Frustrating

I've been thinking about actually playing some poker now that I have some time for it. There are three tournament series currently running: the L.A. Poker Classic, the Caesars Mega Stack Series, and the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. And out of those three tournament series, I'm having troubling finding even one event to play for a reasonable amount of money.

The problem is that I prefer to play something that's NOT no-limit hold'em. Vegas cardrooms, it seems, have become unfamiliar with any other game. How times have changed in five short years. These are my options:

L.A. Poker Classic (Jan. 22 - Feb. 20; 34 side events)

$545 Limit Hold'em - January 24 [I was in Melbourne]
$335 Seven-Card Stud - January 26 [I was in Melbourne]
$335 Omaha Hi/Lo - January 27 [travel day to Manila]
$335 Limit Hold'em - January 29 [I was in Manila]
$545 Limit Hold'em - February 2 [travel day to Vegas]
$545 O.E. - February 4 [I guess I could have hustled down to L.A. for this...]
$545 Seven-Card Stud - February 6 [the only real option but ugh, stud]

The LAPC is one of the few tournament series with a decent spread of non-NLHE tournaments. The problem is that they're all crammed into the beginning of the schedule -- when I was overseas. After tomorrow, the only non NLHE events are a few four-figure buy-in PLO tourneys and a few four-figure buy-in "H.O.R.E.S." tourneys.

I understand that the general structure of the LAPC is to have the smaller buy-in tourneys at the beginning of the festival, but there isn't a single fixed-limit tournament other than H.O.R.E.S. for the last two weeks of the festival prior to the main event. This, despite the fact that there are FIVE separate three-figure buy-in NLHE events. Maybe it's worth a talk with Matt Savage the next time I see him.

The sad thing is, even with the early-weighted schedule, the LAPC is the best of the offerings...

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza (Feb. 2 - Feb. 23; 25 events)

$330 Omaha Hi/Lo - Sunday, February 8
$330 H.O.R.S.E. - Sunday, February 15
$330 Pot-Limit Omaha - Saturday, February 21

Everything else offered is no-limit hold'em. I think, of these three, I would potentially play the H.O.R.S.E. and maybe the PLO if I were really feeling like cracking out. But the H.O.R.S.E. is the best option of the bunch.

Caesars Mega Stack Series (Feb. 1 - Feb. 26; 27 events)

There are NO tournaments other than no-limit hold'em offered during this series. The same is also true of Bellagio's Five Star World Poker Classic later this spring. There are fifteen events in that series that are not the Main Event or a satellite. All are no-limit hold'em.

Yes, yes, I know there's this thing called the Internet, on which you can "play poker" at a site called "Full Tilt Poker" that's currently running a tournament series called "FTOPS" which has several non-NLHE offerings. Some of us prefer to play live games though. And the fact that FTOPS and WCOOP are so successful suggests that there's room in the casino-tournament schedules for a few more non-NLHE events.

Seriously, what does it take to get anything more than a nominal spread of decently structured non-NLHE tournaments offered at a casino for a reasonable price? Aren't people sick yet of playing nothing but NLHE all the time?