For years, the Station Casinos chain had a company-wide progressive bad-beat jackpot that was popular with locals who make up most of its business. It was a surprise when it was discontinued a few months ago.
But in October, another version of the promo returned. The new Jumbo Bad Beat Jackpot will award $40K to the losing hand, $20K to the winning hand and $1K to other players at the table where it hits. In addition, every live hold’em game at all five of Station’s poker rooms will then have 20 consecutive pots splashed with $50. The qualifying losing hand started with quad aces, but it goes down a rank every day it’s not hit until it reaches quad deuces.
The five participating rooms are Boulder Station, Red Rock, Santa Fe Station, Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station. If you’re visiting from out of town, Palace Station is the room closest to the Strip, on Sahara just west of the I-15.
Green Valley Ranch has added a new freeroll tournament designed to increase its graveyard business. The “Midnight Madness” $5K freeroll will be the second Friday of each month at 9 p.m. starting this month. To qualify, players must play at least 15 hours between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. the prior month. The 60 players with the most hours will be selected to play in the freeroll. The four players with the most hours will each be given $250 before the tournament starts, with the remaining $4K making up the prize pool.
Green Valley Ranch is a beautiful property in Henderson, southeast from the Strip, just off I-215. The poker room has 22 tables, offering $2-$4 and $3-$6 limit in addition to $1-$2 NLHE. It also spreads Omaha regularly and offers an Omaha freeroll monthly for only 10 hours of live play.
The 10 a.m. $40 tournament is another great option and offers an $800 guarantee.
GOLDEN NUGGET: New director of poker Sam Minutello will run his first $50K guarantee Golden Saturday event Nov. 29 at noon. It’s a $125 event with a $10 dealer add-on that has 30-minute levels with a 10K starting stack (15K if you pay the add-on). Registration is open for the first eight levels and re-entry is allowed.
VENETIAN: Thi Nguyen of Canada won the main event at the room’s Deep Stack Extravaganza 3.5. Nguyen became the first female player to win the biggest prize at a Deep Stack this year by outlasting 360 entrants to take home $120K. Switzerland’s Simon Sennhauser earned $74K for second and Arizona’s Stan Jablonski claimed $54K for third. Nguyen also won a watch for her efforts.
This was the second straight year the Venetian ran DSE 3.5, its late summer-early fall series, and there was an increase of26 percent in attendance from last year. You can count on seeing another one next year around the same time.
DSE IV runs Oct. 30-Nov. 26. The event will feature $1.5M in guarantees, including $10K and $20K on many of the $200 7 p.m. events. The $1,600 main event has a $500K guarantee and starts Nov. 17. The champion also receives a watch.
The regular tournament schedule has a few changes. All weekday noon tournaments offer $10K guarantees as well as the 7 p.m. tourneys on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Friday 7 p.m. event is new. It has a $200 buy-in, with one $200 rebuy available (during the first four 30-minute levels when a player’s stack drops below 6K as players start with 12K). The rebuy is rake-free. This tournament has a $20K guarantee.
ARIA/AVP: Aria will host the next PokerAtlas tournament and meetup (AVP XX) Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. The buy-in is $125 and everyone entering will get a $10 food comp, making the tournament rake-free. PokerAtlas swag and merchandise will be given away, as will trophies to the tournament winner and the last PokerAtlas member standing.
The event is open to everyone, and past events have sold out. The last time the event was at the Aria (September 2013) there were 266 entrants and a prize pool of $30K-plus, with first place worth nearly $6K.
STRATOSPHERE: The Heartland Poker Tour returns Nov. 7-17. The $1,650 main event has three starting flights, beginning Nov. 14, with the final table filmed Nov. 17.
HARRAH’S: The popular 12-table room in the heart of the Strip has revised its tournament schedule, making it more player-friendly. The 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. tournaments start with 10K chips for $60, with 20-minute levels. The 8 p.m. bounty tournament has a 15K starting stack for $100, also 20-minute levels. The bounty is $25. The 1 a.m. turbo is $60 for 6K chips with 15-minute levels.
BELLAGIO: The Five Diamond WPT Classic runs from Dec. 5-20. The $10,400 main is a four-day affair that starts Dec. 15. The televised final day is Dec. 20. For those of you who like to play a little bigger, this year the WPT Alpha 8 is part of the series, which features two starting flights beginning Dec. 18. The buy-in? A mere $100K.
— Email Rob Solomon at rob@allvegaspoker.com. Follow him on Twitter @Robvegaspoker and read his blog at robvegaspoker.blogspot.com.
