The one thing I know about playing poker in a Vegas card room is that it is not as easy as your home game, but not as hard either.  The key is to choosing the right game for you.

More often than not Lori and I primarily play tournaments while in Vegas.  We do this for a number of reasons:

1.   Protects your bank role- Your cash outlay at any one point is the cost of the tournament.  This is great for money management.

2.   Tournament play extends your play- What I mean by that is by the size of the tournament you can probably play 5-6 hours pretty regularly (assuming you are average to above average player).

3.   Tremendous upside- Your potentially winnings far out pace the actual cost to enter the tournament.  For example, a small $50.00 NL Tournament with 60-70 players can net you $1600 to $1800 if you win it all.  Not to mention simply cashing can be rewarding.

4.   Everyone starts at the same place- Someone can’t just sit down and buy in for 5x the amount in tournament play.  This levels the playing field a bit.

5.   Prevents you from spending even more money- If you are having a bad blackjack run.  A nice tournament can save you money because you are not playing the house, you are playing other people.  There is no house edge in tournament play.

Cash games have some advantages too:

1.   No long term time commitments- You can come and go as you please fitting in a 2 hour session is not a big deal.

2.   Table Selection- You can size up your competition before ever posting a blind.  This could be very profitable if done right.

3.   One or two hands makes the session- Get tricky with a set or flop a flush and you just doubled up in real money, and that’s nice.

4.   Choose your limits- There are all sorts of games running at all times at all levels.  You are not forced to play only at a $5/$10 table if that is not your game.  Again, great money management.

Of course there are differences in how you play a tournament game vs. a cash game (which we will talk about later) but generally speaking tournament play provides a great value for your bankroll over all.  And with just about every casino in Vegas having a card room, there is a tournament starting at all times so finding one is never hard.

The first time Lori and I ever went to Vegas was for a New Year’s.  That was an eye opening experience to say the least.  From that trip until today we have been to Vegas a lot and have learned a lot.  All of the different theories and practices that we talk about now were born from that trip.  Hedge Economics, Money Management, and Day Structuring were some of those theories, but here are some things that we found out for ourselves when we were in Vegas for New Year’s for the first time.

How long should you stay?  We stayed for 6 days and this was too long.  I say this because we did not understand the Vegas effect on time and were up for about 16 to 18 hours a day.  This was brutal on the body.  In fact Lori got bronchitis and cough so much during the trip she cracked a rib.  Course we found this out when we got home and booze wore off.  Crazy.

How much money should you bring? Well, I thought that a good $500.00 a day would be about right.  Thank God Lori brought money too because I had not learned about money management at this point.  I also had not developed the theory of hedge economics and basically went broke at the Black Jack tables.  Lori on the other hand won quite a bit and kept the team a float all the while coughing and cracking ribs because of the bronchitis.  Did I mention she was great?

How many people should you go with?  We went with a small army.  There were 12 people in our group which things way more complicated had it been 4 -6 in the group.  No subset within the group were independent so all events were coordinated with everyone.  Total Nightmare. 

Where should we stay?  We stayed at Harrah’s on the strip which was a nice location.  At the time the north side of the strip didn’t have the Wynn and Palazzo, but there were so many people in Vegas at that time it really wouldn’t have mattered.  The key is to just be on the strip because they close down the street and all the casinos on the strip shoot off amazing fireworks.

All in all it is a great time but be prepared for a lot of people, long lines, crazy wind at night and your extra helping the normal Vegas debauchery. 

So Donald is forcing me to write about the Ladies Event in this year’s World Series of Poker.  I say forced because I am still pissed.  But since I have to here we go.  The best thing about the tournament was that it was easy to register.  Went to the window plunked down $1000, showed a picture ID, signed a waiver and I got my seat card.  Easy enough.

Playing in the ladies tournament is certainly different then playing in a regular tournament.  The atmosphere is different, the play is different, heck even the table chatter is different.  In this year’s tournament I started off at a table with Clonie, who is a very friendly professional poker player, and 8 other mom’s.  The table chatter was way too friendly for a poker table.  The ladies were pulling pictures of their children out of their purses and sharing with the table.  They were passing their phones around the table showing off their children (which is illegal in tournament play).  It was just strange.  I would much rather sit there with my head phones on and concentrate on the game at hand, but that is just me.

