Hi guys,

I will be on Las Vegas from 8/5 (530pm) - 8/9 (11pm).

I am staying at the Encore. I have played poker since partypoker days. I haven't been playing much at all due to work. I am looking for some low/mid tier tournaments with good guarantees and not shark heaven.

Need some good spots where I can grind out good tournaments. Plus need advice where the best buffets / sushi places are

Please help locals / people that know the area!

Thank you!!

RGFII

mtt: pokeratlas
sushi: Mushashi & Sen of Japan

From what I hear, the Aria daily tourneys are very good

Thank you. Where are fish usually

Fri night tourney at the Orleans.
Great structure with a surprisingly amount of fish and a pretty big turn out. I believe it's $125.

I play 4-5 days a week, about 75% MTT/25% Cash. Here's my opinion.

Best MTTs <$100

Planet Hollywood - $80 entry, $1500 GTD
- Very soft fields. Good mix of tourists always and a handful of MTT recs (who are not good). This tournament usually lasts 2-2 1/2 hours and almost always chops 3-4 ways for $400-500. You start with 12k in chips and the blinds go up every 20 minutes. The good part about this format, is that it never antes so you can tighten up/nit up your play late and cruise to a cash if you desire. These run 4-5 times a day. It's worth it to get there early for their 9-10am tournament. It usually has less than 20 runners and still has the $1500 GTD.

Overall, a good mini-bankroll builder tournament.

MGM Grand - 11 AM. $80 Entry, $2000 GTD

This tournament starts with a 15k stack of very nice MGM Grand Tournament chips. The field is going to be a mix of the better Vegas low-limit grinders and weekend tourists up early. Short levels at 15 mins. The July 29 11AM tournament has a $5k GTD. This room isn't as friendly as PH and does have an ante in the structure. This is my second favorite cheapo tournament.

Flamingo - $60, $600 GTD

Very easy fields, big starting stack (20k in chips), 15 min levels. If you want to drink like crazy and have a fun splashy game with the tourists in town on a budget, this might be the game for you. Low prize funds, but usually a very easy, friendly, drink heavy game.

Best Low-Mid Stake Daily Tournaments $100-200

Orleans Friday Night 7pm $125 Entry
For a mix of soft field, good format, great service this is your tournament. 30 Minute levels and around 15k chips to start. With re-entries there's usually 175-250 entries depending on the time of the year. The tournaments seem to be way better on weekends that the Orleans are hosting special events. The NCAA b-ball weekends, bowling tournaments, and cheerleading competitions usually bring an extra couple dozen or so rec players into the mix. There are quite a few good regs who play this tournament and those guys are usually the same ones cashing every weekend.

I've seen first place as high at $6800, lately it's been more like $4200-5000 for 1st with 25+ entries getting money back. They also do an MTT player of the month deal for extra cash giveaways.

Aria - Daily 7pm $125
10k in chips 30 Minute Levels, very nice chips and room. I believe they still give away this nice Aria chip for a tournament win. This tournament brings better players. I've seen first anywhere from $3500-5k depending on the weekend.

Wynn - Daily 12pm ($125 M-Th, $200 on Fri-Sat w/ 10k GTD)
The best rake/admin fee in Vegas. 10k in starting chips and 30 minute levels. Your low-mid stakes pros and MTT pros will be in abundance for this tournament. You can get up to 1K in chips as an add on by registering by 11 and showing up to your seat by noon. Tougher fields, depending on your style of play, but usually a very good payout. I've seen the Friday tournaments top 10K for first plenty of times. For the $125 entry early/mid week, closer to $4K on top. Much more "sharks" here to use your wording.

The Venetian runs some decent Deepstack tournaments as well, I just haven't played enough of them to give an opinion.

Thank you for your insight.

Last questions guys.....Best places to eat in Vegas? Also, is the monorail best to get around from casino to casino? And best option from the airport

Thank you so much community.

Best places to eat:
Bruxie, Studio buffet at M, Boiling Crab, and Circus Circus steakhouse. Or, you could just do square pizza, capriati's, Giordanos, and jalapeño pretzel dogs....Ha, no?

To get around anywhere, rent a car, Uber, or go fym.

Is the monorail system up and working? I thought about taking that with in the the strip to get from circuscircus to poker venues.

monorail is expensive and far on the back of the hotels, usually not worth it Short distance you better walk, longer distance uberlyft

I know the bus isn't glamorous, but load up the RideRTC app on your phone... and you can buy a 24-hour pass for $8.00, or a 3-day pass for $20.00. Or just buy directly at the machines at the bus stops.

Depending on how much you're hopping from location to location, this would by far be your most economical way to travel from one side of the strip to the other -- or even down to Fremont.

Buses run every 15min or so, 24hrs a day. Here's the route map for the 2 different buses (Deuce and SDX):

http://www.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/upl...2016/deuce.pdf
http://www.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/upl...s/2016/sdx.pdf

** Looks to be the exact same PDF, but they're both on there

Why aren't you playing the TI 10pms? I've been talking about them on here for a while. Figured someone would have convinced you by now.

Thank you all. I will keep you posted on the adventure.

I've never played in the TI room. What's the range of spots that it plays?