diff --git a/packages/manager/.changeset/pr-11263-tech-stories-1732035738769.md b/packages/manager/.changeset/pr-11263-tech-stories-1732035738769.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..0460f9e406a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/manager/.changeset/pr-11263-tech-stories-1732035738769.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"@linode/manager": Tech Stories
+---
+
+Optimize Events Polling following changes from incident ([#11263](https://github.com/linode/manager/pull/11263))
diff --git a/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.test.tsx b/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.test.tsx
index 588eccaa406..2f8ec9248fb 100644
--- a/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.test.tsx
@@ -62,13 +62,20 @@ describe('EventsLanding', () => {
 
   it('renders a message when there are no more events to load', async () => {
     const event = eventFactory.build();
+    const eventsResponse = makeResourcePage([event], {
+      page: 1,
+      pages: 1,
+      results: 1,
+    });
 
     server.use(
-      http.get('*/events', () =>
-        HttpResponse.json(
-          makeResourcePage([event], { page: 1, pages: 1, results: 1 })
-        )
-      )
+      http.get('*/events', () => HttpResponse.json(eventsResponse), {
+        once: true,
+      }),
+      // `useEventsInfiniteQuery` needs to make two fetches to know if there are no more events to show
+      http.get('*/events', () => HttpResponse.json(makeResourcePage([])), {
+        once: true,
+      })
     );
 
     const { findByText } = renderWithTheme(<EventsLanding />);
diff --git a/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.tsx b/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.tsx
index e7e69684476..3f221a07516 100644
--- a/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.tsx
+++ b/packages/manager/src/features/Events/EventsLanding.tsx
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ export const EventsLanding = (props: Props) => {
     events,
     fetchNextPage,
     hasNextPage,
+    isFetching,
     isFetchingNextPage,
     isLoading,
   } = useEventsInfiniteQuery(filter);
@@ -111,15 +112,13 @@ export const EventsLanding = (props: Props) => {
         </TableHead>
         <TableBody>{renderTableBody()}</TableBody>
       </Table>
-      {hasNextPage ? (
+      {!isFetching && hasNextPage && (
         <Waypoint onEnter={() => fetchNextPage()}>
           <div />
         </Waypoint>
-      ) : (
-        events &&
-        events.length > 0 && (
-          <StyledTypography>No more events to show</StyledTypography>
-        )
+      )}
+      {events && events.length > 0 && !isFetching && !hasNextPage && (
+        <StyledTypography>No more events to show</StyledTypography>
       )}
     </>
   );
diff --git a/packages/manager/src/features/TopMenu/NotificationMenu/NotificationMenu.tsx b/packages/manager/src/features/TopMenu/NotificationMenu/NotificationMenu.tsx
index eecf5324b92..ab156458697 100644
--- a/packages/manager/src/features/TopMenu/NotificationMenu/NotificationMenu.tsx
+++ b/packages/manager/src/features/TopMenu/NotificationMenu/NotificationMenu.tsx
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ import { usePrevious } from 'src/hooks/usePrevious';
 import { useNotificationsQuery } from 'src/queries/account/notifications';
 import { isInProgressEvent } from 'src/queries/events/event.helpers';
 import {
-  useInitialEventsQuery,
+  useEventsInfiniteQuery,
   useMarkEventsAsSeen,
 } from 'src/queries/events/events';
 
@@ -34,8 +34,11 @@ export const NotificationMenu = () => {
   const formattedNotifications = useFormattedNotifications();
   const notificationContext = React.useContext(_notificationContext);
 
-  const { data, events } = useInitialEventsQuery();
-  const eventsData = data?.data ?? [];
+  const { data } = useEventsInfiniteQuery();
+
+  // Just use the first page of events because we `slice` to get the first 20 events anyway
+  const events = data?.pages[0].data ?? [];
+
   const { mutateAsync: markEventsAsSeen } = useMarkEventsAsSeen();
 
   const numNotifications =
@@ -152,8 +155,8 @@ export const NotificationMenu = () => {
           </Box>
           <Divider spacingBottom={0} />
 
