Best Places to Play in Las Vegas
With around ten forumers invading Las Vegas next week, below are the best places to play.
The best-value tournaments by far this month are:
- Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series, e.g., $235 for 10,000 chips and 50-minute blinds.
- Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, e.g., $340 for 12,000 chips and 40-minute blinds. Free daily buffet, T-shirt, cap and $10 meal coupon.
These noon tournaments all have the highest Skill Level of 6, with Patience Factors of at least 23, i.e., better than any casino tournament in our area (except for the $10K WPT NAPC of course).
The best nighttime tournament is the Wynn's new 7 PM $160, with 10,000 chips and 30-minute blinds. If you are looking for tournaments under $150, the following are the best available AFAIK:
- Binion's: $125, 8 PM nightly, 6000 chips & 30-minute blinds. Patience Factor = 13 (assuming same blind structure from July), Skill Level =6, rake = 20%.
- Venetian: $120 ($100 + $15 fee + $5 bonus), 7 PM nightly, 7500 chips & 20 minutes, rake=17%.
- Hard Rock Cafe: $130, one or two daily, 6000 chips.
- Treasure Island: $125 ($50 + $50 bounty + $25), 4 times a week: 5000 chips, 30 minutes. PF = 10.6, SL = 6, rake = 20%.
For under $100, it is difficult to find tournaments that have a beatable rake or have a higher Skill Level than 3:
- Binion's: $75, 11 PM nightly, 5000 chips, 20 minutes.
- Sahara: $45 (36% rake!) + $20 rebuys, 5000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 4.97.
- Orleans: $80, noon daily, 4000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 4.55; rake = 25%.
- Planet Hollywood: $60, 4 times daily, 4000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 5.75; rake = 30%.
- Tropicana: $60, 4 times daily, 3500 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 5.37; rake = 33%!
- As an alternative to these -EV turbos, we could have our own rake-free satellite for a deepstack event with shared percentages.
For non-NLHE games, Caesars Palace is having a $210 "Omaha 8 or Better" tournament on November 11 at 3 PM. Orleans has $80 Omaha Hi-Lo tournaments two nights a week. I will post about the best rooms for cash games next.
The best-value tournaments by far this month are:
- Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series, e.g., $235 for 10,000 chips and 50-minute blinds.
- Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, e.g., $340 for 12,000 chips and 40-minute blinds. Free daily buffet, T-shirt, cap and $10 meal coupon.
These noon tournaments all have the highest Skill Level of 6, with Patience Factors of at least 23, i.e., better than any casino tournament in our area (except for the $10K WPT NAPC of course).
The best nighttime tournament is the Wynn's new 7 PM $160, with 10,000 chips and 30-minute blinds. If you are looking for tournaments under $150, the following are the best available AFAIK:
- Binion's: $125, 8 PM nightly, 6000 chips & 30-minute blinds. Patience Factor = 13 (assuming same blind structure from July), Skill Level =6, rake = 20%.
- Venetian: $120 ($100 + $15 fee + $5 bonus), 7 PM nightly, 7500 chips & 20 minutes, rake=17%.
- Hard Rock Cafe: $130, one or two daily, 6000 chips.
- Treasure Island: $125 ($50 + $50 bounty + $25), 4 times a week: 5000 chips, 30 minutes. PF = 10.6, SL = 6, rake = 20%.
For under $100, it is difficult to find tournaments that have a beatable rake or have a higher Skill Level than 3:
- Binion's: $75, 11 PM nightly, 5000 chips, 20 minutes.
- Sahara: $45 (36% rake!) + $20 rebuys, 5000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 4.97.
- Orleans: $80, noon daily, 4000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 4.55; rake = 25%.
- Planet Hollywood: $60, 4 times daily, 4000 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 5.75; rake = 30%.
- Tropicana: $60, 4 times daily, 3500 chips, 20 minutes, PF = 5.37; rake = 33%!
- As an alternative to these -EV turbos, we could have our own rake-free satellite for a deepstack event with shared percentages.
For non-NLHE games, Caesars Palace is having a $210 "Omaha 8 or Better" tournament on November 11 at 3 PM. Orleans has $80 Omaha Hi-Lo tournaments two nights a week. I will post about the best rooms for cash games next.
Comments
Venetian: 1/2, $100-$300, 10%, maximum $4 rake & 0 jackpot rake. No posting so you can play right away. Premium drinks are available, including Red Bull, Rockstar and Fiji water for free. Free buffet from 11 AM - 2:30 PM during the DSE. There are chip runners, but I was shorted $100; the runner, cage & dealer all made a mistake against me, and it took awhile before surveillance confirmed that I was right! :eek: Cellphones, food and your spouse/girlfriend are allowed by the table. Automatic shufflers & stunning waitresses. There are less :fish: than other poker rooms, but there are many tables to choose from if I don't like my table. $1/hour comp for food.
Summary: Everything you wished the Ontario casinos would be.
Imperial Palace: 1/2, $60-$300, 10%, max. $5+$1 rake. If I wasn't busy at Venetian/Caesars Palace, I would play here every morning from 8-11 AM for the AA/KK Cracked promotion with free cookies. The best comps at $2/hour, usable at any Harrah's-owned property; automatically swiped in and out. More recreational tourist players :fish: than average, and the "Palace Princess" waitresses are very, ummm, voluptuous. Energy drinks are not free. The worst part for me was that smoking is allowed right around the open poker room, so I kept suffocating with the smoking slots players, poker players and inconsiderate dealers blowing smoke into the room.
