Aria Summer Classic is up on Card Player, no structures as of yet. Any information from players or otherwise is always appreciated.

https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-tou...-poker-classic

I didn't get to play any of the daily events last year, but I did play one of the $240 nightly NLHE (7pm start). I was impressed with the structure and the quality of opponents was not especially good.

I talked to one of the players who was at the FT of the PLO event that had started at 11am that day, and he was bragging about the structure/dealers/floor for it.

Some will complain about the smoke and noise, as the tournaments are held on the casino floor near Javier's rather than in the poker room. The smoke didn't faze me (I'm a non-smoker), but somebody especially sensitive might object. The noise was only noticeable to me when some drunks got some rungood at the blackjack table (and then it was funny more than anything). It was game 6 of the NBA finals that night, and I remember lots of hooting and hollering about that, including people on the rail watching "our" TVs. No big deal really.

I busted ~25th when 4bet all in QQ lost to AQ #notbitteratall at about 2 am, so 7 hours in. ~18 paid out of ~140 IIRC.

Highly recommended.

Edit: I've been thinking about it, I think I'm wrong about the entries. I think it was 230 entries and 27 paid or so. Which means I was 35th, because I know I didn't cash.

Concur about smoke being pretty much a non-issue even when at the tables near the rails. I played a small handful of events last year at Aria and was at tables near three of the rails at different times (in addition to some time in the middle).

The biggest issues I remember were actually not noise from the tables but the big pillar light display that was just behind a player in the corner nearest Javiers and the craps table side of the rail. I got moved to that table and some of the colors were REALLY bright...

Televisions were sometime that got tuned out not unlike slot machine noise...

Good news for some; new space is right outside the poker room , hooray ! But of course, not entirely agreeable to some for all events are big blind ante but player friendly structures (not up as of yet).

https://twitter.com/ariapoker?lang=en

And last place to release structures goes to Aria. 33 days until your series starts.

Can't tell, have they released it or still waiting-can't find it.

Here's the $400 NLHE structure sheet
http://vegas-poker-schedule.com/sheet/aria/$400%20NLH%20Aria%20Classic%20%20Structure.pdf

For the rest, go to http://vegas-poker-schedule.com/export.php filter by "Aria" and click on the individual tournaments

How come other billion dollar (and some just multi-million dollar) casinos are capable of releasing their own structures via their own platforms, but Aria isn't?

Don't know, but one big change is the nightly $240's have 20 minute levels through the first 12 levels and then 30 minutes. Its too bad, in my perspective anyway, but still playable for me, in any case.

The structures are decent and don't start antes until the third level.

Aria Classic structures :

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...6LnF04A6JyVI56

Interesting. Looks like they're using a shot-clock for the WPT500 starting at the money-bubble. If its an effective tool to speed up play, I would think it should used earlier than this, but maybe this is just to try things out.

Anyhow, I am on the fence as far as how effective this will be. On the one hand, it would obviously avoid the mega-Hollywood-ing and those excruciatingly long decisions that shouldn't be so excruciatingly long.

However, if players are given 30-seconds to make a decision... how many will take all or nearly all of that time even if their decision does not merit it? Multiple that "minor" Hollywood-ing times 9 players, and theoretically, the shot clock could INCREASE the length of time hands take to play. This seems like a potential double-edged sword.

Looks good, Thank you!

Can anyone give a smoke update of the tournament area?

Everyone loves to smoke right outside the poker room and tables are closer then in 2014/2015, hoping they made the whole section non smoking (even though no one will enforce it)

Can anybody tell me when a $400 11 AM NLH might finish? How deep into the next AM are we talking?

Depends on chop vs play til the death, and also what other events are going on those days, but I've seen them go as early as midnight and as late as 4am. I'm sure there's extremes both ways from there, but that's from the past couple summers observations (my WSOP travel buddy always gets into those at Aria).

Extremely disappointing turnouts the past few days. Only 144 for the O/8 event on Saturday and then 39 for the triple draw mixed. I saw 19 on the entry tally yesterday for the 2-7 triple draw event and that was level 6 or 7 when I was leaving to catch my flight.

I played the O/8 event and did not like the current location. Aside from the lighting issues that have always plagued the middle-of-the-floor set-up, there was a far worse problem with smoke in the current location. You have the two restaurants plus the poker room players who step out to smoke their cancer sticks. While the floor was at least making an attempt on Saturday to get the smokers to move along, the reality is that those on the edge tables got stuck dealing with it in a worse manner than when they were in front of Javiers.

