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• Venetian Slot Tournament April 2019
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• Venetian Slot Tournament 2019 Championship

A couple of weeks ago, the poker community got to watch a minor poker tragedy unfold.

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The stage was set back in September, when the much-reviled Venetian poker room announced a special sort of poker tournament. Dubbed The Lucky Shot Poker Series & Drawing, it seemed like an attempt to merge poker with the casino game crowd by luring the latter over with $52,000 in drawings.

Most egregious to industry heads was the 'main event' of the series, a $150,000 guaranteed tournament that was guaranteed in the most literal sense possible — no matter how many or how few entries were logged at $250 apiece, the prize pool would be $150,000.

Simple math tells us that the venue needed 600 entries to break even on the guarantee, though it would still come out in the red for the event after paying out staff and so forth. There was also the matter of the $52,000 drawing, which organizers likely hoped would be covered by the fees generated throughout the series.

In the end, 645 entries were logged for the $150K guaranteed event. That means Venetian only collected $11,250 in rake, or about $17.44 per entry. At only about 7% rake, that's a damn good deal for the players.

So, case closed, right? Poker community wins, Venetian loses, all is right in the world?

I would hesitate to say so, considering the way things went down.

Rush of Greed on Saturday

To give a little bit of background, the official schedule for the series listed six starting flights for the $150K guaranteed event, labeled Day 1a through Day 1f.

When registration closed up shop on Friday for Day 1e, 353 entries had been logged for an average of about 70 entries per flight. That put the pool more than $60,000 short of the target number with only one flight to go.

You know what happened next. Smelling expected value blood in the water, players flocked to Venetian and threw fistfuls of cash at the registration desk like eager Vegas tourists hitting the Spearmint Rhino for the first time.

They managed to cover the overlay and even send some rake Venetian's way to cut into the drawing pool, making it so Venetian covered about $27,000 of the $52,000 when all was said and done.

Community Misses Chance to Send a Message

In the lead-up to the Lucky Shot series, poker influencers like Doug Polk called for players to band together and #BoycottTheVenetian. As he wrote on Twitter, this represented a great chance for the poker community to send a message: we won't tolerate trash poker formats whose purpose is solely to rake dollars out of players' pockets.

While on the surface it appears something was accomplished by rendering the $150K guaranteed to a mere 7% rake, far below industry standard at that buy-in level, to me, it just feels like a major missed opportunity. The community had a chance to really punish the Venetian here, and instead, one of the ugliest parts of poker, a shameless pursuit of profits at all costs, was on display.

Saturday flights are always going to draw the largest crowd, so it was unrealistic to expect another 70-entry field. Still, something like 100 to 125 entries could have been logged in that last flight, sticking Venetian with around $30,000 overlay before even factoring in the drawing money. Venetian decision-makers would have had no choice but to label the series a resounding failure and chalk it up a one-time idea that missed the mark.

Instead, poker players sent a different message: as with other instances in the past, finding potential value trumps all other considerations. The Venetian needn't fear potential overlays, because at the end of the day, players will always flood through the door the second they smell even the faintest chance of free money.

The late rush in the $150K combined with the venue-friendly rake collection in the prelims — PocketFives'Jeff Walshshowed the events wound up with rakes between 29% and 49% — means Venetian is probably more likely to make small tweaks and try this again than throw out the concept altogether.

I've been around the poker community long enough that the way it played out doesn't really surprise me. That doesn't mean I can't be a little sickened when I see players sacrificing a chance to improve the long-term health of the game for a measly few hundred dollars in EV.

Venetian Slot Tournament April 2019

_{Please note that the thoughts and opinions expressed in this article reflect those of the author and not of PokerNews.}

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The Venetian Poker Room has been home to popular DeepStacks Series offering big guarantees that draw players from near and far.

Now, the Venetian is set to host a new series intended for a different crowd of poker players, and the regulars are up in arms over the capped prize pool found in the fine print.

In the Venetian's upcoming $225,000 Lucky Shot Poker Series & Drawing, scheduled for Oct. 21-27, there are seven poker events slated, highlighted by a $250 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament with six flights and $150,000 guaranteed. The series concludes with a drawing wherein $52,000 will be doled out to participants who earn one entry for each $250 they contribute in tournament buy-ins during the series.