Bill's Poker Room: only 1 blind for $1, $20 (lowest minimum buy-in on the Strip) to $200, 10%, max. $5+$1 rake, only single $1 blind. Savvy locals walk from IP to Bill's next door for the AA/KK Cracked promotion from 11 AM - 2 PM. $2/hour comp within the casino.
Harrah's: 1/2, $60-$300, 10%, max. $5 + $1 rake. Play 1 hour from 8-11 AM, & you'll receive a coupon for an extra 10% on top of your next buy-in within 24 hours, e.g., buy in for $300 & they'll give you an additional $30. They also have a $100 AA Cracked promotion from 6-9 PM Monday-Friday. $1/hour comp, including tournaments!
Binion's: 1/2, 10%, max. $3+$1 rake (including $1 drop for freeroll). Minimum $40 buy-in but no maximum!? $2/hour comp.
The following casinos have a max. rake of $4 and would be worth trying: Orleans ($3+$1), MGM Grand, Bellagio (2/5+), Wynn (1/3+) and Mirage. See the 2+2 article on the state of cash games in Las Vegas.
Wasn't there smaller buyin earlier in the day? Or they might be cancelled due to the Megastack Series?
For the most part most things listed here won't chage with the exception of the removal of the Venetian Deepstack and Caesar's Megastack (unless they run them again of course).
I'm sure you know, but the Wynn now has a nightly deepstack for $125, I believe 7500-10000 chips and 30 minute levels.
Caesars also runs a turney on Friday and Saturday with 10000 starting chips, though I suppose that might be cancelled due to the mega.
I believe that Hard Rock is also doing some deeper stack events.
Not sure of the details, but check those out.
Here is the link to Caesar Palace's daily tournaments. They are better than most of Las Vegas' bingo-ments, but except for the excellent noon tournaments, there are even better choices elsewhere.
/g2
- Go with a fellow +EV friend or forumers, especially during the WSOP since it's the busiest fishing :fish: season. For example, it was fellow forumers that told me that MGM Grand was much easier for them than my favourite poker room Venetian, so I left the Venetian cash game on my final day to make money at MGM.
- Sign up for the Vegas-related email lists and wait for flight/hotel deals, e.g., U$39-U$177 flight from Detroit/Buffalo. Remember to factor in other costs such as exchange rate, parking and extra driving; I was charged 1.31 exchange rate on my credit card so my U$177 flight cost was actually C$232 and my U$35/night room became C$46/night.
- If there are not enough forumers going at the same time willing to rent out a house/condo, book a Capri "hooker room" directly with Imperial Palace. Use the $20 trick to upgrade to a Deluxe room. You can walk or take a free shuttle to most of the major poker rooms from IP.
- Read my posts of the most +EV poker rooms to play 1/2, i.e., bonus-whore at certain times. During my summer trip, I won more money with the poker promotions than the cash game itself! Avoid rooms with freeroll promotions, where there could be a lot of local rocks grinding to qualify, e.g., Binion's where they raked an extra $1 out of every pot just so that compuease will win the freeroll next month.
- Just like at Fallsview, the :fish: will tend to be at the lowest limit in the room instead of the higher limits. Due to this and trip bankroll management, I have never played beyond 1/3 at Las Vegas. Follow the same table selection, seat selection, image-setting and other +EV strategies you win with back home. As soon as you see your table not being +EV enough, there are a lot of other tables to request a change to, e.g., when I saw a famous sports figure donk off his $240 buy-in and $100 last-longest bet at a satellite I won, I should have stalked him for the rest of the night at his 2/5 or other table he played at. Don't make the -EV blunder of continuing to play your "C" game when you are sleepy or drunk; as I found out myself the hard way a couple of times, I should have quit and taken a nap since, unlike the Niagara casinos, there will be a +EV cash game to WALK back to 24 hours a day and play my "A" game.
- Take advantage of any casino +EV promotions, e.g., match-and-play coupons, free food or free slot play. For example, just by joining the Riviera players club this month, I got a free buffet and got to play slots for free where I won a little free money. During my summer trip, I again won more money with the casino non-poker promotions than the cash games.
- Just like at Fallsview, be sure to swipe in and out with your player's card and verify the hours credited to take maximum advantage of the comps. All the satisfying meals (including three hotel buffets and a couple of expensive Venetian restaurants) I ate at Vegas this month were either free or significantly discounted.
- Your strategy of avoiding +EV tournaments in Canada is correct when you are in the US due to the 30% withholding tax. In my case, I plan to play non-taxable satellites most of the time (asking for receipts of all my gambling expenditures) and will play cash games only when there is a long wait for the next satellite. I do NOT plan to play any of the WSOP $1500-$10K events even if I win an entry, or any other US tournament where there is a prize higher than the $5K taxable threshold. The only exception for me will be the best-value $500 WSOP Casino Employees Event (if I get lucky & win > $5K, then I can use my receipts to offset the 30% tax).
Summary
If you are willing to minimize expenses to end up with a free or profitable trip to Las Vegas: wait for a cheap flight, stay in a cheap room to just sleep & shower, get free/discounted meals, then grind it out at the poker room and keep all your winnings.
Just like a smart player would ask a card room about the rake before gambling, one should ask about the taxes before playing in a foreign tournament. It is also a good idea to keep gambling receipts in case in you ever need to apply for a refund.
Fabulous post!
What vegas-related email lists do you subscribe to?
are there any sites that give details of the current poker room promotions? allvegaspoker.com seems to only provide the basic limits and games offered at each casino.
ok thanks, I will have another look; I didn't want to have to siphon through trip reports trying to find a couple golden nuggets. your posts seem to have some good suggestions which i will need to confirm are still on going.
After a closer look, I can see the comp section for each poker room review. This seems to have details of most of the promotions currently being offered.