Hello, everyone, Welcome back to a new episode of the Poker Go Podcast
special episode today. Obviously, if you are in tune with the poker world,
you know that there is a lot going on in Vegas during the summer
months June and July. Talent of May does play into that now. But
of course Tim and I have talked at length about the World Series of Poker.
We will continue to do so, but we're gonna take a little bit
of a break from that for this episode. We're going to hit on the
Aria Poker Classic, hosted at Aria Resort and Casino, which is where,
of course, the Poker Growth Studio is held. They announced their series The
Aria Poker Classic May twenty ninth through July thirteenth, in partnership with bet MGM
Poker a whole bunch of guarantees. There's about twelve million dollars or exactly twelve
million dollars in guarantees across the entire series. They have buy ins ranging from
six thousand, sorry six thousand, six hundred dollars up to thirty five hundred
dollars. The biggest and baddest event of this series is the thirty five hundred
dollars Bet MGM Poker Championship. It has a three million dollar guarantee, multiple
starting flights. It will be live streamed in the Poker Ghost studio when they
get down to a certain amounts of what day three, day three. You're
in charge of this thing. So during the summer, as we've done in
some some recent years, we will have an additional stream coming out of everything
that we're doing from the Poker Go Engine here with that'll be to have to
do with the BETMGM at Poker Championship. They got a bunch of other like
crazy guarantees in here. They got a sixteen hundred dollars mystery bounding with a
five hundred K guarantee. They got another eleven hundred dollars mystery bounding with a
five hundred gay guarantee. They got a sixteen hundred dollars No limit Championship event
that's a two day event, five hundred K guarantee. There a PLO Championship
event. PLO is hot, we all know that much. On schedule.
This is the place to be if you play faul cos I know it's it's
pretty wild, but we're going to bring in Ryan Kirk and Paul Campbell both
representatives of ARIA. Ryan is the director of Poker Operations for ARIA, and
then Paul Campbell. If you followed the PGT, if you follow anything that
we do here at the Poker Gri Studio, you know who Paul Campbell is.
He is tournament poker manager for ARIA. He is a two time winner
for the Global Poker Awards Tournament Director of the Year. So with them and
your assistant, I thought you we switched. We switched. Okay, We're
going to talk with those guys about what people can expect from the ARIA Poker
Classic and if you are venturing out here to Las Vegas and looking to play
some stuff, maybe you can put some of these events on your schedule.
All right, we are joined by Ryan Kirk Paul Campbell from ARIA Poker Ryan
Kirk, Director of Poker Operations, Paul Campbell. I'm going to lead with
two time Tournament Director of the Year, tournament poker manager and assistant too.
No, not assistant to you're his assistant. That's how it works. I've
seen you guys in action. You are much more his assistant than he is
yours. But we are here to talk ARIA Poker Classic, a pretty massive
schedule. I would say, but by you know, building every single year,
it seems like it's it's awesome. Took you guys a little bit to
come out with it. I know how that works. And you know we'll
touch on like the logistics and all the I guess the balancing act, you
know, with everything that's going on in the summer. But welcome, Happy
to have you guys here, Happy to be here. Yeah, thanks for
inviting us. For those out there living under a rock, Aria Poker Classic
forty five events, more than twelve million dollars in guaranteed prize money. Buy
ins are starting at six hundred dollars for like the regular event, the trophy
events as i'll call them. They got some eight hundred dollar events, they
got a handful of eleven hundred dollars events, and then of course the BEDMGM
Poker Championship, the thirty five hundred dollar buying that will ultimately finish here in
the Poker Groth studio where we are recording this podcast. So first question,
I guess I want to hit on because a couple of years ago it was
like mostly four hundred dollar and six hundred dollar events. Then it was six
eight hundred dollars a few one ks. Now it kind of seems like it's
it's has like a next evolution. Still got those six hundred dollars, eight
hundred dollar ones, a handful of eleven hundred dollar ones. They come with
some big guarantees on those. You got sixteen hundred dollars in there. Of
course, you got that thirty five hundred dollars bet MGAM Championship, so that
that evolution to me is pretty noticeable, you know. So can you just
peel back the curtain a little bit and discuss kind of the long term vision
for like the Aria Poker Classic and how it's come along over the years.
