The last of several 2023 Aria High Roller series begins today at the PokerGO Studio, adjacent to the Aria, in Las Vegas. The post-Thanksgiving mini-series featured four one-day, $10,000-entry NLH events that are official PokerGo Tour tourneys, and are among the final PGT points-earning events of 2023.
The recurring Aria High Rollers have become an important addition to the Vegas high-roller poker scene. Since mid-June, the PokerGo Studio has already hosted 15 of the high-roller tourneys, with 15 different winners to date. Jesse Lonis was the most recent winner of an Aria high-roller event, when he topped a 67-entry field to earn $187,600 in late October.
Following this week's events at the Aria, only December's "WSOP in Paradise" series, which includes six PGT points-qualifying tourneys, remains in 2023 for players to climb the 2023 PGT leaderboard. Isaac Haxton currently holds a narrow lead, and the top 40 players will receive invites into the PGT's season-ending $1,000,000 freeroll
Aria events feature 'on time' entry discounts
One of the unique features of the Aria high-roller event is that they feature "on time" entry discounts to discourage late registration. The events are officially $10,500 events, with $10,000 going into each event's prize pool and $500 taken from each entry as an administrative fee.
Registering by the noon start, however, allows players to receive a $400 discount, meaning they pay only $10,100 total. Late registration has increasingly become a popular practice, particularly in pricier events, but the Aria high rollers are exclusive enough that, without the on-time discount as an incentive, it's possible that not enough players might register by the official starting time to get cards in the air.
There have been numerous examples throughout the poker world in recent years where tournament organizers have had to wait one or more hours due to players preferring to late-register. Rather than taking a wait-and-see approach, Aria's organizers have implemented the on-time incentive, with good results to date.
