I've put in a gob of hours during the last 3 weeks at the 2/5 & 5/10 nl games, Bellagio, Aria, V, Wynn, Rio, its been my experience *NONE* of the games have been easy or soft. In fact at least 50% tougher than a year ago.

Sometimes there's 1/2 players at the 2/5 game who really have no clue whats going on, clog up the game, bet w/o knowing WHY they're betting, chasing for miracle's -that happen sometimes, asking a million little questions and calling the floor because "they" don't know something, bla, bla, bla. Overall its good for the game, but it sure can cause frusteration in the short term. Most are tournament players here chasing that dream of making a big score, but end up losing more in the local cash games.
The interent players know aggresion, bet, bet, bet, bet...the only thing that slows them down is a really BIG bet. Most don't seem to really have an understanding of the game, just live for the thrill of betting, the excitment, and bluffing and occasionally catching a miracle suk out....again, good for the game -but it can sure make a rough ride short term for other winnning cash game players.

I am amazed by some of the responses in this thread. The games right now are absolutely fantastic. If there is a casino spreading more than 5 games there WILL be good action....the other night the venetian was spreading 11 - people are doing their best to donate. If you think that these games are filled with "grinders" you should find a new hobby.

I will not support the rio for multiple reasons but I have friends that are playing there and they tell me I am an idiot for not playing the rio - thats how good the games are.

maria ho sat down at 2/5 this morning at the Aria... I couldn't get a seat, so I grinded my daily meal on 1/3 and left.

That game looked juicy.

yeah, this... Anyone who thinks these games are tough must not be very good at all. Can't blame you for not supporting the Rio, (They rape us on rake and the whole thing could be run better by chimps) but the games there are really awesome

"Soft" is in the eye of the beholder. When I hear players asking for where the soft games are, I think of those players as bum-hunters.

Think of poker like a vampire movie.

The fish are the normal mortals running around living their lives.
The sharks are the vampires who prey on the mortals.

But... If you can become a Vampire Hunter, then ALL GAMES ARE SOFT GAMES.

As for "soft games" the one thing I will say is for me personally, its more a matter of WHEN than WHERE.

8am - 4pm is the worst time to play since its usually full of props, nits, or old man coffee types playing on their SSN nut...

5pm - 11pm is a great time to play.

11pm - 4am is degen gamboooler paradise . Players are coming in drunk from the club and don't want the fun to end, or have run good in the pit games and want to take shots or have run bad in the pit games and tilting trying to win it back Similarly, players that have been grinding all day have HUGE stacks so there is plenty of money on the table.

lol, this post is awesome. although personally i really like playing against the old man nit types. I'll almost never stack them, but boy I sure do win a lot of small pots from them

played 2-5 at red rock around 2pm, one table going and a small waitlist. it was a horrible game, to my left 4 mid 20s having the sort of "I'm a local vegas poker pro" chatter, dissecting every hand and playing very loose aggro. To my right a few older players but all seemed solid. No one had under 1k at the table, I bought in for 700, I think 1k was max. I immediately asked for seat change button and 2 buttons already out.

I played a few orbits and got up to take a break. came back 1h later and they had opened another 2-5 table which I sat in, 8 handed with 2 passive players and rest middle aged locals. was a must-move so 2 passive players got called and 2 women sat in, one of them kathy liebert. I don't know anything about her and vegas pros might lick their chops at her sight or whatever she got involved in 2 big pots and seemed to play them well. Then 2 older guys sit in and they immediately start ranting about "young kids with backpacks" at the wynn. he knew everyone and I thought he might play old man style but turned out he 3bet quite a bit, making light floats and just put a ton of pressure on when he was in a hand. had him to 3 to my left so got up and left.

came back in the evening around 10pm and 2-5 was quite good. a few 20 somethings but with scared money, one very loose russian guy and a crazy chinese who I also saw play at the wynn. mix in an older lady and an older gentlemen, both playing very face up and the table was good so was my result. the 5-10 broke and a few players from that game sat in the 2-5 and the dynamics changed immediately and I didn't feel like playing 250bb deep with 5-10 players to my left so got up.

next day was on my way to venetian when I saw a 2-5 game going at mirage but was a terrible game. table was started by 3 younger guys. 2 other local vegas pros joined along with 2 men who were clearly outmatched but they played very timid so most of the pots were played between young aggros and local pros.. got up and checked out TI room which had one 1-3 going which looked soft but due to a promotion they have going, half table ended up being filled with locals and one young internet kid who just moved here and the game got shorthanded quickly so not a good game either.

wrapped up one week of vegas and really haven't seen an amazing game but I haven't been to the Venetian or Aria.

sounds like a good game to me...

