18 Names, Zero Tables: PLO Waitlists Are Outrunning Hold'em

PLO waitlists are growing faster than Hold'em lists in a third of the markets Charlotte tracks, and the gap widened again Sunday night.

The single most surprising number from May 18: 18 players sat on Hustler Casino's PLO $10/$10/$20 waitlist with zero tables running. That's a 9x ratio to the game's median waitlist of 2. Eighteen people lined up for a game that hadn't even started yet.

But Hustler wasn't the most extreme ratio we logged.

The Chart

| Casino | Game | Waiting | Tables | Median WL | Ratio to Median | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Rivers Casino Des Plaines | 25-25 5 Card PLO | 6 | 1 | 0.5 | 12.0x | | Wind Creek Bethlehem | $2/2 PLO | 11 | 0 | 1 | 11.0x | | Hustler Casino | PLO $10/$10/$20 | 18 | 0 | 2 | 9.0x | | Rivers Casino Des Plaines | 5-5 PLO HS | 11 | 1 | 2 | 5.5x | | The Orleans | 4-8 Omaha Hi Lo | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3.5x | | Parx Casino | 2-2 PLO | 8 | 2 | 2.5 | 3.2x | | Maryland Live! | 2-2 5 Card PLO | 8 | 5 | 3 | 2.7x | | Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood | 5-5 5 Card PLO | 9 | 1 | 4 | 2.25x | | Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood | 2-2 PLO 8 Max | 8 | 3 | 4 | 2.0x |

Nine PLO or Omaha variants across seven rooms, all clocking in at 2x their median waitlist or higher. Six of those rooms sit in six different states: California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nevada, Maryland, and Florida. This isn't a regional quirk.

What Stands Out

Rivers Casino Des Plaines posted the highest ratio of the night: its 25-25 5 Card PLO game hit 12x the median waitlist, with 6 names queued against a typical baseline of 0.5. Its 5-5 PLO game stacked up 11 deep at 5.5x. Two PLO variants at one suburban Chicago room, both well above normal.

Wind Creek Bethlehem ran an 11x ratio on its $2/2 PLO list. Like Hustler, it had zero tables open while 11 players waited. That combination (long list, no table) suggests the demand caught the room off guard.

Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood showed the broadest PLO menu in our Sunday snapshot. Both its 2-2 PLO 8 Max and 5-5 5 Card PLO variants exceeded 2x their medians, with a combined 17 names waiting across the two games.

Notice the stakes spread. This isn't just a nosebleed phenomenon. The surge spans $2/2 games at Wind Creek and Maryland Live! all the way up to $10/$10/$20 at Hustler and $25/25 at Rivers. Small-stakes PLO and big-stakes PLO are both pulling players into the queue at rates well above normal.

Why It Matters for Rooms

Waitlist-to-median ratio is a rough proxy for unmet demand. When a room's PLO list consistently runs 3x or higher, it signals that the floor could profitably open another table. Hustler's 18-name list with zero tables running is the clearest example: that's at least two full PLO tables of demand sitting idle.

For players, the takeaway is simpler. If you want a seat in a PLO game on a Sunday night, you should be signing up early. The lists are long and growing longer.

Those 18 names at Hustler? They weren't waiting for Hold'em.

Methodology Note

All figures are drawn from Bravo waitlist snapshots captured at approximately 10:19 PM ET on Sunday, May 18, 2026. "Median waitlist" refers to the rolling median waitlist length for that specific game at that casino, as stored in Charlotte's bravo_waitlist_history table. The "ratio to median" divides the observed waitlist count by that median. Only games showing a ratio of 2.0x or greater are included. Charlotte currently tracks 17 markets via Bravo; 6 of those markets (encompassing 7 rooms) produced PLO or Omaha variants meeting the 2.0x threshold on this snapshot.