Tourists Still Come to Las Vegas to Play Poker


…And I am one of them.

Beginning in 2009 and for five straight years, my poker group has made a pilgrimage to Las Vegas for a weekend of poker playing.  After a one-year hiatus, we’re coming back next weekend.

There are lots of choices for a poker vacation.  Do we…

  • Stay at one casino, playing No Limit Texas Hold ’em cash games?
  • Same strategy but casino hop?
  • High limit games?
  • Low limit?
  • Limit poker?
  • Low buy-in tournaments?
  • Big buy-in tournaments?
  • Rent a dealer and play in our room?

OK, scratch that last one, I can save $300 in airfare from the Midwest for that.  But the other options are all viable, depending on what we’re looking for.

Poker rakes (the amount of a game held by the casino) can vary wildly, in a similar way that video poker tables do.  Some people swear by places like Sam’s Town or South Point for the “best” video poker and will look at you cross-eyed if you admit to playing at the Flamingo center bar.  Finding poker rakes, though, are a little tougher than looking at the full house and flush columns of a video poker machine.

In a cash game, if you buy in for $100, you get $100 in chips, and if you leave with $150 in chips, the cashier will give you $150 in cash. Most cash games will take 10% of the pot up to $4.00 or $5.00 per hand and stuff it into their greedy, corporate pockets.

Our group stays away from cash games for a number of reasons.  Primarily, we’re not bankrolled for long hours at a no limit table. Sure, we’ve heard comments from other friends like: “I sat at the MGM Grand for four days playing No Limit Hold ’em on a $100 buy-in and came home with almost a grand!” And, “Nothing better than free drinks and taking money from tourists that raise with 10-7 off suit because they saw Daniel Negreanu do it on TV.” And that may be great for those friends, but a bad run of cards can lead to multiple pocket digs. One hand of cracked Aces can cost a fortune resulting in two days of watching reruns of “Emergency!” and “The Golden Girls” in the hotel room. (Cracked Aces is losing a hand when dealt AA in the hole) Besides, we play cash games at home (against each other); we want a different experience in Las Vegas.

So we exclusively play tournaments.

Tournament rakes, however, vary wildly.  It may cost, say, $40 to play in a tournament, but the house might keep $15 and only put $25 into the prize fund.  Meanwhile, the casino up the street might charge $50 and keep only $10, so that $40 is put in the prize fund.  In a very general statement, the higher the tournament entry fee, the lower percentage that the house keeps.

(And if you’ve stayed with me this far, you are probably wondering “What in the heck is your point?!?!!”  To that, I answer “Hang on, I’m getting there“.)

In our five previous trips, we’ve played all over the valley. From a tournament at the Jokers Wild in Henderson where the 20 locals colluded (I am convinced) to get us tourists bumped from the game very quickly. To a tournament at Red Rock full of guys who actually knew how to play poker, to a tournament (and I’m not telling you where!) that gives us money like it’s our birthright.

Another pitfall of playing in a group is that as each guy gets bumped from a tournament, he is stuck waiting for the last player to be done. Hopefully, they’ll be cashing–and hopefully quickly–because there is nothing worse than tilting from a perceived bad beat and playing the $1 slots at warp speed.

So we’ve developed a poker tournament strategy that works for our group (Side note; there’s your topic sentence for those of you that have kept with me this far).  We get off the plane bright and early, get our rental car, and usually get to the Mandalay Bay for their 10:00 AM tournament ($40 buy-ins).  The house cut is $10 and 25% is a big rake, but there are benefits. Close to the airport, the poker room is adjacent to the sportsbook for betting and watching the games, and (most importantly to our group) is in proximity to other casino’s tournaments.

With the Mandalay Bay starting at 10:00 AM, we are in walking distance (God forbid we only last a half hour at the Mandalay) to two other tournaments. The Luxor and their 10:30 AM tournament for $45, and the MGM Grand whose tournament starts at 11:05 AM for $70.  As one of our guys knocks out, he will walk to one of these other games (which also includes the 1:00 PM Excalibur game for $45).  In other words, we can spend the better part of a day just playing in those four games, and maybe, not even see each other again.  Then, we’ll reconvene at dinner time and tell each other our tales of woe… with the winners splitting the check.  At dinner, we will also discuss the last tournament of the day because after an early morning flight (leaving Chicago at 6:30 AM), the seepies hit sooner than we’d like. Once the last player exits the tournament, we all schlep back to our hotels.

So although we know there are tournaments with better structures, we prefer the proximity of games. That way, we’re not tied down to one casino for a couple of hours (waiting for the last guy to chop with two other guys for $145) and not treat the friends to dinner.

And that’s the beauty of just about any game in Las Vegas.  You can play poker with good odds or bad, just like you can with video poker and blackjack.  What’s right for you and your group may not be right for our group, and vice-versa.

[image credit: (c) edharcanstock / fotosearch]

One thought on “Tourists Still Come to Las Vegas to Play Poker

  1. Looks like you have a system. We also have a group that goes at a set time each year, and while 1 or two of us might play a tourney or two, we’re cash players. Sure, it’s a different game, but much more profitable in the long run than tourneys (at least that’s our experience). And I like the flexibility of a game where, if you have a knucklehead or two at your table, you can get up and go. Can’t do that at a tourney. Different strokes.

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