(Our) Vegas Poker Tour

ysmisc and I have decided to try our luck and playing a week of Poker in Las Vegas. We thought it would be nice to update the CC forum with our losses )

We have chosen the first week of 2009 not only because of the multi million fireworks show that will be shown in Vegas, not to mention the huge events that will probably take place in new year's eve, but also because there will be loads of people playing, giving us better chances to win more (if we do) as there will (hopefully) be more amateurs than professionals playing which is always a good thing.

We're going there equipped with $1000 each and have already planned the tournaments schedule in case we lose all of it, so that the money lasts for the entire week. In case we win something, then the schedule will change.

Basically, the strategy is playing mostly cheap tournaments e.g. $35 at the Luxor, $45 at O'sea's, $60 at PH & Mandalay Bay and $70 at the Caesar, and one medium size tournement like the $340 at the Caesar.
These will cost us a total of $1000 each give or take a few bucks.

In case we get in the money in one or more tournements, then we will consider the $130 Satellites for the $540 tourney in the Bellagio and if we get really lucky and win a lot, we will consider entering the $1080 at the Bellagio (but this is more day dreaming than becoming a reality

Plan is to do some research on the day of December 31st, get the tourney's schedules and try and find the best places to play cash games (e.g. which casino pays most for 'nice hands' like quads etc.) Then, maybe start playing in the evening or the day after, after having rested well. This should continue for a week.

We will try to update daily and live here in CC about how we do there, maybe post some interesting hands and situations and hope we have fun no matter what the outcome will be

Norbert.

Anyone has any experience in Luxor? Proper poker room? Any other hints?
Thanks
ysmisc

I have not played at the Luxor and to be honest I didn't even check their Poker Room out when I went to Vegas in September..... I was more interested in trying to find Criss Angels office, which I couldn't find!
Planet Hollywood has a great $60 tournament (morning tournament) and a great $85 (evening) tournament. The Morning one starts at like 10:00am, and from what I gathered by listening to the dealers and some of the players, there are a few "regulars" that play in this game quite a bit.

You have to make sure you know the starting chips and blind levels of these tournaments. Some are literally a "push n pray" because you start out with 10 big blinds.

luxor is ok, but level of play really isn't that good...if you want decent play with relatively low buyin in (65) go to the nugget. fields aren't huge and there is one re-buy allowed so a decent prize pool

ysmisc said:

Anyone has any experience in Luxor? Proper poker room? Any other hints?
Thanks
ysmisc

Click to expand...

I played at the Luxor tourney a year and a half ago. That was my first Vegas poker tourney but I really didn't like it that much. Cheap buy in and relatively small field (in the morning at least) with the tourneys lasting about 1.5 to 2 hours. My friend and I ended up being alternates because we registered rather late (maybe about 15/20 minutes before the start). There were some dealers that were friendly but a few that were a bit negative.

If I recall correctly, their poker tables are a bit crowded, seating 11 players (instead of 9 or 10). I'm not sure if this has changed or not, but this was probably because they have a small poker room. I don't recall the level of play being particularly good as sketchpad said - probably because of the fairly cheap buy-in.

Like Icemonkey said - do your research.

The really cheap tourneys are usually horrible shovefests. Is Luxor really 400 starting chips?

For the sort of price you're looking at PH is ok, also Caesars and TI on the strip.

If you can push to $150 the Venetian noon tournament is definitely worth a look.

elcoyote said:

do not go to vegas to play tournaments and if you are going to play tournaments, you should better think about satellites to the big ones, the small tournanents are really bad estructured and they give you a couple of chips so every one bust quick and they can get anothe oner starting.

it is a rep off baby, if you are going to play small tourmanents go to your local casino or try going to california, not vegas.

those 50, 60 or 70 bucks tournaments aint worth even watching them unless you got to the horeshoe casino they have an average small tournament going on and if you win it you get included on the finall one thousand buy in they do later on.

go to the golden nuget and play cash with that buy in of 50 bucks, that on the old strip then you take vegas bolevard down and get in the venetian, and try it for a while. after you are done with it and depending on your result. if it is positive go straight to the belagios and play the big cash games, also look for the satellites that are around the strip, if the result is negative get the hell out of the strip for a lil while and go to bolder station down on bolder high way.
bealive me i know what i am talking about, vegas is a tought feld and the tournaments are straight out of hell if they are of the low income kind.

you need to high roll if you wann aplay a good tornament with a good structure and a good pay, other thant that you will invest 50 dollars on a tournament that is going to last 4 hours and the most you get out of it is 300.

one more thing avoid oseas like the plage is a very old and bad joint with very bad drinks.