Yeah. First of all, I just want to say thanks again for bringing
us over here and giving us the opportunity to talk about this. I'm glad
that it's noticeable. That definitely was what we were going for. I've worked
in this room now for over twelve years and have seen the evolution, even
going back further where we used to have all four hundred dollars events two hundred
and forty dollars nightlies, and it's been really exciting to get us to this
point. I've when I've talked about it before it's kind of like playing a
video game, and there are certain achievements you have to unlock before you're able
to get up to this, before you're able to get up to some of
the price points that we really were aiming towards. It's a big credit to
Paul and his team and the vision that he has for our tournament poker landscape
at Ario Poker and making sure that we, you know, maintain relevancy when
it comes to what we're doing in the tournament poker space, and so knowing
that we had to continue to push the envelope and move us up towards these
price points that we're seeing this year. You know, just last year we
went from the four hundred dollars to six hundred dollars price point, and we
saw an over forty percent increase in the number of entries across all of our
events. And we were thinking naively at the time that that might stunt a
little bit of it, of course, from those price points, you know,
pushing them up a little higher. And so now we've just gotten emboldened
thinking that well we could we could go up to eight hundred dollars and eleven
hundred dollars one days, and you know, increase all the guarantees what we
have, and these players want to play at Aria, and that's what we've
really embraced, is this understanding that people love playing at Aria poker. Paul
always says that, I don't hate to steal the words out of his mouth,
but our poker room is as big as many tables as we can get.
That's whatever tables we can get, that's how many we will fill.
People want to play here, and we are excited about we're going to be
able to do this summer. I guess that's a perfect jumping in point.
Tim and I have walked over in front of the ARIA room. There's no
more slot machines. Now, I'm assuming that's where some poker tables are going
to go from. From a logistics standpoint, what is ARIA doing to accommodate
the fields that are going to be coming? Like how much of a lift
is that? It obviously starts multiple weeks in advance, with this series starting
on May twenty ninth, That is running May twenty ninth through July thirteenth,
So how does that whole thing come together? I'm assuming it's a big juggling
act. Yeah, for most people. The World Series of Poker starts around
you know, May and May for me this year, it started last July.
Once we realized the lift that we had already experienced from an entry,
you know standpoint in the amount of business that we were doing, we knew
that we had to expand, and it was really easy sell to a lot
of people here on property making that argument that we can do bigger and better.
Just give us a little bit more space, give us a few more
tables, and we're really this is the most space we've ever had going all
the way up if you're familiar with the space out there in front of Poshberger,
all the way in front of the poker room over towards the bed,
MGM race and sportsbook, and the number of tables that we're going to fit
in there. We're going to we're gonna we don't even know yet. We're
as it's like you said, empty. We're gonna find out here in the
next week or so, but it's going to be as many as we can
cram in there to make sure that we have not only a lot less impact
when it comes to alternates having to make people wait to get into our tournaments,
but we really want to make sure that we are offering players a place
to play over the summer cash games. You know, when Paul and I
talked about getting more tables, maybe Paul is a little bit more towards let's
let's get more tournament entries and expand it that way. And I'm kind of
the cash game player at heart, and I'm thinking, you know, I
would really love to have some more one, two, plo and two five
games going all year round or excuse me, all day long. And that's
where my focus is going to be with these extra tables, making sure our
cash game players have a home. What's the customer based like in the summer,
obviously all around Vegas is like very tournament heavy. So do you see
that same sort of thing from the players, Like are they like we want
tournaments or do they also want cash games? Like how does that kind of
break up? We get a really good mix. I mean, people do
want to come here and play tournaments, but we are also known, you
know, pound for pound all year round. Our room is filled with cash
games as many tables as we have, and so we want to make sure
that we're not displacing those players who play with us all year round. We
noticed last year when we were able to open up let's just even say like
two five no limit tables, there was a night where we got up over
twenty tables of two to five no limit. That's a staggering amount when you
consider that we only had forty four tables or excuse me, forty six tables
in the entire room last year. So we know that people want to come
here and play, and we know that early on. As long as we
can show them that there's going to be space for them, they'll keep coming
out all summer long. So twenty twenty two, the bet MGM Poker Champion
has a million dollar prize pool guarantee. Last year it doubles, it goes
to two million. Now it goes to three million. Like from an operations
side of things, you know what goes into to not only setting a guarantee
but also like pushing that envelope every single year. I'm assuming you know you
do look at you know, the prior your success, and then you try
and engage the market and all that sort of stuff. So what kind of
goes into that process of a guarantee. Yeah, like you mentioned, are
the inaugural bet MGM Championship was in twenty twenty two. We had the million
guarantee. It was our first event that we'd run with the bet MGM partner,
and we ended up with three hundred and forty three entries in that event.
