Venetian seems to be the biggest. It's nice so it attracts a lot of tourists. Planet Hollywood seems to attract a ton of tourists as well especially with the poker room being out on the floor with the table games. Mirage seems to be OK with the $4 rake and $2/hr comps. Bally's seems to be the WORST. Full of those nits trying to get their 45 hours to qualify for the freeroll. Hardly any action. I'm about halfway there and seriously considering not even going for the 45 hours if my win rate there is probably single digits. Any other places I've missed that are soft other than Venetian and PH?

Also how is 1/3 at Wynn/Encore/whichever one it is? Can I expect close to a 50% jump in hourly or is it noticeably tougher than any 1/2 game on the strip?

use the search option..

you will find this: ALL 1/2 and 1/3 games in town

It always astounds me that people would think that yes, there is a consistently "softer" small stakes game at one casino over another. How would that be possible?

I can't really disagree with you except when we are talking about Vegas. In Vegas poker rooms are like McDonald's in regular cities, location is = business same thing with the strip and more centralized poker rooms.

I assume the local nits flock to a) the room with the lowest rake and biggest comps or b) the room with a promotion like the freeroll mentioned by OP.

If there is a room in Vegas that is consistently more profitable than average, I would guess the Golden Nugget. A table full of bad local regs seems better than a crapshoot trying to find which place has a drunk tourist giving away his stack. I'd also consider whichever room is the favorite of off-duty dealers stopping to play before heading home.

The softness of different poker rooms in Vegas varies by day of the week and also from table to table. You will be able to find a soft game at Aria, Bellagio, Venetian, Wynn, and also at Golden Nugget, Bally's, Flamingo, and pretty much everywhere else.

If you table select well, you'll find a good game as long as you can adjust to the tempo of the game with your style of play. If you always play tight aggressive or always loose aggressive, you will win some and lose some. If you are dynamic in your approach to a table, you'll do well in 85%+ of 1/2 or 1/3 tables in Vegas.

If there was a room where you can make 2x your win rate at every table on every night, that room would be flocked with good players and the win rates would balance out. With the number of rooms, regulars, and tourists in Vegas, this adjusts pretty quickly to prevent too much arbitrage scenarios.

Remember, there are dozens of rooms with dozens of tables each in Vegas on a Fri or Sat night but you can only play 1 table in 1 room so you don't need a perfect table, just an above average one. There are dozens of these tables in Vegas happening all the time at the low stakes.

Play wherever you feel most comfortable.

OK so you're saying everyone saying Aria is super tough don't know what they're talking about? I do need to switch it up been playing way too LAG so good point. Would bigger rooms in generally be better though? I like the Mirage's smaller rake and double comp rate but room is small and my second session there I already identified a LAG reg which is not a good sign.

I've had some great sessions at Aria and my win rate there is on par with other rooms. I do find several tables filled with "regs" there so I table change till I get a better table. There always have lots of games going so there are always lots of options.

The other plus of Aria is that even though there are lots of regs, they are spread out between more games. Also, they tend to play higher stack games and also the PLO games so I find several 1/3 and 2/5 games with a comfortable field.

Also, if these regs were good players then they would be able to see that they are playing in supposed bad games and would go to other casinos to play to see if the games are better. If the games are better at other places, they wouldn't return to to Aria and the Aria games would become better as a result. Now if they return, then it means the other games weren't that much better so it would mean Aria isn't tougher.

If these regs stayed at Aria even though the games are tougher and their win rate is less then it most likely means they are not logical and don't make the best decisions. Then these regs would be bad poker players and I would want them at my table so the games would be easier.

With so many rooms in Vegas, the competition pretty much balances out in most of the rooms. It takes 10-15 minutes to switch rooms between casinos so there isn't a big barrier to change where you are playing.

Also, when "everyone" says Aria is super tough in these forums or in the poker community, it plants that seed in people's minds so the people that read the forums or discuss poker play at other places (thinking players who are at least semi decent) don't come to Aria and that leaves more seats for tourists who don't follow poker forums and just walk into the first room they see.

Come to Aria with an open mind and you will find a great selection of games, especially on the weekends!

Aria is 1/3 and the pillows there are way softer than at Planet Hollywood but those are the only places I have stayed.

It amazes me there are people who think games in different casinos on average won't play differently.

Different types of atmospheres room sizes promos location etc will always attract different types of players.

Ok maybe I'm wrong - I dont play less than 5-10 live - I've played 5/10 and 10/20 at Aria and Bellagio, 5/10 at Venetian, 10-25 at MGM National Harbor and every table each night is different - some really average and some a lot harder - if 1/2 and 1/3 is a different animal and every game at that level isn't full of weak players then call me surprised.

Golden Nugget 1/2 is awesome, plus the buyins are uncapped.

MGM Grand is the most fun place to play 1/2 on the strip, I think.

exactly this.. as stated all games in all rooms are fine at 1/2 and 1/3.
If you struggle at a table just leave or move to another table.
At these stakes there a plenty of easy games all over vegas.

When i played those stakes I rarely had to leave the table because it was a bad game.

I guess you only play Weekends. I remember this one Monday night at Bally's. SOOOOOO nitty. How was I down 600 bucks?!

Just avoid the rooms that have freerolls if your not going to put the hours in for it.

no not only weekends.
I'm not really in the mood to get into strategy or w/e but when you are in a extremely nitty game you either run very bad to be down 3 buyins that session or you are a payoff wizard as the populair kids say it.

And mondays and tuesdays suck for poker in vegas especially the lower limits.

In general I think any casino is softest on a saturday night so asking these type of questions is always stupid. OMG GOING PRO AND MOVING TO VEGAS WHAT IS SOFTEST ROOM DOOD?

If you have to ask these type of questions you're probably a fish.

Generally, avoid the hourly promos as it attracts a bunch of 1/2 nit promo hour grinders.

Is there such a thing as a tough 1/2 or 1/3 live full ring game lol

I've sat in a nitty 1/2 game where no one had more than $100 in front of him. Is that tough or just bad?

It's super awesome that I haven't poked my head in here in a really (really) long time, and one of the first posts I see is 'which 1/2 games are soft.' Glad to see I haven't missed much

All 1/2 games are soft. What you're looking for is action v. nit-o-rama. this varies night to night, room to room. Play where you're comfortable and enjoy playing. Being in a good atmosphere and liking where you are will affect your win rate more than pursuing a quest for a particularly soft game in a sea of soft games.

sound great, a 1/2 game 50bb deep effective vs nits..

You cannot win much playing 1/2 with a $6 rake against tight players does not matter who you are.

There are not "tough" 1/2 1/3 games, but there are bad ones. I concur with mrducks, table select, look at stack sizes, if people are talking, drinking, enjoying the game in general, usually that game is one you want to be in over a game with little money, hoodies and headphones and the blinds chopping every other hand.