Click to expand...

Wow all that garbage above makes no sence..... The small $60 tournament at PH is a great tournament imo. And also imo paying $60 to win $300 isn't bad (~$60/hr), esspecially if you kick back a few beers, hard liquors or any other drink you want FOR FREE!! (All drink at PH are free while you are playing, no matter the drink).

When I played in the PH tournament the guy to my right probably drank $400 worth of liquor and paid maybe $15 in tips.... Real nice guy, a little tipsy by the time I left.

Good luck guys!

We liked Sahara, rebuys built the pot, nice room decent chips. My husband placed in the money twice there. I also played tight in a couple at Osheas. They were cheap torneys. I played really tight and the tourist would call when I got a hand.... I won one and split one. 300 for a 45 buy in. I too like ph, especially the one around midnight when a lot were drunk. Good luck

First day (yesterday) was suckout day!!
Amazing donk calls and suckouts in the favor of the donks. ysmisc has lost with KK 5 times (out of 6), however, we were more lucky when we played the cash games ($1-$2) and ysmisc won over $200.

Today was a bit better where I have managed to win the 10am tournament of the PH ($361) but sucked out again in the next tournament to a donk who called my all in QQ with K2 (we were both chip leaders!!) and got a K on the turn.... I was so happy when I saw with what he called... but then

Tonight, we're going to try the Venetian tourney ($120) and hope to cash it

Buttom line, we're enjoying our Poker week a lot!!

Stay tuned for the next update...

ysmisc & norbs286

Congrats on the win at PH. I love that place!!! Keep your heads up high and don't worry about the bad beats, they happen. Good luck on the rest of your week.

Glad to hear that you guys are doing well despite some suckouts. Keep it up guys and keep us informed of your progress when you can!

Day 2 - Yet another suckout day
As norbs286 wrote out of 4 joined Ts yesterday - We only were ITM once - Norbs won a 60$ PH for
a total of 361$. However, all other Ts were a Donk-suckout fest, in PH Norbs286 lost QQ preflop
AI to K2 suited. After that one we said we have to get some less donk infested games so we tried
the Venetian - But again no luck there ysmisc lost QJ to Q8, and norbs286 had the worst beat of
the day when he raised 2 BB on his pocket 6s got re raised to AI by the SB, norbs286 called with
his pocket 6s to see the SB show a 5,7 OFF! Of course the turn was the anticipated 7 :-(
After that we said that these bad cards must change at some point, but no, ysmisc saw his
pockets Ks meet the A of the flop and then ysmisc lost his pocket 10s to A6 off when an A hit
the river - WHAT A DAY :-(

We have 3 more days here, we are now going for our 'Big event' in the Caesar ($340 buy in) - Hopefully our luck will change.

norbs286 & ysmisc

You are wasting your time and money. Play at Binion's for the week and earn an invite to their 50k freeroll and 2 bucks an hour comp. The new room has dozens of tourneys. too bad.

$340 Caesars Palace tournement

We have just returned from the $340 (12,500 starting chips) tournement at the Caesars Palace.
80 players enrolled. ysmisc got eliminated when his Ace high flush got beat by a straight flush(!!) after playing 5 and a half hours.
norbs286 made it to the final table and came out 8th ($931) after playing 8 and a half hours.
norbs286 last hand was an interesting one (to say the least)
Blinds were 1,500-3,000 and 300 Ante
norbs286 (BB) got AKo
One raised to 9,000.
norbs286 calls and the chip leader (with 10 times more chips than the runner up chip leader) calls too.
Flop was 2,A,5 rainbow.
norbs286 bets 12,000
Chip leader goes ALL IN
3rd guy folds
norbs286 called and the chip leader shows 4,5 heart suited.
Turn is a 5 and the river was another 5.....
so... quad 5 beat norbs' FH
Still, it was the best tournement we have played this week!!
Tomorrow we'll decide how to continue this Poker week
ysmisc & norbs286

Well done to you both, I look forward to your next update. Good luck.

