Hello!
A poker enthusiast here!! Love it but not that good at it. Not much time. Turning 50 in December. Yes a Senior!!! So what is a better way to celebrate turning 50 than trying couple of Seniors tournaments in Las Vegas?
There are couple options in December, WPT at Wynn Seniors championship ($1100 / $200k GT) a little high but doable. At venetian there are couple (range $400.-$600 $50k GT ).
Hope the kind community can answer few question of your fellow!!!!!
1- Is playing Seniors event different from the normal fields open for youngsters?
2- Is WPT at wynn more value than the Venetian's?
3- Nowadays everyone including seniors (even me) takes poker a little more serious and study. So what do you expect from such fields? GTO, exploitative more? Nits? LAGS? TAGS?

I appreciate any insight!!!!!!

I really like playing at the Wynn. Nice venue and their tournaments typically have low rake with a good structure. Given the choice, I would rather play there than Venetian, particularly if it's a special occasion.

I'm not a senior, so I can't speak to that piece, but generally I've found the Wynn series to be a pretty good level that skews more towards serious players. I've played against quite a few recognizable names there in the past few months, and that's just in their $400 events. Your starting table will likely have some mediocre players, a couple strong players, and then maybe a name pro or two eventually. I find that pros are more likely to late reg or rebuy than amateurs, so often they're filling seats later in the day vs. sitting down at the start of the first level.

I don't think you can make sweeping generalizations about play style. Most tables are a mixture of nits, LAGs, and maybe the occasional bad station. Would expect a seniors event to be slightly more passive/tight. GTO would not be a big worry for me in a one-time event where you are going to have different tablemates after a few hours. The recipe is probably solid ABC play mixing in exploits based on villain tendencies.

Have fun!

I started playing in the WSOP senior event every year about 8 years ago when I heard two guys talking at a FW table. One guy said he was never going back because the players were so bad they knocked you out with stupid plays. Ironically that's what happened to me my first two WSOP Senior events. It evens out over time though.

At the time I thought senior tournaments started at 60+ but when I found out it was 50+ I was bummed I had missed out.

The Venetian is far better field wise than the Wynn. I don't think I have cashed in a Wynn Senior tournament. I have gone fairly deep at the Venetian and cashed more than once.

What you will find in Senior tournaments is a lot of limping pre flop. If you can take advantage of that then its a start towards getting into the money.

The other thing to note is that 3-bets are not going to be balanced. 4-bets will almost never be GTO bluffs. I tend to play AK a little differently in Senior tournies now. Typically I will call a 3-bet rather than 4-bet.

Similarly EP opens (UTG and UTG+1) will be very strong.

There will be some LAGs who will be very good. But not as many as in a normal tournament.

I'm in the same boat. Will be my first seniors event. Should be a blast! Will play the following.
•Wynn Senior $1,100 $200,000 guarantee
•Wynn Prime Championship $1,100 2 Mill. Guarantee
And possibly the WPT World Championship $15 Mill. Guarantee

Hope to see everybody there.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Hope it's some help.

Can't speak to the Wynn, but I've been playing the WSOP Seniors pretty much each year for a few years now. If that's anything like your field, I think you'll find some total recs, but generally a decent field. Nowhere as tough as the open fields, of course.

The thing I really liked about 'advancing' to the Seniors vs the open is it's a much more casual atmosphere. Yes, everyone is trying to win and playing their best. However, it's a convivial and fun event too. All us old people have seen all the beats before. Never seen anyone in one of these events talk ****, deride someone else's play, or any of that. Good between-hand chats, friendly competition. No hoodies and sunglasses with earbuds and ipads.

It's a bunch of old folks sitting around playing cards, having a good time.

Guesses on how large the field will be for the seniors event?