Going to Vegas today
I was able to book a last minute package to Las Vegas. Leaving tonight and returning monday. Staying at Circus Circus. Never been to LV before.
I've heard the Mirage, Excalibur, Harrah's, Bally's all have good low limit holdem games. Bellagio's 4/8 is hit or miss... basically tougher than average, unless drunk rich people sit at your table... This much I've picked up from trip reports and user ratings on other websites.
Any advice on where to play? we'll probably want 2/4 or 3/6 holdem primarily.
Also, any good cheap places to eat? I've read the lasvegasadvisor site, but am curious to hear from forum members who have had the Vegas experience.
Any other tips?
hork.
I've heard the Mirage, Excalibur, Harrah's, Bally's all have good low limit holdem games. Bellagio's 4/8 is hit or miss... basically tougher than average, unless drunk rich people sit at your table... This much I've picked up from trip reports and user ratings on other websites.
Any advice on where to play? we'll probably want 2/4 or 3/6 holdem primarily.
Also, any good cheap places to eat? I've read the lasvegasadvisor site, but am curious to hear from forum members who have had the Vegas experience.
Any other tips?
hork.
Comments
But for some real poker - you should easily be able to find any number of no-limit tournaments with a variety of buy-in's. You could always ask the poker-room directors, and they should be able to tell you where you can find the kind of game you are looking for.
Food wise - Vegas is all about the breakfast buffets. So cheap and so good. Find one of the trashier casinos - they have the best buffest - steak and eggs baby!
I can't remember where we went for dinner - somewhere in the Hard Rock though - that casino is worth checking out for the party's, and so is the Palms. They are both off the strip but worth the trip.
Have a wicked time dude.
Imperial Palace- $40.00 buy in, + rebuy + add on
daily at noon. Thurs-Sunday prices are slightly higher.
The Orleans (off the strip) has a variety of Tourney's with low-limit buy-ins + rebuy etc
Downtown, Binions and the Golden Nugget have noon and 7/8 daily tourneys.
(Binions is the cheaper buy-ing)
The Mirage apparently has an incredible Poker Room as of course does the Bellagio.
Most all of their sites indicate that you line up/sign up 2hrs before tourney starts.
Food wise...Buffet is the way to go if money/time is an issue.
I find the Imperial cheap decent food!!! The waitresses outfits are dated...but, DD's are required to apply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have fun!!!
For poker tournaments, the Orleans has a nice selection of low to medium buy-in tournaments. When I was there they had 2 tournaments per day, and even had the occasional non-Holdem format. For larger buy-in tournaments (rebuy tournaments in the $100-$200 total average buy-in range), you could try the Mirage. (No Mirage tourneys on weekends I believe though.) The competition level of tournaments is generally tough. These ain't your Stars $11+R tourneys.
FYI, here's The Orleans' tourney schedule:
http://www.orleanscasino.com/gaming/poker-tourn-schedule.html
For cash games, Circus Circus actually has a poker room (usually had 3-6 HE going), which you might find convenient since you're staying there, but I wouldn't otherwise recommend it, since the action is quite limited. But it could be nice if you want to just relax, "stay home" and enjoy a few beverages while you're playing.
For low-limit cash games, my favorite has been the Mirage (3-6, 6-12) followed closely by the Bellagio (4-8, 8-16). I'd highly recommend either of these for cash games, and The Orleans for tournaments. It's a thing of beauty in itself to experience what a well run poker room is like, and Vegas knows poker.
The Orleans also seemed to have a good amount of low-limit cash games going as well. I never happened to try the cash games there.
As you mentioned, the skill levels can vary wildly at these games at *any* of the Vegas poker rooms. I've experienced both some of the softest and some of the toughest low limit games at the Bellagio 4-8. Be aware of your opponents, and don't be afraid to ask for a table change if you find yourself in a rock garden full of bitter locals.
For food, Circus Circus itself was fairly poor overall, with the somewhat bizzare exception of their steakhouse, which I thought had one of the better steaks I've ever had. The Circus Circus pizza place was okay too. They have a McDonald's in the carnival area if you're looking for something quick and cheap. I thought the buffet was poor.
The Orleans has a Subway right near the poker room.
The best place for cheap eating on strip is O'Shea's, which is a small place across the street from the Mirage, near Imperial Palace. They have Subway, Burger King, an ultra-cheap Tacos & Hot Dog place, and an awesome "greasy pizza" place.
For more expensive eating, the Bellagio buffet gets rave reviews, but I've never been myself. I tried the Mirage buffet once (my g/f got us comped on finding a beer bottle cap in her mixed drink), and it was quite good but struck me as overpriced. As I mentioned, the Circus Circus steak place might be worth looking into. Try the Sunday "Champagne Brunch" at CC if they still have it-- you'll most likely need a reservation for that. When I was there it was ~$30, included Champagne (can't remember if it was infinite, or one or two bottles per table), your choice of one steak, and all you can eat buffet which included prime rib. [EDIT- But the Bally's Sunday buffet that magithighs mentioned sounds fantastic too.]
A word on transportation... I'd suggest you don't walk to the "main" part of the strip (Mirage, etc) from CC. I once tried walking from the Mirage to Circus Circus and gave up and took a cab the rest of the way because it was taking to long. Walking distances in Vegas are deceptively long. If you're looking at a map and finding you need to walk past 5 or 6 casinos to get where you're going, this is generally a *long* walk.
For the most part, take a cab works best, but if you don't like the cost of taking cabs everywhere, it's probably worth the effort getting to know how to get up and down the strip on a city bus. Getting to The Orleans is more complicated since it's off strip, but there is a free shuttle bus from Barbary Coast to The Orleans and back. A cab is probably worth it in this case (unless you already happen to be around Barbary Coast at the time). For me, the (one way) cab ride from CC to The Orleans was around $12-$14.
Man, thinking about all of this stuff really really really makes me want to go again soon. :cool: Have a great time!
ScottyZ
One thing to note, as soon as you take a sip of champagne, they fill your glass. You have no way of knowing how much you've had, and we pretty much got hammered. It was a great way to start the day!!
Knock em dead!
Magi
Oh, btw, I got my copy of Super System II today (comp through Doylesroom.com... btw, if any of you want to sign up there, you can use "Horkus" as a referral...
hork.