It's every year, always on the same dates, they're not caught off guard...



As for the issue of dealers, they can still publish a schedule and then later decide how many players each event is capped at based on the number of dealers they will have...


In my opinion, they're not very interested in customer satisfaction; it doesn't bring them much profit. They know their events will be full, so why make an effort? The only ones making a real effort in communication are the WSOP because for them, it's a genuine global stake rather than just a mandatory part of their poker room job.

Correct on all counts….

And don't forget the canceled guarantee events halfway through their series a few years ago. Most probably already forgot, which is what they were banking on.

The dealer thing is real I think. At this point most dealers know they can get a job basically any time leading up to summer so they they feel no pressure to commit. I suspect the living expenses make it less worthwhile as well.

Don't think capped events can realistically happen, but I do think more freezeouts/shorter rebuy window/capped rebuy quantities could help. We've had MGM re-schedule events and Orleans not payout guarantee's. I don't think the slightly smaller field will hurt anything.

Not me, but if you go back and look, I got reamed on here for daring challenge the Orleans on that fact.

Again I’m not speaking to the specific circumstances at Orleans or any of the other venues which have yet to post schedules.

I’m just telling you all of the venues which hold large events during the WSOP have to get space and work out other logistical issues. All of these things require upper management approval.

And if you look at the changes in the summer series in places like the Venetian and Wynn over time, you can see things are not the same year to year.

And lastly, there is a general hierarchy in events. Even if they don’t compete at the same buy-in levels, venues like MGM and Orleans need to wait for other schedules to come out before they can even finalize their own schedules. When a TD makes a mistake, it leads to things like what happened at Orleans in the past.

ORLEANS SCHEDULE :-

Just had a very productive exchange of email correspondence with one of the people at the Orleans. I hope they won’t mind me posting here the very informative response that was sent to me:-


I'm hoping to release the full schedule Friday, I'm just waiting on my bosses approval

Well, they should just apply for 2025 right now since we know there will be WSOP in 2025, we know the dates within a few days, we know we'll need spaces, we roughly know how many dealers we'll need to hire. When I hear justifications, it feels like every year it's a completely unpredictable and new event, and that everything needs to be reinvented, getting permissions again, rethinking things we do every year. I confess I don't understand. Okay, for the details of the tournament schedule that depend on the program, especially the WSOP, but besides that, what's unexpected and new ?

That's the most commonly spoken phrase by poker rooms every year from March to May

People know when birthdays occur well in advance each year. Yet anyone who has ever thrown a big birthday party knows it takes a long time to plan things out. And folks don’t typically send out invitations till they know where the party will be held.

Anyhow, most casino managers would rather do just about anything besides accommodate poker operations. So they are certainly going to wait till as late as possible before approving any sort of short-term expansion in order to make a summer series possible.

My friends and I (and I know it's the case for all overseas players) are organizing our trip to Vegas based on the tournament schedule, so we optimize according to the WSOP schedule and sometimes the Venetian, as they announce far enough in advance. The others announce too late, and considering other constraints, we can't take them into account, likely missing out on the best tournaments at the Orleans and Aria.

To be fair, I'm sure tournament organizers at the other venues realize people aren't waiting on their schedules to plan their Vegas summers. So, they just try to build a schedule to complement what the WSOP is doing in hopes of drawing away some of the traffic that comes for certain events (mixed games, low-buy-in, big-field NLHE, etc.). Still, it's a little surprising how long it takes them to get it finalized and approved.

As a lowroller I used to wait, but you get reamed on hotel prices. I would absolutely tailor my schedule on the lower buy-in events if they released schedules sooner. Now I book on WSOP and just hope to find good tournaments at the lower levels when I am there.

the same for me, and unhappy.

Same here. These days, there’s no alternative.

https://x.com/ARIAPoker/status/1781128830301942258

Finally. If the Orleans statement is correct they will publish today as well, that leaves MGM as the last one.

Maybe that's why they delay. The shorter the lead time, the higher the room prices go.

Making hotel reservations well in advance and then altering them is typically easy and does not incur a fee. And making flight reservations domestically more than 4-6 weeks ahead of time usually means paying a premium, so why would anyone need to know their exact dates further out?

Outside of the understandable psychological desire to “know” and make firm budget plans, I don’t get what the issue is. Folks aren’t even going to Vegas to specifically play these satellite series. They are going for the WSOP and use the other series as fillers.

No, that’s wrong. For many people, the peripheral events are the primary attraction and the WSOP series is merely the catalyst that causes them to come into existence. For my own part, whilst I will usually play one or two WSOP events such as the Super Seniors and the Colossus, the big draw is the opportunity to come to LV and play tournaments poker at places like Orleans and GN in non-holdem variants such as HiLo, 2-7, Triple Stud etc with very affordable entry costs of just a few hundred dollars. This is something that’s almost impossible to source at any other time, especially outside of USA. I don’t think at all that I am all that unusual in this respect, I think that a lot of people are happy to feast on the alternative schedules and appreciate the WSOP as the enabling mechanism rather than the central objective.

By the same token, I’ll be back in December for the winter series, but I doubt I’ll step foot in the Wynn where the WPT is held, I’ll be scratching around in the rival low roller events held elsewhere….

Yeah, lots of people do things differently. Sometimes they are booking for specific dates that they are available and they will play what's best for them (that's the bucket I'm in this year, really only had one week I could make work this summer). Sometimes they book around specific events. Sometimes they go for WSOP stuff primarily and may fit something in around it. But lots of people may go with their one big tourney being a WSOP event and then plan other $200-600 tourneys or whatever around that.

I made my initial hotel booking in November 2023. Had to modify it by 1 day this year and that was a snap. Changed them a 2nd time to get better rates. Just the typical room rate game I do every year.

Since I retired it's relatively easy for me since the WSOP schedule is fairly stable year to year and the events I target. All non WSOP events are important fill ins and while I "sweat" their release I also know that the other casino's definitely fit their schedules around the WSOP draw. I can look at the Senior, Super Senior events and know 7 or 8 events I will hit baring duplicate dates. The Main event is the option I hold open depending upon my earlier results.

I have players cards from 2023, Wynn, Golden Nugget, etc. Do I have to get a new one for 2024 for every casino?

WSOP is the main draw and eceryone else just fits in elsewhere. Sunday fllight did throw a small wrench into the big NLH flights if you're used to coming back mid week and may have to alter a day or two

But nothing really changes drastically unless you're specifically looking for like a $240 triple stud or something.

And ya (domestic) flights are best to book around the 4-6 weeks so no need to book early anyway.

Hotels, just book early and keep rechecking.

Granted everything is late this year because everyone had to wait for WSOP.

I get that they're using marketing to try to hype it up, but I don't think most players really care that much about what the Aria is doing that we need a preview of the release. Just release the damn schedule.

Especially when they do nothing but NLH with an occasional PLO......