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Going to Las Vegas for first time - advice needed

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  1. mkb1mkb1 mkb1mkb1 is offline

    Wrexham
    United Kingdom

    Posts: 119
    Joined: Jul 06

    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 4:12pm)

    I'm going to book a late deal to visit Las Vegas for a week in the next week or so.

    I am from the UK so would like some tips or advice on the best tournaments, places to eat, tourist and sights to see kinda stuff. Also what the best middle class hotels (around 4*) on the strip - the New York New York hotel looks good? Any other hotels which are good?

    BTW I have over $1.5k budget to spend during the week on everything, this should suffice right?

    I have found out from pokerplayer website of the decent tournaments below:

    CityCenter
    The brand new complex has a swanky cardroom at Aria and its daily 1pm tournament offers possibly the best value in the whole of Vegas. For $120 you get 8,000 chips and 30-minute levels.
    l www.arialasvegas.com/casino/poker.aspx

    Orleans
    You might not even have heard of this casino but with 35 tables it has one of the biggest and best cardrooms in Vegas. There are two tourneys daily (noon and 7pm) featuring $75 buy-ins for NLHE, H.O.R.S.E. and Omaha Hi/Lo, with 7,500-chip starting stacks and 30-minute levels (20 mins for first three levels).
    l www.orleanscasino.com/gaming/poker-room

    Mirage
    The 20-table cardroom runs two daily tournaments (11am and 7pm), but Friday evenings offer the best value with a $150 buy-in for 7,500 chips, 20-minute levels and a $50 bounty on each player. Avoid the 11am weekday tourneys that are $45 + $15 with 5,000 chips.
    l www.mirage.com/casino/poker.aspx

    Caesars Palace
    The cardroom at Caesars has a dedicated tournament section, meaning bigger fields and generous structures. Buy-ins vary, but the $150 at 7pm gives you 7,500 chips (plus optional add-on for an extra $10) and 30-minute levels.
    l www.tinyurl.com/caesarspoker

    Also places to eat:

    The Burger Bar, Mandalay Bay
    They say youre never more than a few metres away from a rat if you live in London, and the same is true about burgers in Las Vegas. The best are at Mandalay Bay, where a fantastic burger will set you back $12, or a whole lot more if you go for the ultimate Kobe burger.
    l www.mandalaybay.com/dining/burgerbar.aspx

    Shrimp Bar & Deli, Golden Gate Hotel and Casino
    This downtown joint first served whats been voted the best shrimp cocktail in Vegas in 1959 and we dont think the price has gone up much since. For a ridiculous $1.99 you can enjoy what wed call prawns in a sundae glass with a killer cocktail sauce and a wedge of lemon.
    l www.goldengatecasino.com/dining

    Lotus of Siam
    Its easy to get blas in Vegas, but this place is the real deal. Voted best Thai restaurant in the US, Lotus of Siam may be off-strip, but, with specialities like the incredible Tom Yum Prawn, its definitely worth a visit.
    l www.saipinchutima.com

    Cravings Buffet, Mirage
    For the price of entry we reckon this is the best buffet in Vegas. You could eat as much as you want every day of the week and still not eat the same thing twice. Dinner is $22 but for an extra $10 you get a live one-pound lobster and a 12oz Porterhouse steak thrown in.
    l www.mirage.com/restaurants/cravings.aspx

    Any extra advice or information would be appreciated. Thanks.
  2. FLUSHDUDE FLUSHDUDE is offline

    Cleveland, OH
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 4:15pm) in reply to mkb1mkb1

    www.allvegaspoker.com www.lasvegas.com www.priceline.com
     
  3. tcb21 tcb21 is offline

    IA
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 4:35pm) in reply to FLUSHDUDE

    The $150 daily at Caesar's is a decent tournament that will probably get one of the biggest prize pools compared to the others. A reasonably priced, nice hotel would be Bally's. I like it because it has a central location on the strip. Plus, you shouldn't spend much time in the hotel other than about 3-4 hours of sleep each day.
     
