You know, I think you have stumbled upon a great idea to give everybody what they want. The Venetian bathrooms are not only spacious, but also well kept. Frankly, they're some of the best bathrooms on the strip.

Tommy, I bet the floor crew at the Venetian could get at least 10 tables into the various bathrooms on the casino floor. Last year's mixed-game events averaged what, about 70 runners maybe. So, problem solved. And, players wouldn't even have to walk very far on their breaks to use the bathroom. At least that eliminates one thing they might find to whine about.

I guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions because maybe you live and work on a self-sustained farm where the exchange of money for goods and services is a foreign concept. Because if you are actually paid some sort of salary or other monetary compensation for whatever it is you contribute to society, then you are a big flopping hypocrite for thinking your greedy self-interest is somehow more noble or acceptable than that of the Sands Corporation or any company.

Hey tool you don't need to reply to every post. People don't love the schedule; not that big of a deal for them to post this fact

Tommy, I bet the floor crew at the Venetian could get at least 10 tables into the various bathrooms on the casino floor. Last year's mixed-game events averaged what, about 70 runners maybe. So, problem solved. And, players wouldn't even have to walk very far on their breaks to use the bathroom. At least that eliminates one thing they might find to whine about.[/QUOTE]

Dumb comment. Ignoring mixed games is bad for poker as a whole

You have no evidence for this viewpoint and even if you did, the Venetian is not responsible for being good for poker.

I don't reply to every post. Only the silly ones. And if a minority of self-important mixed game players feel its ok for them to incessantly whine on message boards, then I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to mock them.

The kicker is, these people and the things they want are irrelevant in the big picture of casino business. And instead of making themselves relevant by doing the things they (not the casino) are responsible for... like growing the popularity of mixed games, they just sit back and open their preverbal pie holes and complain.

I'll add my vote for being really underwhelmed. *sigh*

The past couple of years I've spent 30-40% of my summer playing time at the DSE. I just can't see that this year. I'm struggling to see how this schedule creates opportunity off the back of the WSOP schedule.

Glad I waited on scheduling my summer vegas trip. Mediocre schedule and not much to get excited about. Feels like the V is playing it safe with all the standard NLH events.

Last year, I think Venetian made the mistake of putting in too many non-NLHE games which thinned out the fields tremendously. I was hoping to see them respond by have just one event for each discipline, maybe two for HORSE and O8 since those are the most popular variations. I think if they did that and strategically scheduled them near WSOP events of the same stripe, they would have been able to get solid fields.

Tournaments self-propel their field size once they hit a critical mass. You see this at the Rio Deepstack events: every year the fields got bigger as more and more people heard about the large fields they were getting and were excited to play in a tournament with such a large field. Conversely, I was at a Venetian LHE event last year where the opposite happened: there were 9 only players registered. I spoke with maybe 10 people who walked up with the intention of playing, saw the current field size, and decided not to. I have no idea how many people did the same thing who I did not talk to. Later in the series, I am sure a lot of people who would have been willing to play a $600 non-NLHE event did not even bother coming because they had heard about the poor fields that had been generated so far. If you had just one event per discipline over the summer, you would be more likely to have good self-propulsion than the self-defeat you had last year.

Speaking of the Rio, that is where I will be playing any NLHE tournaments this year. I would much rather play a short structure against a ton of really bad players that try to grind out a deepstack tournament against a smaller field of a bunch of solid players at the Venetian.

Ultimately, I believe the Rio has already won the NLHE war and I expect to see them continue adding events and pulling players away from the other venues. While competition is usually a good thing, it does seem that in poker, the strongest competitor usually becomes the only one in a local market. You see this with cash games: take the Las Vegas LHE scene where a few years ago, there were 5 places in town to play 8/16 or higher and now Bellagio stands alone. The only time it doesn't happen is if one place doesn't have the capacity to support all games, such as the Vegas NLHE cash game scene. The Rio, however, may have the capacity to host all NLHE tournaments during June.

I think any competitor who wants to compete in tournaments this summer needs to be focused on developing some non-NLHE events since that is a war that is still winnable.

I agree, priced out of this series and the evening tournaments are no longer desirable. by the way, who the f made ashank or whatever his name is the sargeant-at-arms in this and other threads. Castigating those who are desirous of certain games as if they should be beholding to the powers that be; it sucks.

