take your chances at all of the tournaments in this regards. The good news is that a lot of these bad dealers occasionally show up as bad poker players at other venues during June.

Played there at some point of my trip for the last 4 years and sometimes I ask myself why!! Some of the dealers are truly atrocious and the awful thing is that often it is a dealer you saw there the year before and the year before that. you would think they would get better.

a 40 minute clock at GN is like a 30 minute clock elsewhere!

Mind you binnions although i would say a marginally better standard some of the attitudes beggars belief.

One woman in particular is so sullen it is untrue. She even played one of the tourneys last year with the same attitude and the guy who knocked her out was congratulated by the entire table.

They both use white-shirt dealers, but I'll take Binion's over the GN if I have a chance because the floor staff has been light-years ahead in terms of quality. Rumor has it that the GN staff will be improved this year, so I'll keep an open mind. Note that I normally only play non-holdem events, so ymmv. Also note that Binion's hasn't posted a schedule, so I don't know if they are even having the Classic series this year.

The Legends Classic has undergone a name change. Now known as the Master's Poker Series.

http://masterspokerseries.com/

I haven't seen a full schedule from Binion's yet but the Master's website shows a $400 2-flight tourney with re-entry at Binion's being held June 20th thru 22nd this year.

They said schedule to be released early April on their Facebook page.

They have validated my parking garage ticket after MTT registration. If you ask the registration desk, they may even stamp a second one if you decide to leave/come back for dinner break.

The new home of the LIPS National Championship is at Planet Hollywood, while Golden Nugget will be competing directly on the same day of Saturday, June 27.

After vanishing all of the BigO tournaments and drastically cutting the other non-nlhe events as well, I am no longer making GN my home base for my annual June poker trip. I may not make it downtown at all this June unless Binions comes up with something special. Fun while it lasted but GN really screwed the pooch for me.

Big O back on 25 June.

Yep -- going to be very interesting, and probably not good for GN since the LIPS event starts 2 hours earlier. GN *may* benefit from a few people getting knocked out of LIPS, but not likely; they are more likely to re-enter the LIPS event.

And, as far as I know, still no word from GN management on why they are no longer partnering with LIPS, and it is still a point of contention for many of their players. I'm willing to give GN the benefit of the doubt that they have legitimate reasons, but it would be nice if they would chime in about it.

Darn. I already set up my two week schedule for my June poker awhile back. Sadly I will be heading home a few days before the 25th. Oh well. Still no GN for me this summer. Maybe next year.

Hidden chip bonus money always irked me and i avoid those events at all costs.

Would you elaborate please?

Events at gn have an "optional" dealer chip bonus.

You pay a nominal fee for extra chips.

Weird that isn't even on the structure sheets which do list a portion of the entry as going to staff? What does venue have to gain by hiding it?