$340 Caesars Palace tournement - Take II

This time, 8 and a half hours were not enough to make it to the final table. norbs286 finished 12th ysmisc got eliminated even before that when 9,Jo has beaten his pocket Queens on the flop (7,8,10)
So..... very close, but no cigar this time.
Last hand norbs286 played was as follows:
norbs286 is BB, blinds are $2000-$4000 with $400 Antes
norbs286 has about $35,000 chips.
SB has 31,000 chips
(avg. stack is $75,000)
The table folds to the SB who limps.
norbs286 has 10,5o and checks.
Flop is J,10,6 rainbow.
SB bet $7000
norbs286 goes ALL IN and SB calls...
SB shows J,6o
turn and river did not help norbs286...
There was not much he could do with $4,000 chips and thus, missed the final table.
Tomorrow we're going to play our last tournament at the Bellagio. Buy in is $540 (10,000 in chips)
Stay tuned for the next update tomorrow
norbs286 & ysmisc.

Cool to know regular play at the smaller tables. Can't wait till I hit 21, will be so much fun...you're so lucky!

Bellagio $540 tournament

That's it. It was our last game this week.
60 players enrolled this tournament at the Bellagio and we got $10,000 in chips for our $540.
After 6 hours ysmisc has finished 15th when his pair of 10 did not hold 2 callers who both had AKo - They both hit a K on the river
norbs286 played to the final table and bubbled when his AQo were conquered by a pocket 9...

All in all it was an amazing Poker week!!

We wanted to see if we are "worthy" Poker players and it looks like we did ok. We also acknowledge we still have to improve our game a little so that we don't get to the final table short stacked. So, there's more to learn but hopefully, we'll get there!!

Thanks for reading!!

norbs286 & ysmisc

well done guys a good expierence it sounds!

Sounds like you had a good run in the MTT's this week. WTG, and next time FT for sure

elcoyote said:

do not go to vegas to play tournaments and if you are going to play tournaments, you should better think about satellites to the big ones, the small tournanents are really bad estructured and they give you a couple of chips so every one bust quick and they can get anothe oner starting.

it is a rep off baby, if you are going to play small tourmanents go to your local casino or try going to california, not vegas.

those 50, 60 or 70 bucks tournaments aint worth even watching them unless you got to the horeshoe casino they have an average small tournament going on and if you win it you get included on the finall one thousand buy in they do later on.

go to the golden nuget and play cash with that buy in of 50 bucks, that on the old strip then you take vegas bolevard down and get in the venetian, and try it for a while. after you are done with it and depending on your result. if it is positive go straight to the belagios and play the big cash games, also look for the satellites that are around the strip, if the result is negative get the hell out of the strip for a lil while and go to bolder station down on bolder high way.
bealive me i know what i am talking about, vegas is a tought feld and the tournaments are straight out of hell if they are of the low income kind.

you need to high roll if you wann aplay a good tornament with a good structure and a good pay, other thant that you will invest 50 dollars on a tournament that is going to last 4 hours and the most you get out of it is 300.

one more thing avoid oseas like the plage is a very old and bad joint with very bad drinks.

Click to expand...

also said

elcoyote said:

it seems that grinding the 1 and 2 cents at poker stars has become something easy to do, i will make alot of profits out of this game, but it takes along time to make a profit good enought to be woth it, every time i try to jump to the next level the 5 and 10 cents i just loose everyting rather quick and i see such bad situations against me, like the time i got 2 pair and this guy had a set, then i got a set and this guy had a biger set and so on, how come i can't go into the next level?

Click to expand...

Congrats guys, this was really an interesting read...as someone who hasn't played in Vegas yet it's nice to get an idea of a tourney itinerary. Hope to see more threads like this in the future.

I should just copy Velutha's post, goes the same for me. I really appreciate the report too. I was thinking that tourney's would be the way to go, if I go. You both did quite well, just need a little more on the luck side of things.
Good Luck,
Tom