We covered the million. It was a sweat. Admittedly, how much
of a sweat were you actually sweating? We were. We covered on redge
clothes, on break cloak, so it was a perfect guarantee sounds so it
was. But again that was the inaugural event, and then we decided that
the following year we wanted to do it bigger and better, and we had
a little more planning, a little more lead time. More more lead time
helped bet MGM send us some more qualifiers, so we already knew that we
were going to be aggressive. We're very selective in what weekhend. We chose
that it was going to be a unique championship event in the summer landscape,
and we've put a two million guarantee on it, and the numbers jumped exponentially,
went from three hundred and forty three entries in our inaugural event to oney
twenty six. Huge gen here, it's a huge jump and easily covered the
two million. We actually were over three million dollars in prize school, so
now you know the trains off the tracks here. We're just going to keep
building bigger and better every year. So we we're going to three million guarantee
this year. I'm fully expecting us to cover the three million, easily,
hoping to hit hoping to hit four, maybe even you know, approach five
so that you know, as years come, years come, we can target
a bigger guarantee. So we'really looking forward to that event. My expectation is
to easily surpass three and approach somewhere between four and five is my realistic goal
for that event. Yeah, So if you're if you're out there listening and
you got this event kind of on your schedule, you've sort of penciled it
into something you want to take advantage of. Sounds like that's going to be
a very juicy prize pool. A lot of runners in this one, as
Paul just hit on. So sounds like you can pretty much pencil it in,
which is which is good. You know, sometimes players go into events
and they're like, I don't really know what to expect. It sounds like
there's some pretty solid expectations there, I would expect, so just you know,
going from a million to two to three, like that's you know,
that's a big noticeable evolution there, and it's it really is great to see.
In addition to that bet MGM Championship six Mystery Bounties events. You guys
are all in on the Mystery bound events, huh. I mean we love
them. They're like all the rave everywhere. So it's it's good to see
you guys jump on board because so many people like that. You know,
I would probably say much more like the casual player with that kind of lottery
element to it. You have multiple price points for it. So what goes
into being like, you know, we got to kind of have these on
our schedule and we got to have more of them on our schedule. That's
a great question. So yeah, we've really embraced the mystery bounty event and
we try to offer something that a lot of venues don't, which is one
day mystery bounty tournaments love it. Because mystery bounty tournaments, it is just
an incredible innovation in tournament poker. A lot of them to attain these high
guarantees to where you're drawing big envelopes require multiple days, and we understand that,
you know, for someone who has a job or even during the summer
when they want to be playing a different event every day, they don't always
have the luxury of playing a three or four day event or have their chips
in the bag which prevents them from playing an event, you know, at
a at a different venue or playing an event at aria that day. So
we've really tried. Knowing full well how labor intensive it is to do a
one day mystery bounty, We've really embraced it. Our team loves doing it.
It's a fun environment for the players, and yeah, they do kind
of like the lottery dynamic of it. It is pretty cool to you know,
show for a one day event and not even be anywhere near the final
table and in one day pull a twenty five thousand dollars bounty. It's just
really cool. There's a lot of vibes going on, you know, are
those days are always the funnest. Those days are the ones if you're looking
to see me here late at night, those are the days where I'm just
happen to be staying a little bit later to watch some of the bounty polls
and see all the excitement and the players when, like Paul said, you
know you you might finish seventieth in the tournament, but you're walking out with
like fourth place money. How does the mystery bounties work in one day events?