  4. ugain2004 ugain2004 is offline

    GA
    United States

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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 4:56pm) in reply to tcb21

    It looks like the Caesar's mega stack series ends tomorrow. I'm not sure if this tournament will be available after July 15th.
  5. Autolobotomist Autolobotomist is online now playing air is my style? so what

    Tempe, AZ
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 5:33pm) in reply to ugain2004

    Go to Pho 87 on Jones Blvd north of Flamingo.
  6. dangitisuck dangitisuck is offline

    Sioux Falls, SD
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 5:36pm) in reply to Autolobotomist

    the orleans is ghey
  7. futureboy futureboy is offline

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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 8:28pm) in reply to Autolobotomist

     
    Originally Posted by Autolobotomist View Post

    Go to Pho 87 on Jones Blvd north of Flamingo.

    i wish i knew about this when i was there last week

     
    Originally Posted by dangitisuck View Post

    the orleans is ghey


    this.

    Caesars is cool, but i prefer the Venetian for their deep stacks tournies. Also the Rio had some awesome deepstack tournies during the week at 1pm, does anyone know if theyre still running them? other than that the Aria has a great structure.
  8. Steve Murkle Steve Murkle is offline

    Vancouver
    Canada

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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 8:30pm) in reply to futureboy

    Don't play roulette...
    461 
  9. dangitisuck dangitisuck is offline

    Sioux Falls, SD
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 10:01pm) in reply to Steve Murkle

     
    Originally Posted by Steve Murkle View Post

    Don't play roulette...

    or pai gow..
  10. threeven threeven is offline

    Tucson, AZ
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    Jul 14th, 2010 (7/14/2010 10:04pm) in reply to dangitisuck

     
    Originally Posted by dangitisuck View Post

    or pai gow..

    or sic bo
    2
  11. pokerproplaya08 pokerproplaya08 is offline

    FL
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 12:51am) in reply to threeven

    Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay =

    L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in MGM was one of the best meals I've had.

    Olive by Todd English is goot too
  12. 2BlackNines 2BlackNines is offline

    Saint John's
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 1:41am) in reply to pokerproplaya08

    Good info itt
  13. curiousgeorge curiousgeorge is offline baby duck hat

    Las Vegas, NV
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 1:58am) in reply to 2BlackNines

    robuchon is expensive as fuck just fyi
  14. houston_wildcard houston_wildcard is offline

    Las Vegas, NV
    United States

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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 5:46am) in reply to curiousgeorge

    Orleans is REALLY ghey.

    Venetian tourneys xwn,

    Aria skysuites FTW.....
  15. jsagan77 jsagan77 is offline

    Honolulu, HI
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 5:58am) in reply to houston_wildcard

     
    Originally Posted by houston_wildcard View Post

    Orleans is REALLY ghey.

    Venetian tourneys xwn,

    Aria skysuites FTW.....

    So this.. The Venetian is my fav by far and they have great little side shops for food since your on a budget. On 1.5k budget tho, where are you staying? I think the Imperial is the cheapest place on the strip so try there. It's also close to all the casinos you want to be at so it's not a bad deal on a budget.
  16. ship_it_cfb ship_it_cfb is offline

    Las Vegas, NV
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 6:44am) in reply to jsagan77

    Imperial Palace is a great idea if you want to get murdered by a methhead.
     
  17. gamble153 gamble153 is offline

    Jupiter, FL
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 6:45am) in reply to ship_it_cfb

    i hope 1.5k is your gambling bugdet otherwise gl in your first tourney. Harrahs for the win, 5 minutes from the only places you wil want to play ( caesers and the V) and very reasonably priced. Yes IP is cheaper and just as good location wise, but I will warn you it is a dump. well worth the extra for Harrahs.
  18. J9thabest420 J9thabest420 is offline

    Chicago, IL
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 7:51am) in reply to gamble153

    hookers and blow ftw
  19. jsagan77 jsagan77 is offline

    Honolulu, HI
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 8:12am) in reply to ship_it_cfb

     
    Originally Posted by ship_it_cfb View Post

    Imperial Palace is a great idea if you want to get murdered by a methhead.

    It's not like your ever in your room anyway. It's just a place to store your stuff and take a quick nap after 48hr sessions.
  20. Reboot Reboot is offline

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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 9:26am) in reply to jsagan77

    I spent three night in the IP last year, its ok but starts to do your head in after a while , I then moved up to NY NY and it was like bliss - the hotel room was really nice (even tho I didnt spend much time in it).