-          {eventsData.length > 0 ? (
-            eventsData
+          {events.length > 0 ? (
+            events
               .slice(0, 20)
               .map((event) => (
                 <NotificationCenterEvent
diff --git a/packages/manager/src/queries/events/events.ts b/packages/manager/src/queries/events/events.ts
index 0528df5c6c6..0a76d63358f 100644
--- a/packages/manager/src/queries/events/events.ts
+++ b/packages/manager/src/queries/events/events.ts
@@ -26,46 +26,10 @@ import type {
   QueryKey,
 } from '@tanstack/react-query';
 
-/**
- * This query exists to get the first 7 days of events when you load the app.
- *
- * Using the first page of useEventsInfiniteQuery would be ideal, but we are going to try this...
- *
- * @note This initial query should match X-Filtering that our poller does. If we want this query
- * to have a different filter than our poller, we will need to implement filtering in
- * `updateEventsQueries` like we do for our infinite queries.
- */
-export const useInitialEventsQuery = () => {
-  /**
-   * We only want to get events from the last 7 days.
-   */
-  const [defaultCreatedFilter] = useState(
-    DateTime.now()
-      .minus({ days: 7 })
-      .setZone('utc')
-      .toFormat(ISO_DATETIME_NO_TZ_FORMAT)
-  );
-
-  const query = useQuery<ResourcePage<Event>, APIError[]>({
-    gcTime: Infinity,
-    queryFn: () =>
-      getEvents(
-        {},
-        {
-          ...EVENTS_LIST_FILTER,
-          '+order': 'desc',
-          '+order_by': 'id',
-          created: { '+gt': defaultCreatedFilter },
-        }
-      ),
-    queryKey: ['events', 'initial'],
-    staleTime: Infinity,
-  });
-
-  const events = query.data?.data;
-
-  return { ...query, events };
-};
+const defaultCreatedFilter = DateTime.now()
+  .minus({ days: 7 })
+  .setZone('utc')
+  .toFormat(ISO_DATETIME_NO_TZ_FORMAT);
 
 /**
  * Gets an infinitely scrollable list of all Events
@@ -80,25 +44,56 @@ export const useInitialEventsQuery = () => {
  * the next set of events when the items returned by the server may have shifted.
  */
 export const useEventsInfiniteQuery = (filter: Filter = EVENTS_LIST_FILTER) => {
+  const queryClient = useQueryClient();
+
   const query = useInfiniteQuery<ResourcePage<Event>, APIError[]>({
     gcTime: Infinity,
-    getNextPageParam: ({ data, results }) => {
-      if (results === data.length) {
-        return undefined;
+    getNextPageParam: (lastPage, allPages) => {
+      if (allPages.length === 1 && lastPage.results === 0) {
+        // If we did the inital fetch (the one that limits results to 7 days) but got no results,
+        // we can't conclude there are no more pages to fetch. There could be more events to fetch
+        // outside of the 7 day window. Therefore, we return a "fake" pageParam so that React Query
+        // will still attempt to fetch another page whenever `fetchNextPage` is called next.
+        return 'fetch more';
       }
-      return data[data.length - 1].id;
+      return lastPage.data[lastPage.data.length - 1]?.id;
     },
     initialPageParam: undefined,
-    queryFn: ({ pageParam }) =>
-      getEvents(
+    queryFn: ({ pageParam }) => {
+      const data = queryClient.getQueryData<InfiniteData<ResourcePage<Event>>>([
+        'events',
+        'infinite',
+        filter,
+      ]);
+      if (data === undefined) {
+        // If there is no data in the cache yet at this query key,
+        // it likely means that this is the initial fetch. For the
+        // initial fetch, we have been asked to use `created` to limit
+        // the timeframe for our initial fetch to a small window.
+        // See M3-8450 for context.
+        return getEvents(
+          {},
+          {
+            ...filter,
+            '+order': 'desc',
+            '+order_by': 'id',
+            created: { '+gt': defaultCreatedFilter },
+          }
+        );
+      }
+      return getEvents(
         {},
         {
           ...filter,
           '+order': 'desc',
           '+order_by': 'id',
-          id: pageParam ? { '+lt': pageParam } : undefined,
+          id:
+            pageParam === 'fetch more'
+              ? undefined
+              : { '+lt': pageParam as number },
         }
-      ),
+      );
+    },
     queryKey: ['events', 'infinite', filter],
     staleTime: Infinity,
   });
@@ -148,9 +143,9 @@ export const useEventsPoller = () => {
 
   const queryClient = useQueryClient();
 
