The 2017 World Series of Poker is now less than a week away, which means that Las Vegas is about to be overflowing with excited poker players from around the globe. While the WSOP is poker’s largest and most popular poker series, it will not be the only venue for great poker action this summer.
Card Player has already published an overview of the best Las Vegas summer series outside of the WSOP, which you can check out here. We also released another article that offered a week-by-week breakdown of the best value events, or tournaments with huge guarantees and small buy-ins.
While many make the trek to Sin City looking for the biggest bang for their buck, there are plenty of players who are looking for the thrill of playing in the biggest games in town. This article is for them. Card Player has laid out a look at all of the tournaments, outside of the WSOP, with buy-ins of $5,000 or more for the players looking to get their fix of high-stakes action this summer.
For those planning their schedule based around the World Series of Poker, make sure to check out our WSOP landing page for the entire schedule, as well as news and results from the 2017 WSOP.
Here is a look at the best high-stakes events outside of the Rio in Vegas this summer:
The Venetian Las Vegas is once again hosting the 2017 DeepStack Extravaganza III, which has grown this year to an 110-event series boasting more than $21 million in guaranteed prize pools running from May 15 – July 23. The marquee tournament of the festival is the $5,000 buy-in Card Player Poker Tour no-limit hold’em main event that once again features a $2 million guarantee.
The Card Player reporting team will be on hand to bring you live updates on all of the action. The CPPT main event has two starting flights on July 17 and 18 at noon. Last year poker pro Jon Turner topped a field of 537 players to win $536,858 in the event.
There will also be a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event that features a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. The tournament sports two starting flights, each beginning at 2:00 pm on June 2 and 3.
Over at Planet Hollywood the Goliath Phamous Poker Series is running from May 25 through July 13. While the festival has $7.5 million in guarantees, there is only one tournament on the schedule with a buy-in that meets this article’s criteria: a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller event that kicks off at 3:00 pm on July 6.
The Bellagio Poker Room will host several high-stakes events this summer. The Bellagio Cup will celebrate its 13th anniversary in 2017. The $10,400 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event is set to kick off on Friday, July 14 at noon. This special event allows registration for the first 12 levels of play—closing at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 16.
There will also be several high roller tournaments hosted over the summer months, including back-to-back $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events, held on June 30 and July 1. Each begins at 2:00 pm local time. There will also likely be some high-stakes mixed game events hosted during the summer, so stay tuned for updates on that front.
The Aria Poker Room has been one of the premiere Vegas hot spots for high roller events in recent years. This summer it will host 17 separate $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 high roller events peppered throughout the summer for the high-stakes crowd as part of the Aria Summer High Roller series. All of these high stakes events are slated to kick off at 2:00 pm each day.
The festivities kick off over the final weekend of May. On May 25 there will be a $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller, with a $100,000 high roller on May 26. Only four days later there will be another pair of $50,000 buy-in high rollers, taking place on May 30 and 31.
After a short hiatus, the high-rolling action resumes on June 9 with the first of two $25,000 buy-in events kicking off. The second gets underway on June 10. Following the same program, there will be another pair of $25,000 high rollers on June 16 and 17. The final $25,000 event of June will take place on June 24, with one stand-alone tournament.
The July events come fast and furious. Between July 7 – 15 there will be a $25,000 buy-in event every day except on June 9 and 12.
There will be no lack of action for players looking for high-stakes action this summer. Players who still need more help figuring out what to play this Summer should check out Card Player’s tournament database daily section, and also the Las Vegas poker tournaments page.