    The caesars tourneys are ok , but after 4ish hours at the table it gets damn cold in that room, but as above I much prefer the venetian,
    theres a great noodle place right next to the poker area aswell.

    Do a helicopter night flight of the strip - for around $70 , well worth it.

    Ive gone to vegas with just less than 1k$ and came back in profit , but I limited myself purely to poker(mainly the $80 to $100 tourneys), you just have to make sure you avoid the casino games (craps esp)

    you can eat fairly cheaply really , a buffet for around 15$ will set you up for most of the day, pick up one of the voucher books from the cabbie on the way in , it'll get you money off loads of stuff and 2 for 1 deals.

    MGM cash is always good for some profit ;)
    Edited By: Reboot Jul 15th, 2010 at 09:28 AM
    Reason: info
  21. princeofpoker78 princeofpoker78 is offline

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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 9:28am) in reply to Reboot

    good cheap hotels r harrahs,bills, and flamingo, I like these because there in the middle of strip... nyny, planet Hollywood, and Rio are also cheap and nice, stay away from imperial palace... I prefer middle of strip, more action and cheaper beer in my opinion... the Rio buffet is thebest in Vegas , its huge with lots and lots of foods.... due to the poor economy u can get a decent hooker to blow and bang u for $80 on Craigslist... I like to play at mirage , mgm, Venetian, and planet Hollywood... and never get wasted when playing poker, ever hand starts looking like aces and it well be expensive, trust me....:-(
  22. mindtrip954 mindtrip954 is offline

    Madison, WI
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 12:10pm) in reply to princeofpoker78

    I jsut went for 2 weeks had a 4k roll for poker, 1200 for flight/hotel/ and about 500 for food and everything else (only spent $375 of this including souvenirs and shit).

    Start with the food - theres a bk with a value menu in the back of osheas, theres a mcdonalds at a few places, but in relation to poker they have one that at the MGM with a dollar menu. Moving up there are subways all over. The prices are a little inflated a footlong was $7-8 and the meal came to about $12. NYNY was my favorite cheaper place to eat, especially the pizza place in there... very very reasonably priced... i typically got 2 huge slices and a large soda for about $10, they have a few places in NYNY that fit the lots of good food in $10-$12 meal range. Lastly Theres a walgreens on the MGM side of the strip and CVS on the other side of the strip about 2 blocks from mgm ( headed towards the middle of the strip)

    Hotels - NYNY was the last of my 4 hotels when i was there, and definetly my favorite (mainly because the $20 trick worked and i got upgraded to almost the top floor with a huge spa suite next to the penthouse.) also it had the best overall vibe imo when wandering the casino and doing touristy things. The weekends at most places get pretty expensive, and since we do most of our playing on the weekend and not much time in the hotel i think bills is your best place to stay. $60-$70 on the weekend, the elevator is right by the door to go out side, and you right in the middle of the strip. Obv not the greatest place, but affordable, safe, and clean. Its bills gambling hall and saloon, so it supposed to have an old western feel to it so the decor may make it feel old, but its supposed to lol - i would def stay here over imperial palace. other hotels during the week are pretty cheap, on any kinda budget I would stick to harrah properties.. the flamingo actually has pretty nice rooms, and the go suites look pretty cool. Otherwise NYNY I think is the best cheap hotel. (nyny doesnt have a poker room, but i kinda liked going back and not having tables, definetly felt more like a vacation when i was at the hotel.

    last thing about hotel is that alot will charge about a $15/day resort fee.. usually this includes internet so its not all bad, but def make sure to look into it.

    Tourneys and cash games.$1500 isnt alot to work with. the mgm $80 nightly is pretty much garbage. The one i played paid 4 spots. When we got 5 handed the blinds were 1k/5k/10k, and there was only 90k in play (so we all had an M of about 1) Ring games seemed to be the best at mgm/aria/venetian and planet hoolywood. venetian gets alot of regulars, where i think planet hollywood you wont run into alot of regulars, and the "poker room" (roped off area) is right outside thier club, so at bar time you get alot of drunk people coming into the games. If you run bad you can rebuild at the mgm beginners game - its a $.50/1 game max buyin is $50. Most of the players are terribad. There was one regular that played it in the afternoon, he would literally sit down with $50 work it up to $200+ and take it to the 1/2 game.