-  const { data: initialEvents } = useInitialEventsQuery();
+  const { data } = useEventsInfiniteQuery();
 
-  const hasFetchedInitialEvents = initialEvents !== undefined;
+  const hasFetchedInitialEvents = data !== undefined;
 
   const [mountTimestamp] = useState(
     DateTime.now().setZone('utc').toFormat(ISO_DATETIME_NO_TZ_FORMAT)
@@ -159,11 +154,15 @@ export const useEventsPoller = () => {
   const { data: events } = useQuery({
     enabled: hasFetchedInitialEvents,
     queryFn: () => {
-      const data = queryClient.getQueryData<ResourcePage<Event>>([
+      const data = queryClient.getQueryData<InfiniteData<ResourcePage<Event>>>([
         'events',
-        'initial',
+        'infinite',
+        EVENTS_LIST_FILTER,
       ]);
-      const events = data?.data;
+      const events = data?.pages.reduce(
+        (events, page) => [...events, ...page.data],
+        []
+      );
 
       // If the user has events, poll for new events based on the most recent event's created time.
       // If the user has no events, poll events from the time the app mounted.
@@ -242,26 +241,8 @@ export const useMarkEventsAsSeen = () => {
   const queryClient = useQueryClient();
 
   return useMutation<{}, APIError[], number>({
-    mutationFn: (eventId) => markEventSeen(eventId),
+    mutationFn: markEventSeen,
     onSuccess: (_, eventId) => {
-      // Update Initial Query
-      queryClient.setQueryData<ResourcePage<Event>>(
-        ['events', 'initial'],
-        (prev) => {
-          if (!prev) {
-            return undefined;
-          }
-
-          for (const event of prev.data) {
-            if (event.id <= eventId) {
-              event.seen = true;
-            }
-          }
-
-          return prev;
-        }
-      );
-
       // Update Infinite Queries
       queryClient.setQueriesData<InfiniteData<ResourcePage<Event>>>(
         { queryKey: ['events', 'infinite'] },
@@ -319,8 +300,6 @@ export const updateEventsQueries = (
 
       updateEventsQuery(filteredEvents, queryKey, queryClient);
     });
-
-  updateInitialEventsQuery(events, queryClient);
 };
 
 /**
@@ -385,44 +364,3 @@ export const updateEventsQuery = (
     }
   );
 };
-
-export const updateInitialEventsQuery = (
-  events: Event[],
-  queryClient: QueryClient
-) => {
-  queryClient.setQueryData<ResourcePage<Event>>(
-    ['events', 'initial'],
-    (prev) => {
-      if (!prev) {
-        return undefined;
-      }
-      const updatedEventIndexes: number[] = [];
-
-      for (let i = 0; i < events.length; i++) {
-        const indexOfEvent = prev.data.findIndex((e) => e.id === events[i].id);
-
-        if (indexOfEvent !== -1) {
-          prev.data[indexOfEvent] = events[i];
-          updatedEventIndexes.push(i);
-        }
-      }
-
-      const newEvents: Event[] = [];
-
-      for (let i = 0; i < events.length; i++) {
-        if (!updatedEventIndexes.includes(i)) {
-          newEvents.push(events[i]);
-        }
-      }
-
-      if (newEvents.length > 0) {
-        // For all events, that remain, append them to the top of the events list
-        prev.data = [...newEvents, ...prev.data];
-
-        prev.results += newEvents.length;
-      }
-
-      return prev;
-    }
-  );
-};