Capped Prize Pool, Uncapped Rake

The fine print of the structure sheets for the series reveals a major difference that has poker players enraged on Twitter, and it involves an unprecedented rake and prize pool system.

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“100% of all funds collected will go to meet the $150,000 Total Prize Pool. Any funds collected above and beyond the total prize pool will be the sole property of The Venetian Poker Room.”

“The $225,000 Lucky Shot Poker Series and Drawing is a new poker series catering to a player who likes promotions and drawings.'

The stipulation appears to indicate that the posted guarantee is not to be exceeded. That is, whether they get 600 or 900 total entries, the prize pool remains the same. At 600 entries, there would be a $150,000 rake-free prize pool.

As poker player and vlogger Jeff 'Boski' Sluzinski pointed out on Twitter, 750 entries would equate to Venetian’s typical $200+$50 rake while the rake percentage would go up from there. At 900 entries, the rake from each entry would equate to 33% and if they got up to 1,200 entries, half of the buy-ins would be going to the house.

'Catering to a Player Who Likes Promotions'

The new series appears to be modeled off of promotional slot and table game tournaments, where there is a set prize pool put up by the house. PokerNews reached out to the Venetian Poker Room for comment and received the following from a Venetian spokesperson:

“The $225,000 Lucky Shot Poker Series and Drawing is a new poker series catering to a player who likes promotions and drawings. It is designed to have a lower buy in, but still guarantees $225,000 in total prizes that includes a drawing, providing two ways to win.”

The drawing portion moreover reduces the skill needed to be a winner in the event, thus clearly catering to the more amateur and recreational player. For these players, the idea of being entered into a drawing for $52,000 in cash may be a more than fair consolation for any additional rake collected. Venetian's PR spokesperson compared the series to table and slot tournaments, which are generally run as freerolls.

“100% of all funds collected will go to meet the $150,000 Total Prize Pool. Any funds collected above and beyond the total prize pool will be the sole property of The Venetian Poker Room.”

“The tournament [series] is designed so that the Venetian funds $225,000 in total prizes, regardless of how many players join. This is similar to how other table and slot tournaments are conducted.”

The big difference between say blackjack or slot tournaments and the Lucky Shot poker tournament is the former are generally invite-only freerolls with set prizes for top finishers, a kind of “rakeback,” if you will, that doubles as a method to get high-value customers in the door.

In the poker tournament, however, players still put up the traditional buy-in to participate, knowing that the prize pool will not be more than $150,000 no matter how many entries are collected.

Venetian Slot Tournament 2019 Championship

The worry among poker players, even those planning not to participate, is that most will register without knowing what percentage of their buy-in will go to the prize pool and what percent will be going to the house.

For Venetian's target customer, this may be of little concern.

Players Respond

In the TwoPlusTwo forum regarding the event, players joined in on rebuking such an event structure, with some players calling for a boycott or some way to assure no rake is paid.

Top poker content creator Doug Polk has been among those leading the charge, calling out Venetian in a recent video and spreading the hashtag 'BoycottTheVenetian' on Twitter.

Will it have any effect? Considering that the event is not being marketed to the professionals and serious recreational who typically frequent poker forums, it's an open question.

Additionally, there was some confusion in the thread due to the posting that Venetian was applying the new 'uncapped rake structure' to their DeepStack Series, which is not the case, according to Venetian officials.

“This new format is in addition to our other successful poker tournaments which are geared to a more seasoned player, like our DeepStack Poker Series.”

Sluzinski's Twitter post similarly yielded plenty of criticism launched toward the Venetian. Run It Once Poker founder Phil Galfond joked, 'I suggest @VenetianPoker market this innovative tournament format as a 'Super Guarantee.'

Venetian, for its part, assures players that the format is not intended to be reproduced in their more traditional established series.

“This new format is in addition to our other successful poker tournaments which are geared to a more seasoned player, like our DeepStack Poker Series,” a Venetian spokesperson told PokerNews.

Just how the experiment will play out is to be seen. As Polk pointed out, the market will speak. Be sure to check back here at PokerNews for more on how the Lucky Shot goes, and how the poker community responds.

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