put your face on the cover, bro

Can we keep this on topic for the VDSE and not make it about something or someone else please.

Thanks.

Sorry it took so long to reply, I've been working a lot lately and have not had much time to check the forums.

I have noticed that as far as cash games, it seems like in many poker regions, higher limit games and non-hold 'em games have converged to a single location. I think it makes sense that this would happen, even if interest in the games as a whole in the region is constant.

If there are two casinos in my town that spread 20-40 LHE but one has a game around the clock while the other only goes on weekdays and sporadically on weeknights, I may decide to visit the more popular place if I want to play 20-40 LHE, even if I would normally prefer the other place due to its location, staff, etc.

This creates a chain reaction, because for every player who decides not to play in the less popular game, the other players have more of an incentive to also switch. Maybe I'll still go to the less popular casino because there is an 80% chance of a game on a Wednesday night, but now another player decided not to turn up because his threshold for switching was 90% and now the chances of a game goes down to 75%, causing me to not go there, which causes the chances of a game to go down to 70%, etc.

Of course, we are talking about tournaments instead of cash games, but I think a similar idea applies. Almost everyone who plays in a tournament wants to see a large field: that generally means a softer field and always means better potential payouts for winning. When somewhere like the Rio is generating the fields it does, it makes sense that eventually, everyone will just decide to play there because the fields in the other venues are going to get smaller and smaller as more players switch over.

Personally, I would rather play at the Venetian than the Rio, if the field was identical. I think almost anyone would. Add in the Venetian structures and it is a no brainer. However, the Rio is where I am going to play NLHE tournaments this summer, because of the size of their fields.

Having said all this, I may be wrong that the NLHE war is unwinnable. I do think that is probably true when talking about the price points that the Rio dominates (<$250 for the daily deepstacks and $1k+ for the WSOP). There may, however, be an opportunity for another place to win the war in that range in between where the Venetian has a lot of tournaments.

Tommy,

A little off topic, but what is with the video poker machines recently installed in the poker room? Looks a little tacky (for Venetian) right there in the front. Did you remove a couple of tables?

We still have all of our tables

Tommy

I agree with your general premise that poker scheduling includes positive feedback situations. I disagree somewhat about the end result, though.

First off, I think one of the main reasons the DSE crowds have gotten smaller has little to do with the competition at the WSOP or otherwise. They have simply made a conscious decision to reduce the space they have available. This has not been a Tommy decision, IMO, but rather one made for him by his bosses. I think to a large degree, and this is true all over the place, not just at the DSE, TDs and casinos have been more concerned with making efficient use of their space (ie having all tables filled), than having any single tournament get as large a crowd as possible. There are a lot of logistical headaches that come with having huge-field events and I suspect for those reasons, and likely financial ones as well, TDs would rather have a number of smaller tournaments running simultaneously or in close succession than just one big one.

Secondly, and I think this is more to your points about the WSOP, even the Rio doesn't have unlimited space. And this means they will likely never be able to corner the market on all possible combinations of structure and price-point each day. So, IMO, there will always be room for other tournament series to fill in the gaps. It appears the other venues are becoming less interested in filing those gaps, which is a shame. It means there will be fewer and fewer good options for all poker players, not just the uber-whiney non NLH types.

Congrats on getting the mspt main event at Venetian. Will this use your structure or theirs.

I am excited for the partnership. It will use our structure that we will use for every $1100 event this summer.

Tommy

So its just their name on your already scheduled 1k?

Allen, the structures for the Venetian and MSPT have similar structures. Why ask if it is merely a V tournament with MSPT name. Why aggrevate or embarrass. Let it be.

They are different. Also the mspt has a points system based on playing a series of their events.

Tommy told you it was the V structure and you already know it's a MSPT event. Now why the next question is what I am referring.

I'd think Allen wanted to know because he came up with the new mspt structure.

Allen,

Look at this structure below and tell me who runs this event?

1st Level - 50-100
2nd Level - 75-150
3rd Level - 100-200
BREAK
4th Level 25 100-200
5th Level 25 150-300
6th Level 50 200-400
BREAK
7th Level 50 250-500
8th Level 75 300-600
9th Level 100 400-800
BREAK (race off 25's) End of Late Reg & Re-Entries
10th Level 100 500-1,000
11th Level 200 600-1,200
12th Level 200 800-1,600
BREAK
13th Level 300 1,000-2,000
14th Level 400 1,200-2,400
END OF DAY 1 (race off 100's)
15th Level 500 1,500-3,000
16th Level 500 2,000-4,000
17th Level 500 2,500-5,000
BREAK (race off 500's)
18th Level 1,000 3,000-6,000
19th Level 1,000 4,000-8,000
20th Level 1,000 5,000-10,000


Tommy

Looks like mspt structure. If same as yours then kudos to Venetian. You used to skip levels and start lower.

I pulled that straight from the MSPT website which also stated 40 min levels until the final table, at which point levels would go to 60 minutes.

This is the exact structure I have used for 2 years now I believe, but my $1100 events use 60 min levels throughout the event. So it is frustrating when you make quotes like below, when you havent played in our room since 2012.

"They are different. Also the mspt has a points system based on playing a series of their events."

as this spreads a lot of mis-information to the readers on this site.

Now, I have adjusted my $1100's for this summer to end on Day 2, due to player request during the WSOP. So this event will have 40 min levels for 18 levels, then play 60 min levels until the conclusion of the event.

Hopefully we can expect you this summer for this MSPT event

Tommy

I love playing at the Venetian. I am a tourist and feel welcome there. It Issa great place to play.

Im a big supporter of mspt but booked everyday at wsop. Amazed that a structure I wrote by hand at mspt baton rouge so closely resembles yours.

Last time I played at v there werw key levels missing . Glad you guys got it right .


Also I was one who would nt late reg there because of ridiculous chip penalties. Glad they fixed that too.

U guys are doing a great job.

Allen, this is what I was trying to tell you.

Now if we could only get Adelson to support online poker, everything would be A ok

Hello Tommy, will you run any kind of satellite (MTT, S&G) before the MSPT event ?
Thanks

We will offer single table satellites to all events.

Tommy

Tommy, thoughts on eliminating Dinner Breaks from tourneys when you have an "A" and "B" flight the same day as they usually are shorter days? I know this past main event was only 8 levels on 1A and we took dinner after level 6, seems unnecessary to me to have one at all, we could be done at 845 and people could do their thing for dinner

When we have an A and B Flight on the same day during the summer DSE, there won't be a dinner break. The main event dinner break for DSE II was an oversite as originally we were going to play 10 levels, and I switched it to 8 later. At that time, I forgot to pull the dinner break like I had planned.

So, basically I agree with you.

Tommy

Tommy; thanks for all the great answers and professional attitude. Question: how many levels is registration open for in these events ? Suggestion: Can't you starts a thread for this series. I have no idea about this Aska guy, but, its a waste of time scroll by his posts to get to your sensible replies to other players questions. Keep up the good work, planning on meeting you out there in May/June