Looking for small buy in tournes in Vegas

We're going to Vegas Sept. 16-20 to get married. We'll be staying at TheHotel at Mandalay Bay. We'll be there Thurs to Mon. Getting married on Saturday so not going to be able to play that day.

Anyways, we don't have a ton of extra cash with the wedding and honeymoon in Maui. My fiance and I would like to play in a tourney or two while we're there. She's not too experienced, only played at a casino once in her life (took her to the Commerce for her first time, she was a little overwhelmed to say the least). Looking for some tourney's with a buy in around $50 where it's pretty laid back as she gets nervous.

Anyone got any suggestions? I saw that Mandalay Bay has some going on for $50 while we're there but not sure about the competition, atmosphere, amount of players, etc.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Monte Carlo has two every day for $60 from what I remember. A small room with a good atmosphere imo. Good luck and congrats on the wedding!

Oh and it is not too far from where you will be.

I haven't played the Mandalay Bay tournies so not familiar with the structure - which is the main thing you want look at.

Most of the smaller buy-ins I have seen in Vegas include a killer rake.

Check www.AllVegasPoker.com
The Tournaments tab has all of the current games and limits.

+1

Thank you guys for the info guys and gals. I checked allvegaspoker out. Any more suggestions on where I can take the fiance to play that's pretty laid back so she isn't too intimidated.

try the luxor its like $30 and so fishy, but vary laid back. best value for buy in is probably Sahara $45 for 5 k start chips gets about 130 ppl each nite at 7;00

Check that allvegaspoker site it's the nuts. I can say that the best value for your buck is at Sahara, they have a couple of nightly tournaments that run about $50-$65 and have pretty decent structures. A few CC'ers even final tabled it last year

As a mad statistician, I visit Las Vegas once a year, and I run a lot of crazy calculations. Here's some info you might find useful...

At the Mandalay Bay 10 AM daily tournament, The average player will last about 1.5 hours. With the $40 buy-in, this works out to $26.67 an hour to play (and lose). If you (or your bride to be) aren't very good, this is the best value on the south strip.

If you care to venture downtown, The Plaza has the cheapest "$ per hour" games (as low as $16.67). The quality of the room isn't so nice, but that's subjective. I'm all about the numbers.

Now, it you plan on winning with less skill, the Luxor daily tournaments will level the playing field. Their blind structure to starting chip count ratio is the lowest in Las Vegas. This means that luck plays a predominant role. Since Luck plays such a strong factor, local card sharks steer clear.

Without getting into the formula, and at the risk of throwing out numbers that mean nothing to you, Luxor's daily blind structure to starting chip count ratio is a 30. In comparison, Mandalay Bay is a 45, requiring slightly more skill, but still a lot of luck. Compare that to Caesars (7PM) or Aria (1PM) that have a blind structure to starting chip count ratio of 120, where the blinds slowly increase. This attracts some of the area's best players, since skill - not luck is king.

(Not to slight the Bellagio, I just haven't played there yet.)

My favorite is the $60+5 at the MGM Grande.

Thanks for all the info. Interesting take Fireman! I never thought about it that way.

Good info. thanks.

What about the Venetian?

Was thinking the same question... Is there a bonus calculation factor for the top-shelf alcohol that they give you there too?