Plus the tournament itself is poorly structured.  You pay $1000 to enter the tournament and only get 2k in chips to play with.  Yes, the blind levels are longer then normal but it still doesn’t give you much ability to make moves.  Even if you try and make a move it doesn’t mean you will be rewarded.  There is far less aggressive play so trapping is hard to do.  Ladies just will not throw away Jack’s or better no matter what the board or preflop action says. 

In fact, my last hand I had KK and she had JJ and even with an A on the board and my aggressive betting after the flop, she would not let go of her JJ and called my all in.  The river brought a J and I was out.  As I am leaving she is apologizing to me saying, “I never throw away a painted pair”.  I just smile and head for the door thinking to myself how in the world could she call me down?

With how people play, blind structure and the number of chips we start with all being crap, I have sworn off this tournament from here on out.  I would rather just play men who think that I can’t and will inevitably dump their chips to me.

I need a JWB and coke!!!

So by now you have been to Vegas several times; and have been getting rated for your play as you should, you are now ready to start reaping the rewards.  One of the better properties in Vegas for online reservations is Harrah’s.

Once you log in you will see all sorts of stuff that is specific to you, based on your play, tier score, etc.  You can see your offers, tax information from previous years, and general stuff related to all of their properties.  But you are looking for the reservations tab in the upper left of the page.

Now here is where it gets interesting.  It’s simple enough, you just plug in where you want to go and when and then it spits out your rates.  These are based on your level of pay, which will then yield more favorable rates.

You can also use an offer that you might have, which will also lower your rates.  They vary from month to month, but for the most part they give you basically the same type of offers across all of the properties (this seems to apply only to Vegas). 

Now what is really crazy is if you put in a companions Total Rewards number (in this case Lori) while you are checking your rates, you will notice even better rates.  This is really a great thing that only Harrah’s allow you to do.  Basically they look at both people’s play and decide what you are likely to do while you stay.  This is why it’s critical to always get your play rated.

Now if you use an offer, I have found that it will supersede the combined rating of both people.  Subsequently this will sometimes result in higher rates than just using a companion’s rating along side your own.  It’s really just a crap shoot so it’s always good run the same search a couple of different ways.

So if you follow these tips, you will always pay far less for rooms on the strip than you otherwise would.  If you do it right, you could get your stay completely comp’ed!

Here are some random things I have been thinking about in no particular order:

– Lori will no longer play in the Ladies Event.  Every year it’s the one event that we circle on the calendar and make the pilgrimage to Vegas for, but no more.  Year after year the play is so bad and you get no chips to start with.  Even the professional women players hate this event, but they have to play it for their various sponsorships.  It’s a shove fest and no one can ever release a hand no matter what’s on the board.  So you can image the bad beats that go on.  Just gut wrenching.

– Harrah’s is really getting better at running the WSOP.  This year everything was just a little better.  They moved the registration area and it was way more organized.  There wasn’t this massive congestion at the entrance to the main room like the year before and really just more room for tables and stuff.  No “outside” tent for tables. A room only for satellites.  Just better overall. 

– I am watching Umberto playing in the main event from last year on ESPN and I can’t help but to like the guy.  He is even more personable in real life.  He doesn’t like throwing hands away, but he normally has the goods when he is in there.  Hellmuth was as advertised, but I was fine with that too.  Just watching it makes me want to get back out there.

– There is no better time to be in Vegas if you like poker.  There are so many games outside of the WSOP that are going on that there is just a cornucopia of action.  We love the DeepStack format at the Venetian, but the Mirage and Bellagio also have some great tourneys running.  Just a ton to choose from and a great time for poker players.

– Vegas is everywhere.  There are more shows, commercials, magazines; everything Vegas.  It’s more than I have ever remembered.  Even banner ads on random sites are littered with great airfare and room rates to Vegas.  Maybe I am just more aware of it all because I love it so, but I think it’s more.  I think that the Casinos are savvier now and their marketing departments are getting more sophisticated.  I don’t know, but I am loving it!