Ten Deep for PLO5 at Playground — Zero Tables Open

The Phantom List

Ten players are waiting for $5/5 five-card PLO at Playground Poker Club in Kahnawake, Quebec, right now — and there are zero tables open.

That's a 10:0 waitlist-to-table ratio, logged on Bravo the evening of May 24. No table running. No seats to protect. Just ten names on a list, waiting for someone on the floor to spread the game.

Ten names on a list, zero tables open — a 10:0 phantom waitlist ratio for $5/5 PLO5 at Playground Poker Club.

What a Phantom List Means

A "phantom waitlist" — players queued for a game that isn't yet running — isn't unusual for niche stakes or mixed games. A couple of names sitting on a list for $10/25 NLH or a short-deck table, sure. That happens everywhere.

A phantom list ten names deep for a five-card PLO game is something else. The median waitlist for this game at Playground sits at one. On May 24, it's ten times that.

For context: a 10:0 ratio would rank among the most lopsided waitlist signals on Bravo across all of North America on any given evening — not just for PLO variants, but for any game type. On the Las Vegas Strip, where $5/5 PLO tables regularly run two or three deep, a list this long without a single open seat is rare.

Why PLO5?

Five-card PLO has been creeping into more rooms over the past year, but it remains a fringe offering at most properties. Playground, which operates one of the largest poker floors in Canada with regular multi-table tournament series and deep cash-game spreads, is one of the few rooms north of the border that lists it on Bravo at all.

The demand signal is clear: ten players want this game badly enough to put their names down with no guarantee a table opens. Whether the floor eventually spreads it — or whether those ten names drift to the $5/5 NLH or $2/5 PLO4 tables instead — is a question Bravo can't answer.

The Broader Picture

Playground's PLO5 phantom list is a single data point, but it fits a pattern. Five-card PLO demand has been outpacing supply at mid-stakes levels across North American rooms. The game plays bigger than four-card PLO at equivalent blind levels, which draws action players — and makes floor managers cautious about spreading it without enough confirmed seats.

Ten confirmed names should be more than enough. Whether Playground acts on the signal is up to the floor.

The list is live on Bravo as of 11:45 p.m. ET on May 24.