Pioneer with a 200$ + 20$ game brought 22 players one hour before registration cut off so they had a few more but not many.... Golden Nugget brought over 100 players (Im sure) with a 20K$ game at 50$ buy in-solid gathering. BUT! Aquarius..... with a 49$ buy in and about 25$ in gifts as an open/invite for a 25K$ game brought what could be a Laughlin record of 714 players- I was told by a couple of local players. There were over 100 players in the semis!
Aquarius Ev If the Aquarius had 714 players, at $49 each - that's $34,986 they collected - for a $25K prize pool - just off the buy-ins - any rebuys? - that would be a very nice profit for the casino, and very poor ev for players - also - how could they have more than 100 players in the semis? - was the semi round accumulation?
This is the first time the Aquarius didnt take a pounding of the tourney investment that I know of. I played in a game there where only 90 players and they payed the winner 10 grand. The ev for this game was about 35$ plus a 11$ buffet and a t-shirt for cash buy ins. The second round is accumulation that pays 50 players at least 100$ I believe. This is mostly an invite game which offers room and first round game to the casinos players plus the food and shirt too. So, the casino has invested 25k plus gifts plus extras. Its a great marketing move by the casino and a good promotion of BJT. They also included a cocktail party and lessons on Friday..... I only watched the start of the GN final table. One of Skip's friends was playing - I think that was as close as we got but not sure.