Like I said off the registration, was it like in the money the
one day events, it's once you hit the money. Once you hit the
money, everyone effectively has a bounty on their head. Roughly sixty percent of
the prize pool goes towards the finishing place and then forty percent goes to the
bounties. That's pretty must be pretty labor intensive for you. Got I got
to give Paul and his team a shout out because that that moment that we
hit redge clothes to the moment that the payout the time you know it starts
and he knows he's under the gun to make sure that all the envelopes are
and we know we know poker players are not patient, so that you know,
they want to know, ye ye closes, they want to know give
me a list of all the bounties. I want to know exactly what they
are. But we've got a pretty good system for doing it. So yeah,
we usually have all their information within about thirty minutes of quote redge clothes
of all their posted payouts and what their bounties are, so they have usually
a couple of hours even before they hit the money to strategize of what kind
of you've got to strategize that ten BB stack. You know you gotta fall
to the you can strategize the ten BB stack to play. These tournaments are
so fun to watch too, you know, I uh, you know.
With all this, you know talk about ICM and people playing shorter stacks,
Mystery BOUNDI is a different dynamic where you are so rewarded for having a lot
ard stack in that tournament because you have so much bounty equity, where if
you have a short stack, only sixty percent of that money goes to the
posted payouts, so survival is not nearly as important in that one ship accumulation
is kind of the driving force in the mystery bounty tournament. So it's a
lot more fun to watch. You see a lot more unorthodox plays to people
gambling try to win pulls in the bounty drum. So it's definitely my favorite
event to watch. Look at this. Paul's turning this into a strategy podcast
now he might be the best player I'm charging for this podcast. Just a
quick question on mister Bownie. When can we expect to see the three hundred
dollars stud high mystery bounty on the ARIA Public Classic schedule. That's the one
I'm really high low. It's no, I want the highlight. That's what
I want to say. Bring that on the schedule. Chopping mystery bounties up
quarter in Mystery bound that sounds like an absolute night Aria poke like May twenty
ninth through July thirteenth, want to hit on this bet MGM Poker Championship thirty
five hundred dollars buying so pretty good price point. You know. It's it's
big enough that it creates a really juicy prize bol of course with that three
million dollar guarantee, but it's also accessible enough that you know a lot of
people can get in a lot of people can get in through satellites as well.
Just quickly, that is June seventh is when it starts for Day one
A. There are two starting days, so June seventh, that's a Friday
Saturday. June eighth will be Day one B. Day two on June ninth,
and then Day three and day four our plan to be here in the
Poker Grot studio. How many satellites are we expecting? Well, and before
I even I'm going to have Paul answer that. But before we do,
I do want to mention that we're talking about the bet MGAM Championship. Yeah,
and that kind of we actually have what we call Championship Week here,
and so that week actually starts with a five hundred thousand dollars guaranteed one day,
eleven hundred dollars mystery bounty on the sixth, bet MGM is going to
be sending. You know, we we have an idea. I'll let Paul
kind of reveal the number on the number of qualifiers, but they're gonna be
sending qualifiers to that event as well. So a ton of great value when
it comes to you know, that guarantee. That's the one I'm sweating the
most of the entire schedule that I'm looking at a one day, five hundred
K guarantee for an eleven hundred dollars price point. I haven't done the math
yet. I'm sure we only need what Paul like one hundred people to enter.
Yeah, that the guarantees covered you wouldn't put me in a position where
we need over five hundred players to play this one day event to cover right.
We would never do that. So sweats are good. When it comes
to guarantees, it means it means you're trying. They're not good for my
hairline. Okay, it gets the hot pumping, sure, sure does.
To talk a little bit about the qualifiers, Paul, we're excited about that.
Yeah. So of course, whenever we run an event that we consider
some sort of championship event at are you, we run some internal satellites.
There's going to be a satellite the night before day one A. There's going
to be an internal satellite the night of one A going into one B.
So you get two opportunities to win your seat here at Aria the night prior
to each of the flights. Those are going to be well attended satellites.