The Venetian does as it wants, we're all aware of this and we can vote with our feet. The recommendation of Nugget is good and there are hopefully others who can fill the gap. I will only play NLH, because of my abilities, but in no way does this series please me as a lower buy in runner. Also I won't have to breathe in sweet smelling air which at the end of the day comes out as a cough tasting the same.

+1
Was hoping for some more $125-300 range. Looks like I'll be at the RIO

It's hard to find mixed games, with mid level buy ins ($400-$800). The Venetian was the leader (and maybe only casino) in providing these for the summer series, which are all gone now.

Pretty disappointing for mixed game players.

Very disappointed. They could have scheduled a $400-500 mixed event for each game three days prior to the $1500 wsop version. This format has proven to be successful in the past.

This is crap really disappointed I waited for this, last yr was great. Why the one eighty tommy? I mean I understand maybe not having so many mixed games or changing the times around but this is what u guys came up with... Really.

Tommy u should think about changing this, u know the schedule is bad when u only have 1 or 2 ppl saying they like it then a mix of NL and mixed players saying they will skip the events.

Looks like I'll be skipping this unless it gets re-worked.

Add another one to the list of disappointeds

Going to be in LV for ten days and playing the WSOP dealer's choice. But was looking forward to seeing what the V was going to have. I guess I'll just stay at the Rio

When I looked at the schedule, I thought I was looking at a typo

Whats wrong, is the space. I do not have ballroom after ballroom to run multiple events. Last year you commented that numbers were low because we were in the Palazzo and had no walk up traffic. This year I move the series back to the Venetian, and you say how terrible it is. I simply do not have the space to run multiple events every day like I did last year. Slow breaking down limit events make that even harder this time of year.

Tommy

The $5K heads up will be a two day event with 30,000 starting chips, much like the WSOP.

I do not anticipate having all structure sheets complete for a couple weeks though

Tommy

I am not sure where you get your data from, but mixed events have been on decline since 2011. The best numbers were from 2010 and 2011 at the height of the B&M boom with tournaments. As this is 2014, the numbers have gone down ever since. To pull data from 1-2 tournaments at the height of the boom to compare with 50 tournaments since, is unfair and misguides the players reading these posts.

Tommy

Without trying to sound rude, this is a very accurate account. I am not in the business of trying to grind an axe over anything. I am in my position to look at the numbers /have a relationship with our players to see demand / and produce a schedule that is beneficial to the casino and the majority of players.

I have to take into account many factors like space / restarts / cash game build up / revenue / labor / past history / as well as predicting likely turnouts. I do not make my numbers up, as they come from hard data.

Tommy

I did make them available last year, which I was actually very excited to offer. I had additional space that I do not have this year. And I was rewarded with, low turnouts that produced negative revenue producing events.

I believe we are a Leader in the Industry. I tried that format last year with little to no success. This year, I am offering $5.2 Million in guarantees. I do not see any other venue in town that has come in close to offering that in a series here in Las Vegas.

So, our versions of what a Leader is may differ a little.

Tommy

Players will be able to play Flight B after playing Flight A if they bust. I plan to end the evening flight by 2am, so I can bring back the players refreshed the next day.

We will offer SNG's, but it will most likely depend on table availability. I forsee them running every morning until things start to really pick up in the afternoon.

Tommy

I am in my position to maximize the space /revenue / player fields. If that is what you call a money grab, I respect your opinion. If I fail in the above, I will not be the TD here this time next year.

Tommy

I respect your decision to play where you feel it is best for you. This schedule is final and I am very excited for the summer and the $5.2 million in guarantees.

Tommy

Dumb comment. Ignoring mixed games is bad for poker as a whole[/QUOTE]

I have done anything but ignore mixed games. Over my time as TD, I have offered more mixed game events than any other venue in town. My space is limited this year and I made the best schedule that I could. I was very upfront from the very beginning that mixed game events would be limited this summer. I was never deceitful when asked and spoke about that in this thread when asked.

Tommy

I do apologize if this was what you were looking for. Typically we do not offer this low of buy in during our summer series. I wish you the best and hope you run well.

Tommy