Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007

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Venetian Deep Stack Tournament returning in 2008

By Earl Burton

One of the best buys for your tournament bankroll in 2007 will be making a triumphant return come February 2008, for its third run, with the fourth in the series taking place in June.

The Venetian Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas started the Deep Stack Extravaganza in 2007, hosting two separate tournaments that enabled players to ply their skills.

The previous two Deep Stack Extravaganza tournament schedules drew in approximately 19,000 players, coming from all over the world to take part. These players built up a prize pool that totaled more than $10 million overall.

"We received tremendous feedback from the players regarding the Deep Stack tournaments," stated Kathy Raymond, the director of poker operations at The Venetian.

"With the amount of phone calls and e-mails we received every day requesting the return of the tournament, we knew it was only right to bring the tournament back as an annual series."

The 2007 Deep Stack Extravaganza tournaments ranged from $300 to the $1,000 championship event buy-in, but what made them unique were generous starting stacks and longer levels.

These two factors, along with the presence of many top pros and Vegas grinders, made it the place to be, even though Deep Stack Extravaganza II ran pretty much in concert with the festivities of the 2007 World Series of Poker.

The 2008 Extravaganza promises to deliver much the same action and excitement as the previous two events.

"We are thrilled to be bringing back the Deep Stack Extravaganza as a full-fledged series with two tournaments a year and giving players the opportunity to experience great tournament formats run by a very knowledgeable and friendly staff," Raymond said.

"With lower buy-ins, larger chip counts, more play and great blind structures and our luxurious, spacious, and exquisitely decorated poker room, these tournaments are like no other in Vegas."

For the $300 buy-in events, players will start with $6,000 in chips, and they will also be able to accumulate more chips through a $10 "staff bonus" purchase. This bonus will allow the players to bump up another $1,500 before action gets going.

The $1,000 buy-in events will start the players out with $7,500 in chips and feature the same "staff bonus," albeit in those events it will ring up another $2,500 chips for the purchaser.

Instead of having a $1,000 championship event, the feature of the two Deep Stack Extravaganzas will be a $2,500 event with players starting at $15,000 chips. For players eager for the challenges of multiple poker disciplines, Omaha, Seven-Card Stud and H.O.R.S.E. will all be prominently featured during the run of Deep Stack Extravaganza III from February 4-24 (the schedule for Deep Stack Extravaganza IV will roughly coincide with the WSOP again this year).

The 2007 Deep Stack Extravaganza events were both highly competitive tournaments, featuring many professionals and Vegas veterans, and 2008's renditions can be counted on to provide any poker player with an extreme challenge to their poker skills.

For more information on the rebirth of the 2008 Deep Stack Extravaganza at The Venetian Hotel & Casino, go to www.venetian.com or call The Venetian Poker Room at (702) 414-7657 for the most up-to-date information and complete tournament details.

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