It's a ten seat guarantee, but I'm sure we'll be given away closer to
fifteen or twenty in each of those. We also do have some of our
sister properties, not only in the city but around the country running qualifiers for
us. They're sending us some players and then of course some of those have
already been taking place National Harbor over there in the DC area. Maryland has
already sent qualifiers to US. I know that Kelly over at Borgata and her
team are going to be sending qualifiers as well. We're really leaning into the
power of a large corporation like MGM Resort with all of you. You should
for sure was around the world sending US qualifiers and engaging those player bases as
well. Yeah, and it's incredible that in only the third year of our
bet Mgmchampionship at Aria, we already are drumming up that much interest at our
properties on the on the Northeast coast where those players, those regular players say,
hey, I know, I know about this bet MGAM Championship. I've
heard about it. I watched the stream of that final table. You know.
They they they asked for that product to They wanted the opportunity to win
a seat into this event. So I'm really looking forward to to some of
those players showing up. And then, yeah, then the bulk of it
is, of course, our qualifiers through the bet MGM. They not only
they went an entire package like Ryan said, that includes two tournament entries.
The BETMGM week actually starts with the eleven hundred, so they're winning seats into
that eleven hundred Dolomit Mystery Bounty and seats into the thirty five hundred Championship.
Are you know? The BETMGM just started running their qualifying packages. We've already
hit over thirty five package winners. We're in the process of getting them signed
up for the tournament, getting their rooms booked, and they're can be continuing
to run packages over the next couple of weeks. We're expecting a qualifying number
that exceeds last year. So I'm going to say somewhere probably in the one
hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty qualifier range from your lips to God's
ears, my friend, let's hope they send as many as they possibly can.
Help me, help me sweat these guarantees a little, a little less,
of course, I mean, listen, it sounds like a great opportunity
for people to get in at obviously a much more accessible price point. Having
that, you know, sort of two birds with one stone type of approach
where you can get two entries as opposed to just one, can make you
feel good. A lot of satellite qualifiers obviously, come out, they might
bust and then they're like, oh man, but it is if you bust
the first one, at least you got a second chance, which is very
cool. So it's really good, you know, to have you guys doing
that. Yeah, and that and that and done things bring that. That's
exactly why we did it. We actually did it last year and we noticed
that in year one, the qualifiers just want to seed into the championship.
With that, I don't know, we didn't get a lot of qualifiers.
It was our inaugural event, then the second and here we decided, you
know what, we want to offer a better a better experience for these guests
who are winning the seat. Like you said, I would hate to see
someone get knocked out early in the thirty five hundred dollars championship and then that
is their one shot. Here you're guaranteed two events and some of these players
have never played in the casino before, so they actually get to play an
eleven hundred dollars mystery Bounty tournament. They get a little felt time before you
know, before it's their main event. The it's there man, that they
get a little helps with nerves too, you know. Yeah, yeah,
for sure, and you know it's pretty cool. And then it's a mystery
bounty tournament. So it's nice with these qualifiers to have some success stories.
You know, we love to see a qualifier from a bet MGM you know
event pull a twenty five thousand dollars bounty. It's just that's that's the spirit
of the event, and we want to get them a little table time and
yeah, create a good environment where players who haven't won a package already know
they're going to be coming into a big field tournament because there's already one hundred
and fifty players signed up before they even walk in the door. I mean,
you touched on it quite a bit there, but we can elaborate in
a little bit more. You know how as the Aria Poker Classic benefited from
this partnership with with BETMGIM Poker and you know obviously feeding satellites into it,
you know, boosting up the fields, ryan helping you feel a little bit
easier when you go to sleep at night with these quarrencies. So just talk
about that partnership and obviously it just continues to grow year over year. The
impact has been immense. Betmgm's partnership has been invaluable to what it is that
we've accomplished over the last few years with our Aria Poker Classic series. This
is a series that we've been doing since as long as I've been here,
going back, you know, thirteen fourteen years. This series has been in,
you know, an event that people want to come out and play.
But with our partnership with bet MGM and the qualifiers that they send out,
the amount of marketing and promotion that they do on their and there are so
many things that they are doing that have helped us in a land based you
know, brick and mortar casino series, bringing these online qualifiers in and we
couldn't be more happy with what with what it is that they do. They
really provide a great experience for their qualifiers when they come out to our venue.