    IMO there is only 3 tourneys to consider playing with a $1500 roll. Venetian nightly $120 (im told it usually gets about 100-150 players, during wsop it was getting over 200). The Aria tournaments are great, and have a great structure. the afternoon one I believe was changed to a $170 buyin, and the nightly is still $120. The first night I played the nightly was a friday, half the table didnt know what antes were, and questioned why they had to pay it. after the first round of antes, they asked if they had to post it every hand. The field only gets about 80-100 on the weekend, and 60-80 on the weeknights, and first is usually about 2500-2800. So its a smaller tourney and you wont win huge money, but its a very easy tourney (i played it 4 times chipped up from 8k to 60k in the first 2-3 hours all 4 times..

    IMO the ceasars nightly $80 isnt worth it, and in the above tourneys you should almsot never bust out before 10 anyways.
  23. mkb1mkb1 mkb1mkb1 is offline

    Wrexham
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 1:45pm) in reply to mindtrip954

    Thanks for all the advice and info guys. In light of your comments I've decided to bump my bankroll up to $2k for the trip. Thats for everything so that should suffice. I don't play casino games so thats a good thing! Regarding hotels I did originally have NYNY down as my favourite but its not as central as Flamingo or Bills Gambling Hall is it? Anyways I will most probably go with NYNY as its got good feedback from you guys. Thanks once again!
    Thread Starter
  24. dgillis dgillis is offline Moderator

    CA
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 2:29pm) in reply to mkb1mkb1

    http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...-vegas-224331/
    http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...g-wsop-292064/
    http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/...dition-446932/
     
  25. luckyshades luckyshades is offline

    Penrith
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 2:42pm) in reply to mkb1mkb1

     
    Originally Posted by mkb1mkb1 View Post

    Thanks for all the advice and info guys. In light of your comments I've decided to bump my bankroll up to $2k for the trip. Thats for everything so that should suffice. I don't play casino games so thats a good thing! Regarding hotels I did originally have NYNY down as my favourite but its not as central as Flamingo or Bills Gambling Hall is it? Anyways I will most probably go with NYNY as its got good feedback from you guys. Thanks once again!

    Neither do a lot of people ... before they go to Vegas that is.
     
  26. mindtrip954 mindtrip954 is offline

    Madison, WI
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 8:45pm) in reply to mkb1mkb1

     
    Originally Posted by mkb1mkb1 View Post

    Thanks for all the advice and info guys. In light of your comments I've decided to bump my bankroll up to $2k for the trip. Thats for everything so that should suffice. I don't play casino games so thats a good thing! Regarding hotels I did originally have NYNY down as my favourite but its not as central as Flamingo or Bills Gambling Hall is it? Anyways I will most probably go with NYNY as its got good feedback from you guys. Thanks once again!

    NYNY is right across the street from MGM and 2 blocks from ARIA so it is actually a good location. Planet Hollywood isnt far either across the street and like 3 blocks... so the only poker room ur far away from is venetian... have fun man...
    Edited By: mindtrip954 Jul 15th, 2010 at 08:45 PM
  27. LitezOut LitezOut is offline

    Wilmington, DE
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 10:42pm) in reply to mindtrip954

    Venetian was the only really packed poker room when I was there in April... seemed like a good mix of players to grind cash. Probably more choices now with the wsop and wpt crowds.

    If you like king crab legs, the Wynn buffet is a winner (other stuff was good but nothing memorable) - don't bother with the rio seafood buffet imo...

    Oh yeah... if you have time, go see Love at the Mirage... Beatles FTW
    Edited By: LitezOut Jul 15th, 2010 at 10:43 PM
  28. gamble153 gamble153 is offline

    Jupiter, FL
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    Jul 15th, 2010 (7/15/2010 11:11pm) in reply to LitezOut

    if you want to squeeze your food budget, check out harrahs buffet deal. I thinks 35 dollars and you have 24 hours to enjoy 6 different buffets. This is great cause you dont have to stuff yourself on one sitting, you can go back every 2 hours as long as its within 24 hours. I think I bought mine at 6pm one nite for dinner, had a quick bite before they closed around midnight, my roomy had to get up to take medication in the morning with food so I had breakfast with him, also had lunch around noon and went back for dinner at 5 pm before it expired. That came to about 8 bucks a meal.
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