FYI, if you tangle with Kathy Liebert, you're probably gonna have a bad day.

Yea super easy 2/5 especially on weekends been here 5 days and im up a lot its just so many droolers and gamblers up like 2.5k lol also good table selection because so many are running.

This is what I've experienced, in my limited experience. AC, Jacksonville.

caesar's no-cap 2/5 is amazingly soft, and i have never sat there without at least one guy having 5k or more in front of him.

The softest 2-5 game in Vegas, bar none, is where your contacts say the soft games are going that day or night. If you're going to play 2-5, make friends in every poker room, make a few grinder friends, and abuse social internet. Table hunting is by far the most profitable thing I do when I'm on the grind.

Bellagio is a very mixed bag. I work the 2-5 before and after the Cirque de Solei shows, but so do a lot of other competent players. Venetian is probably the most competitive room in Vegas, but it's also the place to score some seriously trashed tables that can be abused. Mandalay Bay is awesome, but you usually have to play 2-3 hours of 1-2 waiting for some fish to build up the chips and courage to play 2-5. Wynn is fun just because the room is nice, and the people there are wealthy, and therefor don't mind spewing. Aria is Aria, good room, amazing mix of good pros, morons that think they're pros, and rich spewers.

Everything I just said is known by every person that plays for a living, so it's not enough to get an edge. Hunt tables, cruise the poker rooms in search of a good place, call your buddies/contacts, pay attention to event schedules at your targeted rooms, play sober, play rested, and remind yourself to have fun, and you'll be fine.

soft is a relative term, punish them and 90% of tables are "soft"

Soft: Wynn, Aria on weekend (and sometimes weekday) nights. Wynn gets tougher in the mornings as the action dies out and the OMC's/regs come in and infest the tables.

Tough: Venetian, Bellagio. Seriously, I have run into so many local hicks / desert cowboys, grinders and pros.

The V used to be very soft. A rule of thumb is, the more tables open, the less the regs/fish ratio.

Wonder if OP found success in Vegas???

Post was from 5 years ago. Nice bump

I love the way people generalize by saying "You gotta play the $2 $5 games in Tampa or wherever because tables are soft. Complete utter nonsense. You might have had a good night that particular night generated a profit and because of that "Oh the tables in tampa are soft". Poker is poker and with that said you can win or lose thousands on a coin flip. Someone else might have a totally opposite experience and get their ass handed to them.

You can know how soft a table is in a matter of hours, long before your results approach the long run. If you see people making exploitable mistakes, it's a good sign. The more, bigger, and more diverse mistakes you can spot, the more sure that eventually the money will end up in your pocket. If you can only spot one or two people making small mistakes, you're going to get crushed either by other players or the rake.

You can get a pretty good idea of how soft a series of tables is in a room by evaluating your table in relation to how badly the regs want to leave or join. If the regs are itching to join your table, the room is tougher than your table. If the regs are lined up to leave your game, the room is softer than your table. You'll need to look for clues to separate the regs from the general player pool - people who know the names of the staff, or bring a backpack, or know minor rules really well, etc. But regs tend to equalize the tables if there's a gross imbalance.

MGM during the series has the softest in my opinion

OK so where is the toughest 2/5 game in Vegas? Just for completeness' sake.

Doesn't exist. It's too tough and nobody plays there any more.

You have been going around the threads continuously posting these "poker is all luck" and "poker has no skill" talk and with 220ish posts I honestly can't tell if your terrible at poker and just bitter about it, or on like random waste of time multi-thread troll....

Either way seriously dude, seriously...

Edit: There's also some serious irony at work here because if your so terrible at poker you can't come to the conclusion it's skill based, this site is your salvation, don't turn a blind eye to it .... Embrace it

Anyway....FWIW I've always found the Bellagio 2/5 to be very soft for a few factors, never played the V but heard it's tough as the 1k max breeds a lot of future 5-10 up and comers, whereas shallow 3/5 bellagio might as well be 1/3. I've always struggled at aria, people tend to play tighter and a lot of "wanna-be" pros, but they are still much better then the recs or random tourists....

Lol, I never post here, just a random post. Hope he had luck.

was out 2 weeks ago and by far the softest 2-5 was the B followed by Aria

I played around the world and when im in vegas i dont waste anytime anywhere else but Venetian, this is where i find myself winning most of the time. Bellagio and Aria for me are tough rooms, if the line it too long, then i go to Wynn but that is it. Only two rooms in my list.