How difficult is it to put together a robust schedule like this, go
bigger than you did the year before, you know, continuing to build It's
it's obviously very jam packed in the summer. It's it's no longer just the
World Series of Poker. Everyone's doing something. You guys are doing something.
You're doing something big. What goes into that? How hard is it?
How long does it take you you mentioned earlier, you start last July.
I mean, like, what's that process like getting this all kind of figured
out? I'm assuming it's one big giant jigsaw puzzle for sure. I'm gonna
let Paul pretty much answer the scheduling questions because he's the schedule guru, and
I know you alluded to it earlier. Sometimes it takes us a little longer
to come up with the perfect schedule. It's better to get it right though,
than slap something out there and they then have to change late, you
know, right, The calculation necessary to provide a product that the players want
to play within the timeframe that we have, and particularly something that we're known
for. And I want to steal Paul's thunder here, but these one day
events. There are plenty of multi day events around Plagus during this time,
and you're gonna have your chips in a bag if you're you know, fortunate
enough. I've never had chips in a bag, so I don't even know
what that's about, but I hear this is a thing that people experience.
And while you're waiting for your day to restart, coming over and entering one
of our one day events is a great opportunity to keep your mind fresh at
the tables and play what we think is a very value heavy tournament. Our
guarantees have increased immensely. Last year we had a little over five million in
guarantees total, and that was with a two million dollar guarantee on the championship.
I've apparently gone mad by by getting these guarantees up to two hundred or
excuse me, twelve million, with two hundred thousand dollar guarantees on eight hundred
dollars events. You look around town during this time and that those guarantees aren't
that high, and so I know that we're pushing the envelope. Our players
deserve that, and I know that these are numbers that we're going to be
able to hit. So with that, I'm sorry, I know that was
a scheduling question and I got off on my own little tangent there, But
yeah, Paul, Yeah, like you said, it is a jigsaw puzzle.
So obviously the summer it revolves around the WSOP. Everybody knows that.
So everyone kind of waits for WSOP to come up with their schedule, and
then we look at that schedule if other schedules have come out from other properties
around town. I look at those, we make a huge spreadsheet and I
try to find the optimal event for what is missing that day. Are the
holding players, you know, going to be looking for something to play?
Are the PLO players going to be looking for something to play? If we
want to throw in a you know, a horse tournament, where where is
there kind of a gap where on that day the mixed game players have nothing
to play. So it does take me a while, and I get a
lot of help from Ryan and our poker host Jake on making the schedule,
but it's it's we don't make the schedule based on what's convenient for ARIA and
just put something out there and say, you know, we're just gonna run
these events. We don't care what's going on around town. We try to
make the most player friendly schedule we can to where you know, if you
regardless of what you game, you play, we're cognizant of what's going around
around town, and you're always going to have an opportunity to play it.
And if you're gonna be playing at one of our competitors one day, that
just means you're going to be coming back the next day at ARIA. Because
we have that game for you. And then once we are comfortable with a
very player friendly schedule, then we discuss what we want to do for the
guarantees. And I was shocked, and thank you and kudos to Ryan for
opening up the wallet and saying, yeah, let's just go bigger and better
than ever before. And it is a thank you. It's a thank you
to the players who have been with us for years and years, who just
keep showing up, who unfortunately sometimes had the way as an alternate because our
you know, our events were so well scheduled that you know, everyone wanted
to play. So this is kind of a thank you for and we wanted
the guarantees to be meaningful. You know, a lot of places, uh,
you know, and even maybe us in the past have thrown a number
up there that was almost laughable. I mean, I like to call them
fake guarantee on this podcast. Okay, you don't have to say. There
are plenty of fake guarantees out there, and they're hitting the guarantee before the
tournament even started, you know, like we did that last year. Frequently,
we would have a guarantee and we're ten minutes before kicking the tournament off,
and the guarantees already been hit and you know, we kind of want
the sweat, like it's it's fun for Ryan doesn't want it, but you
know, slight sweat like he's about to have a hot attack. I If
there's a little bit of a sweat, it means that you correctly gauged your
market, Like you don't want to be so under. You obviously don't want
to be so wrong that you're screwed, right, but you also don't want
to be so under that it's kind of and it's not that it's a bad
thing at the end of the day, it's more of just a bad look
because you still make the guarantee, you make money. That's fine, but
it's still like, well, why they only have five hunder k when they
got three million in the prize pool. Where were their calculations off? You
know, did they not think that they would draw a bunch of people?
