Every summer, thousands of poker players flow like flood water into Las Vegas to play for millions of dollars and 100 bracelets at the World Series of Poker.
Meanwhile, poker rooms around the Vegas Valley compete hard all summer long to get them out of the WSOP and into another casino.
Poker's household names might hold down Horseshoe and Paris all series long, but most regular people want to branch out on their annual trip to Las Vegas. Sometimes that means a trip to the Wynn or Aria on an off-day, cash games at Bellagio after you bag, or the walk of shame to a $100 nightly after your pre-dinner bustout.
Drawing a crowd
Now that the WSOP is on The Strip, it's even harder for casinos to get players off the premises. It can be that much more difficult to get them to an off-strip poker room — but The Orleans appears to have found the magic formula.
The Orleans is just west of the strip and a modest rideshare from Horseshoe on a good day. Their 2025 Summer Open has been running since May 23, and it will culminate with an $800 Championship from July 2 through 6 with a $500,000 guarantee. It's the perfect climax for a series that has been breaking its own records all summer long.
Locals and sharp traveling recs know all about the Orleans Sunday Special. It's widely considered one of the best weekly tournaments in town. The Summer Open schedule added $100 to the buy-in and turned it into the Super Sunday Special, leading to an influx of record-breaking crowds that has sent Vegas poker's best kept secret into the mainstream.
Super duper Sundays
It started on May 25, when The Orleans hosted its first Super Sunday Special of the summer before the WSOP started. A crowd of 538 entries piled up $181,620 to set an initial record for the biggest single-day prize pool in Orleans history.
A week later on June 1, they set the watermark even higher with 587 entries and $196,380. It was a great showing for the first one held during the WSOP, but no one expected what would happen on the next Sunday.
The June 8 edition of the Super Sunday Special drew 815 entries, the most to ever sit down for any tournament or flight in the poker room's history. A $274,000 prize pool would end up chopped seven ways for $17K after the sun came up.
Not to be out done, the regular Friday night $200 Monster Stack set a record of its own with 365 runners last week, and a $1,100 TORSE event drew 161 players to shatter a $100K guarantee. Matt 'Grapes' Grapenthien took it down for $40K.
300K on a Sunday?
Now, once more, a Super Sunday Special has set a new standard at The Orleans. On a day when a record 43 tables were in use, over 819 entries went through the window on June 22 to set brand-new prize pool record of $276,060.
The magic formula is likely a combination of proximity, value, and word-of-mouth advertising. A quick trip down Tropicana for a cheap tournament with a big prize pool is everything an afternoon bustout needs. Big crowds can make for a chaotic scene and an alternate list, but players are happily making a trip to get in line for bigger prize pools every week.
Momentum is sure to carry over to the $800 Championship in early July, where Main Event crowds can win five figures or more from a $500K prize pool. Meanwhile, a few Super Sunday Specials remain for The Orleans to take a run at their first $300,000 prize pool for a single-day tournament.
