Talking Stick: The New Home of America’s Biggest Mid-Major Poker Tournaments

Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, has become the new home of America’s biggest mid-major poker tournaments.

This weekend’s 20th anniversary Arizona State Poker Championship drew a massive 4,018 entries, which was a 13% increase from the already large 3,546 entries from last year. The $1,100 event had more than double the number of entries of the most popular World Series of Poker Circuit main event that same weekend in Cherokee. That drew 1,681 entries at the higher $1,700 price point.

The Arizona State Poker Championship’s $627,050 first-place prize would not look out of place at the World Series of Poker. It’s an outrageous number for a mid-major event, illustrating the exploding popularity of the Talking Stick events and its incredible potential as a poker tournament mainstay going forward.

Entries More than Doubled in Arizona State Championship in Recent Years

*Major monsoon in Scottsdale led to power outages and travel issues

The tournament has run for 20 years, with the inaugural event drawing 450 entries in 2006. It remained steady throughout the 2010s. But the explosion has happened since 2022 with entries more than doubling in four years. Each of the last four years has seen a significant jump in entries from the year prior.

That comes against a backdrop of consolidation in other parts of the industry. Almost all other tournaments have experienced year-over-year shrinkage. That includes high-profile ones like the WSOP main event, which has bled almost 1,000 entries over the past two years.

That makes Talking Stick’s success all the more incredible.

Talking Stick’s New Poker Room ‘Best in the Country’

Talking Stick opened up a new poker room in early 2024. It has 69 tables, which makes it the largest in Arizona by far and larger than even most casinos in Las Vegas. According to at least one regular poker player on Reddit, Talking Stick has the best poker room in the country.

In my opinion this is the best poker room in the country. Friendly staff. Accommodating to the players. Lots of games going. Mixed games , PLO, all kinda of hold ‘em. You name it they can deal it if you get enough players.

Other Poker Tours Looking to Tap into Burgeoning Arizona Market

Thanks to the new poker room, poker tours have jumped on the historically untapped poker market by adding events at Talking Stick.

Major Series of Poker the Tour (MSPT)’s 2026 Diamond Poker Championship had 3,220 entries in February.

Likewise, the WSOP Circuit is set to make its debut in Scottsdale in November with a series at Talking Stick. Based on numbers from the Arizona State Poker Championship, WSOPC Talking Stick could very well supplant Cherokee as the largest stop on the tour.

WSOP U.S. Circuit Manager Terrance Reid, who played a role in bringing the circuit to Scottsdale, confirmed as much when talking to PokerScout during the Cherokee Monster Stack this past week. He said there are very big internal expectations for the circuit in the Valley of the Sun.

Reasons Behind the Poker Explosion in Arizona

The explosion of poker in Arizona is a fairly new phenomenon. Arizona has long been in the shadow of its neighbor, Nevada, when it comes to gambling and poker. Currently, seven casinos in the state offer poker, with the second-largest poker room outside of Talking Stick being at Desert Diamond Casino West Valley in Glendale.

Seclusion of the Huge Phoenix Area

The Phoenix area is a large metro to draw from, with 1.7 million people, making it the fifth-largest city in the country. It is also far from other major metropolitan areas, meaning people in the valley are more likely to stay home to play poker when the option is available.

Even though Vegas is in a neighboring state, it is still nearly a five-hour drive from Phoenix.

Arizona is the 14th-most populous state in the country, with 7.7 million people. Unlike most other large states with multiple cities and metropolitan areas, Phoenix is really one metropolis for all Arizonans to converge upon, especially for those interested in playing poker in one of the largest poker rooms in the country. So, Talking Stick has the benefit of being a state-wide poker hub rather than merely a city-wide one.

It has now become a huge poker market, allowing players to avoid travel to Vegas or California to play. With MSPT and WSOPC events being held there, it will also become a destination for people from around the country to play in the swanky Scottsdale area of the metro.

The massive prize pools provide proof of concept, and they will only serve as a green flag to draw more outside traffic to Talking Stick.

Sports Betting, Gambling, and Poker Are Newly Mainstream

The legalization of sports betting in Arizona in 2021 has also likely led people to engage more prominently in gambling, including poker. It has become more of a part of mainstream culture, which is a big reason why it has grown so much since 2022, specifically.

The novelty is also likely a factor, as all of this is fairly new to Arizona, unlike other areas of the country with big poker events with longer histories.

Often, a short-term boom precedes a slow leveling off. Even if Talking Stick experiences that, the new watermark has climbed so high that a modest dip will still leave these Talking Stick events among the biggest mid-majors in the country.

Image credit: Arizona Department of Transportation (license)