So that's necessarily the guarantees are just about the money. Guarantees guarantee people,
They guarantee entries, They guarantee that people are going to show up, and
that's what we're focused on. We want to make sure that these field sizes
are commensurate with the product that we feel that we're offering and the value that
these players are going to get plain in our event series this summer. And
I think overall, you know, I know that within the Vegas space on
the summer, there's obviously competition, but it's also a bit of you know,
a rising tide lifts all boats. I mean, you know, like
Paul said, you know, you work within the schedules. You find slots
here, you find slots there. Everyone kind of works because ultimately poker will
benefit, the players will benefit, and if those things benefit, then your
personal venue where you work will benefit. So I think you guys have done
a really good job. As I said earlier, like this schedule to me
looks like incredible evolution from where it's gone, and I'm excited to see what
happens in this summer. And then I'm also like excited, I'm already looking
forward to next year. I'm like, you guys gonna go to four million,
You're gonna go to five minutes? Is Ryan gonna come out and be
like twenty million? Let's just let's go nuts. So I think it's great
overall. I guess last question here, you know what what sets Aria poker
apart from the competition. And then I guess for the players out there who
are thinking of maybe where should I play? Where should I go in the
summer? Why should people come here? Why should they come into Aria?
I've played here, I will say this. I've played here plenty of times,
used to play cash here back in the day. I've played some tournaments
here. I love it here. It's a great venue. You perfectly located
in the middle strip. Listen, I'm a bit of a diva. I
like the luxury. Okay, So I like Aria, right, So that's
my little and we like you Donnie make my rake. Of course we like
you Donnie. But yeah, but why why should people come play here?
Other than the twelve million dollars? For sure, that's a big draw,
right. You know. The where I want to start is saying that we're
very thankful that we have very good relationships with a lot of the other some
of our counterparts around town. And so when you talked earlier about a rising
tide lifts all boats, we really all do believe that we're not trying to
be in direct competition with anyone. We want to make sure that poker players
come here during the summer and they have a place to play that they're comfortable
with that's offering great value. And you know from the guarantees are the guarantees
and the forty five events that we have, we think we've put together a
very optimal schedule. But one thing that we've done this year is that what
we're looking to do is enhance the guest experience when you're here. We know
that we can't compete with the number of tables that a lot of other places
around town have. Even with our expanded space, we're only going to have
We're hoping to be right around sixty total tables. What we do want to
offer and what we think that we can offer better than anyone else, is
a great experience when you show up and play in one of our tournaments.
We've We're gonna probably hop on social media here in the next day or so
and unveil our trophies that we have set up for the summer series. I'll
let you know those set us back up. I'm a soccer trophy on the
lookout. I think our trophies are what are the kids they slap is what
they say? The teenage Yeah, I don't have any kids myself so I
but beyond that, anyone who makes one of our final tables this year is
going to be receiving a swag bag. And I don't want to reveal everything
that's going to be in there, but we'll definitely be asking you for your
hoodie size. There's some other branded Aria Poker merchandise in there. And then
BETMGM is going to be including some stuff in our swag bag as well because
they are our presenting sponsor for the Aria Poker Classic this summer, and so
little things like that. The food service that we offer this is not something
that you can get at other places around town. The game attendants coming and
taking food orders for you at Poshburger, Moneyline Pizza, some of the great
places that we have in Tai Fong, Lemon Grass, Proper Eats, Food
Haul everything up here at Aria. These are great food options for players.
We don't offer a dinner break so we can make sure that you get some
sleep at the end of the night, but in lieu of that, we
offer some great food options. And so if you haven't experienced Aria Poker at
all, it should be and I do believe it's like a bucket list item
for a lot of players. It was for me when I lived out of
town and knew that I wanted to come here and experience what this is about.
