2025 Summer Poker Series in Las Vegas (Excluding WSOP)

Temperatures are starting to climb, and the May flowers are in full bloom, which means one thing: It's poker time in Las Vegas. Though most of the media attention is focused on the World Series of Poker (WSOP), there are actually plenty of other poker series running at the same time at competing gaming establishments.

Whether you're fed up with the Caesars corporate conglomerate, don't want to fight the massive crowds at the Horseshoe and Paris casinos, or consider WSOP buyins to be just a tad too rich for your blood, these alternate summer poker series could be the answer for you. Look to the Wynn, the Venetian, the Aria, MGM Grand, the Golden Nugget, the Orleans, and Resorts World for something a bit different this summer.

The Wynn Summer Classic

A fixture at the Wynn for more than a decade, the Wynn Summer Classic has grown to become a legitimate rival to the WSOP festivities occurring about a mile down the Strip. Running from May 21 through July 14 this year, the schedule contains some $40 million in guarantees spread across 90 tournaments.

The Wynn and Sister Property Encore

Among the highlights are the three-day $10,400-buyin Wynn Summer Championship, which has four starting flights, will run from June 26 to July 2, and comes with a guarantee of $10,000,000. Other big-money events include a $3M guaranteed $2,200-buyin Mystery Bounty tourney, running from June 15 – June 19, and a $4M guaranteed NLHE event with a $3,500 buyin that will take place from June 22 – June 26.

However, despite the opulent ambiance and presence of big-money tourneys, the Summer Classic is by no means designed exclusively for the well-to-do. There are many MTTs with buyins between $600 and $1,600 with $1,100 representing the most common entry amount.

Of particular note are the large number of tourneys that are reasonably priced and feature formats of poker other than No Limit Texas Hold'em. They include:

• June 7, $1,100 Limit Hold'em, $50,000 GTD
• June 22, $1,100 5 Card PLO, $200,000 GTD
• July 10, $1,100 TORSE, $50,000 GTD

Check out the full schedule of the 2025 Wynn Summer Classic.

The Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series

The Venetian has a long history of hosting deep-stacked tournaments, and the DeepStack Championship Poker Series, running since 2018, is an example of this. This year, its 116 events are scheduled to take place from May 19 – July 31 with nearly $21 million in guaranteed prize money.

The Venetian Resort

What gives this series its name is the depth of the initial starting stacks in the tourneys. Almost all events begin with stacks between 125 and 400 big blinds deep. True cognoscenti of poker recognize that the deeper the stacks, the more room there is for creative and skillful play especially postflop.

The biggest event here is the $4,000,000 guaranteed WPT Venetian NLHE tournament with a $5,000 buyin. There are three starting days, July 11 – 13, and then four more days of play lasting until July 17.

The other buyins in the series range from $200 to $2,500. Some of the highlights include a three-day $1,600 Seniors tourney (must be 50+) with $2 million guaranteed, a $500K Mystery Bounty event with a buyin of $1,600, and a couple of events that are part of the Major Series of Poker with guarantees of $1.5 million and $1 million.

Here are all the details of the Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series 2025.

Aria 2025 Poker Classic

Just a bit south of the main WSOP action, there will be a major series running at the Aria consisting of 46 events from May 28 through July 13. The Aria Poker Classic has been going strong since 2017, and this year's edition has over $15 million in guaranteed prizes up for grabs.

ARIA Resort & Casino

The buyins are $1,600 or less, which means correspondingly small prize pools with guarantees tending to be no higher than $500,000. The most notable exception is the $3,500 BetMGM Championship, which guarantees $3,000,000 and is expected to draw in at least 100 qualifiers from BetMGM online cardrooms in various states. There are two starting days, June 30 and July 1, days 2 and 3 on July 2 and 3, and a final table on Independence Day, July 4.

Other intriguing tournaments include the two-day (July 4 + 5) $2,200 PLO Championship with $1 million guaranteed, a Mystery Bounty tourney on June 19 and 20 with a $2,200 buyin and $1 million guaranteed, and an $800 HORSE event on June 17 with a $100,000 guarantee.

Click here for further details on the schedule of the 2025 Aria Poker Classic.

MGM Grand Summer Poker Festival

Aria's sister cardroom just across the street at the MGM Grand is also hosting a big MTT series May 23 to July 6. Called the Summer Poker Festival, it will distribute more than $4.5 million in guarantees over the course of 152 tournaments. This is a newer series, having only been running for a few years, which might explain why such a large poker room has such modest total guarantees in its summer series.

