A full summer of tournament poker in Las Vegas became even more overflowing, with both Golden Nugget Las Vegas and the Orleans announcing the slate of events for their respective series in recent days. At the Nugget, "The Grand" Poker Series returns May 31 - July 3, 2022. And at the Orleans, the 2022 Orleans Summer Open will run May 31 - July 10, 2022.
The May 31 date falls on the Tuesday immediately after Memorial Day (May 30 in the U.S.), and these aren't the only two series kicking off that day. The previously announced 2022 World Series of Poker and the Wynn Summer Classic both also begin on May 31, making the day a blastoff for a summer of tourney poker unlike anything anywhere else in the game.
The 2022 Aria Poker Classic gets underway just one day later, on June 1, while the Venetian's latest iteration of its DeepStack Championship begins earlier in May and runs through July. In addition, daily tournaments are available both in conjunction with these series and at several other Las Vegas properties. There will be plenty of choices for all players and budgets throughout June and July.
Golden Nugget's 'Grand' series is a Vegas downtown poker anchor
Of all the major poker series in Las Vegas this summer, the "Grand" Poker Series at the Nugget is the last remaining significant series held downtown. A summer series at Binion's, across the street from the Nugget, folded up its tables and chairs several years back, and that property no longer even offers poker. The Golden Nugget's series, however, continues on. It was launched in 2008 and titled as a tie-in to the unremarkable poker pastiche "The Grand", which debuted the previous year.
Few people remember the movie, but the Golden Nugget's series of the same name has long since settled in as a mid-priced alternative to some of the pricier events on the Strip. There's only one event with a buy-in of more than $600 on the entire Grand series slate, and that's an $1,100-entry NLHE event with multiple starting flights and a $1 million prize pool guarantee. The first of the starting flights for this event is on Friday, June 24.
The main event of the Grand series is Event #73, a $600 NLHE tourney. This event features four separate Day 1's, and the first of those is on Thursday, June 20. This event carries a $500,000 guarantee.
$3.5 million in guarantees in Orleans Summer Open
(Important Update: On June 14, Orleans cancelled the remaining multi-flight events in its Summer Open. The image below shows the revised schedule -- hh.)
Meanwhile, one of the Golden Nugget's direct competitors in the Las Vegas summer tourney market will be the off-Strip Orleans and the Summer Open series there. Like the Golden Nugget, the Orleans specializes in lower-prices events that span a wide variety of games; there have been occasions in the past when the two series have offered the same poker variant on the same day.
The Orleans' "Championship' event begins on Friday, June 17, with the first of three starting flights. This tourney's buy-in is $1,000, and it offers a $750,000 guarantee, the series' largest. The Orleans also Tweeted the schedule for the entire series:
The Orleans will be running not one, but two, separate mystery-bounty events, with guarantees of $250,000 and $300,000, respectively. The Golden Nugget's "Grand" series also includes a mystery-bounty event, and it begins on June 17, where it will bang up against the Orleans' $750,000 NLH Championship. It's just one example of the many, many choices that will face tournament players this summer in Las Vegas.
Featured image source: YouTube/Golden Nugget