And we embraced that. We're looking forward to all of the people that
will be coming around, coming here from around the world looking for that experience
playing in our poker room and in our tournaments as some one of the things
that I always love. I know you guys have are great at obviously,
Paul, and you're like, the tournament management staff is great, but also
the dealers. I mean, listen, some of the best, if not
the best, in the city for sure, and that when you're a poker
player, a tournament player, you're trying to get hands in, you're trying
to play, that is of supreme importance. We see it all the time
here in the studio with the PGT events and the other stuff that we do
here. I'm assuming that also extends obviously to the Aria Poker Classic, and
that is that is great and it's probably not easy to find good dealers keep
them around, you know, but you know, kudos to you guys for
doing that and having them here because I rarely see them make mistakes unless they're
dealing to John Manette. But other than that, you know, things happy
John, Things are good so well. And I'm glad that you've noticed that
because it is as a result of the efforts that we put into the training
programs, even for our temporary employees this summer, and so the people who
come on here, they have the same expectation of our year round staff,
and we really do invest in them and make sure that they are up to
Aria's standards. So I'm glad that someone notices the work that we do.
It sounds like we need to do like a special social media video and let
him go through the training programs. He's a decent dealer, but like we
need to like put him on the spot. I'm not scared at all,
all right, put Tim in the box over there. Yeah, you guys
have a gaming license. I mean we actually probably could figure put you in
the just just have you show up like for a PGT event. Just start
trying. I would be start pitching him out. That'd be great, you
know, a table change request week. Yes, yes, Paul, Ryan,
appreciate you guys for coming on talking about the ARIA Poker Classic again for
everyone out there. May twenty ninth through July thirteenth. You guys can tune
in on social media Aria Poker on Twitter slash x. Yeah. I mean
I would come play here if I wasn't locked up at the World Series of
Poker every single day along this guy over here, I would definitely be over
here. Most importantly because I am a one day tournament guy. I need
to get in and get out there. So for me, this type of
schedule, I'm looking at it, I'm like, I'm like salvating, and
I'm also annoyed that I can't play a lot of these events, right,
But if I could, you know that, that's right up my alley,
because like you said, it's hard to get when you're working, it's hard
to get locked in for multiple days. So I love the fact that you
guys tackle this from from a you know, kind of a one day tournament
aspect for a lot of this stuff, obviously the big guarantees as well,
So a lot to be had here at Aria Poker in the Summer Ario Poker
Classic May twenty ninth through July thirteenth. That's uh, Ryan Kirk, that's
tournament director. Two time Tournament Director of the Year, Paul Campbell, appreciate
you guys coming on. Thank you, appreciate you having, thank you,
thank you, thank you. This episode of the Poker Go Podcast is brought
to you by storm X. The easiest way to earn crypto just head on
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crypto doesn't have to be hard with Stormack's Earning crypto is easy. I was
informed before the show that Tim wanted to do a community cards, so I
guess that means rich play the music. Attention, attention, good morning,
good afternoon, and good evenings of the poker radio audience near and far.
It is now time for a brand spanking, spiffy and new shout out to
some of our most loyal listeners who likely got a bit too lucky on the
way to the spotlight. You're listening to the number one poker show in the
land, and it's time for a new edition of the Poker Go Podcast Community
Cards. All right, sir, do you what do you got for me?
I just want to say It's been a long time since we had that
tune, that jingle. It has been a long time, but but I
think we're going to get a lot of it in the summer. Yes,
we got to bring it back. I feel like I wanted to discuss some
things because it's fitting. We know we're about to talk to Ryan and Paul.
I've had two players come up to me while here at Aria. Once
was in the poker room, one was here in the Podco studio, you
know, saying, hey man, I'm a big podcast listener, you know,
big fan. Love what you guys do. I'm horrible with names.
I've already forgotten their names, but I gave him a hat. I gave
him a little card protector. They got a little bit of swag. They
were very excited about that. They're very loyal listeners, and I just want
to preface the people coming. We've got world series coming. We've got something
planned I don't want to reveal right now. There's something planned for you guys,
you listeners back home, so make sure you stay tuned in for every
episode coming from the world series of Poker Love It