Thank you so much for this.

Thx Sir

Aria schedule due by the end of next week according to their own TD on Twitter.

One week later, still nothing. IIRC they were also slow with the schedule last year.

Guess with all their energy going into the PGT stuff, they can't be bothered to worry about the plebs.

Early next week for Aria and Orleans "soon enough".

Ceasars pre WSOP mixed game warm up for anyone in town early

https://vegasmixedgame.com/caesars_2023.php

The fact they are calling it a warm up has me hopeful something more is on the horizon.

every year it's the same thing, they announce release dates and never respect them... I can't understand this way of working...

Ha, yeah, it's the WSOP

Aria schedule finally.

https://twitter.com/TDPaulCampbell/s...91853436379136

What jumps out to me right away is that the $400 price point is adios.

I can honestly afford to play higher, so it doesn't affect my plans, but it's a little sad to see the venues abandon the $400-500 range.

Just a dire schedule.

Almost entirely NLHE, with a bit of PLO sprinkled around. Increased entry levels @$600. Low guarantees @125 players. 30 min levels. No seniors after June 16.

No reason to go there at all, there will be better offerings elsewhere in every respect. Not a single tournament at Aria will be making it onto my spreadsheet of possible candidates.

I may play there just because there are very few options in the price range and the small field sizes make the FT a realistic possibility.

But everything is marked up in summer. Wynn and Venetian are much higher for their multi-day stuff than during the normal part of the year.

I've come to accept that, with the exception of a few odd events here and there, you need to play up in summer to get the same depth/pace.

Of course you are right Dog, and other than WSOP themselves, everybody seems to be gradually upping their price points in summertime. One can see the pattern year on year. It will be interesting to see how Orleans price their series this year.
My main objection to the Aria schedule lies not in their pricing but the unimaginative nature of their game selection. Lots of holdem turbo tourneys and very little variety. They, to my mind, are offering nothing that isn’t catered for better elsewhere…

PS - shouldn’t you be updating your avatar at this time of year? - you’re likely to incur a visit from the Chametzpolizei with that photo

My analysis
apart from the WSOP which did not change much, the Buy In have a huge inflation.
The Venetian and the Wynn offer (almost) nothing below 1k. The Aria has increased its minimum buy In from 400 to 600, but it's still reasonable. We must wait to see the structures to judge these 600, hoping for a quite slow structure.
For small Bankrolls there remains the Nugget (but the rake is horrible), the sides of the WSOP and I strongly hope for a good program from Orleans which will allow small bankroll to dream about affordable tournaments.
I regret the generalization of mystery bounty. Ok they add fun but more importantly they add variance.

As usual they have very few non hold em events. I am there for 15 days and there are no events I would play in that time. Not many on my calender yet. I have hope for Orleans.

14/42 events are non hold em events. 33% of events. Way more than expected and what has been done in the past in a traditionally NLH house.

Hah. I've had this stupid thing for so long, I can't possibly change it now.

Any guesses on if southpoint, orleans, etc will run smaller mtts? I assume yes but no schedules so all guess work. I see gold nugget has a nice $200-200k first weekend of June.

I’m kinda bummed aria went up to $600s but I assume the structure will be a tad better than the 400s last year. I found those 400s to be valuetown and a little less variance bc field sizes weren’t gigantic. $600 might be really nice bc I feel field sizes will be down a tad and I’m sure player pool will be similar to the 400s.

Btw random comment but what do people here think of the mystery bounties? Idk I see aria has one when I’ll be there opening weekend of June. Kinda hate mystery bounties bc I feel they are just a crap shoot for the bounties. I kinda hate when they lower the winners take bc they need to play such a big % of the pool to a bounty. I think it would be kinda cool if they gave out say 5 big payouts and the rest of the bounties were standard bounties. I feel it’s meh when they have 1 or 2 big #s and the rest are lower. Idk though it’s gotta be cool to draw and have a chance at a big # though.

I don’t mind Mystery bounties as a variant. But they increase variance and emphasize luck a great deal. Would hate to see them expand beyond nice occasional gimmicks to the standard for bounty events.

Don't want to rehash the debate too much, but I think it's an interesting format because it spreads out the money instead of the default top-heavy payouts.

In theory it's more luck-based, but there's going to be a strong correlation between running deep/playing well and accumulating a lot of bounties, so I don't know that it necessarily decreases EV. Maybe if you are a Foxen-level crusher who's routinely making FTs, but for players who simply excel at running deep, it provides a chance to pull some big scores without hitting that miracle top 3 FT finish, which requires a lot of luck in the typical large field tournament.

Your ultra deep runs may result in lower returns, but it gives your small and medium cashes a chance to dip into the meaty part of the prize pool, which is appealing.

Most mystery bounties do not spread the money out. They give substantial percentages of the prizepool to fairly random players. While not quite as top-heavy as an event with no bounties, these are still really top heavy in the sense that a small percentage of the field gets a large percentage of the prizepool.

If a flatter payout structure is the goal, then regular bounty tournaments are what you want. Or you can just have a flatter payout structure without all the gimmicks.

Again, as an occasional variant, mystery bounties are fine, just like other random gimmicky variants. But the idea that these do anything good besides gin up people’s imagination that they can win a lottery is kind of crazy. Giving large percentages of the prizepool to random people is not poker. The goal of poker tournaments is #1) survive and #2) accumulate chips. That’s it. Knocking other players out is fine, but is not all that relevant, and giving people raffle tickets for doing so is not really poker either.

It's not really random though, as mystery bounties don't pay until the event is ITM. 85%+ of the field will not have any chance at a payday. Players with bigger stacks who make deeper runs will tend to have more envelopes and thus more odds to hit the big prizes. The good players are going to make more money in mystery bounties than the bad players. In a large sample size, it's still a contest of skill.

Like satellites or basic bounty tournaments, this format provides unique wrinkles that also dictate strategic adjustments (i.e. weighing survival vs. accumulation, making different equity calculations based on the prospect of eliminating players, etc). It's a bit old fashioned and rigid to argue that mystery bounty events "aren't poker".

It's the trendy format of the moment and we're seeing lots of venues jump onto the bandwagon. Only time will tell if the format will endure, but the early response has been enthusiastic, perhaps even to the extent that jaded players should still consider jumping into these events. The perception of them being a lottery will most likely result in softer fields relative to each price point, as you're more likely to see out-of-their depth shot takers register for a mystery bounty than a conventional MTT. The $1k mystery bounty at the WSOP last year attracted 14k entrants, which is nearly triple the $1k mini main and nearly 6x the turnout for the $1k freezeout (event 18). Part of that is down to having many flights, but clearly there's a lot of excitement to play these. That adds value. Large fields diluted by shot takers are great for the stronger players.

+1

There's definitely a different strategy you employ in a mystery bounty tournament, as accumulating bounties can take precedence over pay jumps. But I don't think they're particularly random or favor bad players - on the contrary, understanding the value of a bounty card vs. a pay ladder in a tournament spot (and how it should affect your range construction) is not something your average player will be able to grasp.

+1