I was in the 8-seat at my first table and the glare was really bad off of the sticker on the chips. It was not as bad when I got moved to a different table and was in the 2 seat. However, in exchange for the lack of glare, I got stuck with the smokers. Even worse was the same foreign idiot who insisted on continuously coming to the rope and smoking.

No dinner break but a series of 12-minute breaks every three levels once we got past Level 4 on Saturday. Not sure if that was how they are doing all of the events and readily admit that I have not looked at the NLHE structure sheets. I had already struck the Aria from the calendar for ALL of the NLHE events once they chose to go to the BBA.

On the bright side...cash games are rocking and rolling. Lots of non-US money being tossed around by people willing to shove it in the middle light. I saw more than one turn shove with king-high or with second-pair, no kicker. Occasionally some of those same people would take the same line with a set and got paid off...the $2/5 games were better than the $1/3 in terms of the low stakes action. Was not out there long enough this week to give the $5/10 games much of a look. I did play one cash session at the Rio and found the Aria cash games to be better, albeit with a higher variance.

Actually... it's not that bad.
100+ players for a 470$ O/8 tourney looks okay.
Of course 39 players in the Triple Draw mixed is not what you would call a hit, but it's not realistic to expect more than 80 or 90 players for that kind of tournament.
BTW I think the fields would be way bigger with a 200/300$ buy-in.

I based my comments on the early season O/8 at the Venetian last year...slightly smaller entry ($400 versus the $470 at Aria) and we had 180+ in that one. And with other O/8 events that were in the same window for WSOP, I just expected to see a better turnout, especially given the lists that constantly exist at the Orleans...

We had 53 for the Triple Draw Mix last year at the Nugget...and if downtown can draw 53, it was not unreasonable to expect at least the same (if not more) at the Aria. The price point is not what I view as the problem...it just isn't that much money.

Venue WILL be a concern for me as I look at everything I had on the calendar that was a non-NLHE event though. I wonder how many others began looking at it in the same light...no pun intended.

I played at the Aria as well. 144 is actually a decent number considering there was no guarantee. Last year they only had 113 but they had it in a bad spot of the month and not near the WSOP $1500 O8. I think if the did a little better job at advertising the series, maybe slap a guarantee on it and find a better location in their casino to hold the event, it could rival the Venetian O8. I know a few O8 players that had no idea there was an O8 at Aria that Saturday when I ran into them at the WSOP $1500 O8 on Thursday.

The numbers were down at the Venetian this year compared to last for their $600 O8. However, this year they only had a $100K guarantee (274 players) versus last year which was $150K guarantee (360 players). Another factor in some of the down numbers (I believe) would be the Vegas Golden Knights being in the Stanley Cup Finals. I think that affected the numbers for the Planet Hollywood $250 O8 on Wednesday and also Day 1A of the $600 O8 at the Venetian on Monday.

The numbers for the WSOP $1500 O8 were pretty much right in line with previous years:

2018: 911
2017: 905
2016: 934
2015: 918
2014: 1036

I think that's a good sign. O8 will always attract more players than any other mixed game at the series and as long as the number stays at 900+, the health of the game will always be strong. I think the TD's did a great job at clustering the O8 events this year. I hope it continues next year.

Anyone know the number of entries in yesterday's horse event?

Not sure exact entrants but 15 were paid

Based upon this and their usual 10-11 % payoff ; bout 136-150 entries.

I was going to play their seniors event today, but called first, and they don't validate parking for tournament play. So, I will just not go. I think every casino who charges for parking is being stupid. At least at the Wynn they will validate, so it's free if you play poker, cash or tourney. But to charge a player to park, **** that!

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Unfortunately, it looks like this is the way Vegas is going... just like resort fees. If people will pay, they will charge. People pay resort fees. They pay exorbitant sums for alcohol/cover charges, etc. At lest there are still a few free parking holdouts, like the Venetian, but I doubt that will last.

Also bad at the Aria tournaments... you have about a 10% chance of being in a boxed in spot where you can't leave the table without 2-3 people getting up to let you out to take a piss in the middle of a level. Really feels ridiculous to have that situation for a $400+ buy-in tournament.