The MGM Grand Las Vegas

One interesting wrinkle to this series is that 37 events are being run in partnership with the Moneymaker Poker Tour: brainchild of 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker. Indeed, one of these co-branded events is the $400 “Older than Moneymaker” Seniors event on Friday, June 27 with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. Entrants have to be at least as old as Chris Moneymaker (49+) to play.

All humor aside, the largest tournament in the Summer Poker Festival is also a Moneymaker Poker Tour event: It's the $1,700 Moneymaker Main Event $1M guaranteed, which has three starting flights on July 1, 2, and 3 along with a second day of play on July 4. Most of the other events cost between $150 and $800 to join, so this series is definitely geared toward the lower end of the player spectrum.

View the full MGM Grand Summer Poker Festival schedule here.

Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series

Far away from the glitz and opulence of the Las Vegas Strip lies Downtown: a grittier, old-school environment where the attention is squarely on low-stakes gambling and not on pools, shows, or celebrity restaurants. The Golden Nugget has the only functional poker room downtown, which we have written about, and so it only makes sense that it hosts Downtown's answer to the WSOP, The Grand Poker Series, which has been a mainstay of the Golden Nugget since 2008.

The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas

The Grand Poker Series will take place from May 27 to July 2 and consists of 106 events and nearly $5 million in guarantees. In keeping with the low-stakes nature of the room, most buyins are between $120 and $600. One of the exceptions is the $1,200-buyin $1 Million Guarantee Goldenaire, which is a Mystery Bounty tournament. Four starting flights take place on June 25 - 28 with the second day of play occurring on June 29.

Other tournaments of note include the four-flight $600 Championship No Limit Hold'em $500,000 Guarantee (June 18 – 22) and the seven-flight $350 No Limit Hold'em $250,000 Guarantee (June 5 – 8).

Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series 2025 schedule.

2025 Orleans Summer Open

By all accounts, the Orleans hosts one of the best poker rooms of any “locals” casinos in Las Vegas. Though it is but a mile and a half west of the Strip, it feels like a totally different world. It is here that you can enjoy the Orleans Summer Open, which has run since 2018, from May 23 to July 13. There's more than $3.8 million in guarantees spread across 200+ tournaments.

The Orleans Casino

As a down-to-earth locals casino, the buyins here are well within the wallet requirements of almost everyone: They range from $100 up to $600 with just a few exceptions. There's a surprising number of non-Hold'em events, such as the $1,100 TORSE Championship on June 10, which has $100,000 guaranteed, and the $600 Limit Omaha-8 Championship on June 24 with $50,000 guaranteed.

The $500,000 Guaranteed Main Event has eight $800 starting flights, two apiece from July 2 through July 5. Then the survivors gather together on July 6 to play out the rest of the tourney.

Click for the whole 2025 Orleans Summer Open schedule.

Resorts World Summer Schedule

Resorts World Las Vegas has only been around since 2021, so it makes sense that its poker offerings are not in the big leagues with the likes of Caesars and the Wynn. Nevertheless, Resorts is running a Summer Series consisting entirely of single-day events from June 5 to July 14.

Two tournaments run daily throughout most of the series with a few days adding a third. There are, in total, 84 MTTs in the schedule. Total guarantees are modest at just $775k, but this means that the buyins are also affordable with the priciest events costing a mere $200 investment.

Unusually, the largest guarantee on the schedule is a Ladies event sponsored by the Poker League of Nations on June 30, which has $40,000 in prize money and a buyin of $360. There are 10 other NLHE tourneys across the schedule with $400 buyins and guarantees of $20,000 apiece.

Check out the 2025 summer tournaments at Resorts World.

Play Tournament Series at Home

Of course, if you'd rather stay at home and play tournaments on your computer, that's a viable option as well. There are many offshore online poker providers that serve the United States, and they are legal for you to play at.

One of the best places to go on the internet for poker tourneys is ACR Poker. This site hosts numerous tournament series, like the OSS Cub3d, which often has tens of millions of dollars in guarantees.

You can redeem a $10 no deposit bonus at ACR Poker through our exclusive ACR promo code PRB10FREE then obtain a 100% up to $2,000 first deposit bonus when you're ready. To sign up for ACR today, click the button below:

To read up a bit on ACR first, consult this detailed ACR Poker review. Or learn about other good sites for online tourneys with this guide to the best online tournament poker rooms.

June 3, 2025 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief