Hello everyone, I have about 20k bankroll and I'm looking to go and live in las vegas for a couple of months. I've never been there to be honest and I'm planning to play some WSOP events.

My question is. Where can I find information for renting rooms about 500-1k a month. Also can I survive playing 1-2, 2-5 or should I move up the stakes? What advice would you give for someone coming for the first time to vegas

How big is your car?

You have absolutely no chance of finding a short-term rental for that price. Figure on paying at least $2000/mo, and more if you wait until close to tournament time. You can probably get into Budget Suites for somewhat less, but you would need to wear body armor and a floor-length hazmat suit at all times.

Your bankroll is more than adequate, assuming you play halfway decently. Doesn't mean you'll win, though. Also, have you thought how you might react if you're down $5K? $10K? Will you still be able to play your A game?

Don't go beyond 2/5; your bankroll is in fact inadequate for higher stakes. Actually, since you're inexperienced, you should stick to 1/2 or 1/3. It isn't so much the stakes that make the difference between 1/2 and 2/5; it's that the players at 2/5 are vastly better overall. There are lots of fish playing 1/2; not very many playing 2/5.

Honestly, there are better uses for $20,000. It's very likely that you'll lose. I don't know how good or bad a player you are, but being inexperienced and in unfamiliar surroundings will make it very hard to play well.

At the very least, budget for each day, week, etc.; have a daily stop loss and stick to it. The last thing you want is to blow your bankroll before your two months is up. And like I said, if you're planning on staying two months, that's $4,000 in the hole already.

Cash Games in Vegas are one of the toughest in the US. I don't mean there are not weak players, there's a ton.
It's hard to make a living out of playing 1/2. Monday-Thursday games are kinda dead stacked with nits. Boring ****.
Stayed there 1.5 months for MTTs, decided to go few times a week for cash games, found myself almost sleeping after a 4 hour session almost each time.

I don't think $20k is enough for 2/5. I personally believe you shouldn't risk more than 2% of your bankroll in one session and you should have enough for 3 buyins each session. $20k would be just enough for 1/3 or 1/2 NL though.

Yeah, it's marginal for 2/5, but the real reason to avoid those games is the toughness of the opposition. As far as a 2% maximum daily loss criterion is concerned, that would limit his daily action to $400--which isn't really even enough for 1/2 or 1/3. (I mean, yeah, he could buy in for $100 each time, but...)

All that aside, a major consideration is overhead. I already mentioned that two months' housing will cost him $4000 or so. Then, he's gotta eat. Transportation costs. Recurring bills (such as phone, auto insurance, etc.). Add it all up and his actual bankroll is more like $14,000.

Maybe Craigslist roommate section?

There is some LOL advice in this thread. If OP is a winning player he will have no trouble at 2/5 with a 20K bankroll - that is 40 buyins. The scenario where he will get into trouble is if he is NOT a winning player. In that case no bankroll is big enough.

The other way he will get in trouble is playing too small and not being able to cover his monthly nut.

Of course we have no reason to think OP is a winner so far.

What is your poker history? What are you trying to accomplish by living in Vegas for a couple of months?

If you're just trying to have fun playing, gain life experience, and bink something, a few WSOP shots on a $20k roll could be good idea. If you're trying to make a trial run at playing for a living it's a terrible one.

Op:

Google is your friend for finding housing options...

Yes, 20K is fine for 2/5 as you are just coming out for an extended vacation. If you are planning to play poker and make a living with the 20K - then I would strongly advise Texas or Florida.

2/5 is still plenty beatable out here in Vegas, but game selection for a "good" game is very limited 5 days a week. Texas and Florida have better games more days of the week...

But in order to play in Texas or Florida, you have to be in Texas or Florida, two places that were featured prominently in Dante's Inferno (where errant souls were tortured for all eternity).

Not that Vegas is any bowl of cherries as a place to live, but in October, the weather will be pretty decent. I think that during the WSOP, there will be more game selection than anywhere else on the planet--that's certainly been the case during my past WSOP visits.

Maybe this would be a good time to mention that perhaps the most important skill the OP should learn is game selection. There's absolutely no reason to stay in a bad cash game during the WSOP, or to enter any tournament with a shitty structure or too-high vig (the latter eliminates most tourneys at the Rio IMHO).

40 buyins isn't really enough to play for two months straight. I don't know what his RoR would be, since I don't know his skill level, but I think it would be pretty high. Maybe not unacceptably so, if he can lose his bankroll and walk away with a song in his heart, a tap in his shoes, and a buffet comp in his pocket.

I still say that 1/2 or 1/3 is the way to go, and once again, not because of bankroll considerations, but because 2/5 is generally MUCH tougher.

His monthly nut will be a fixed amount, since the time he intends to stay in Vegas is finite, so he'll be fine in that regard as long as he sets that amount aside and never plays poker with it.

Three years ago , my rent was $380/month (Sahara @ Arville). Not spectacular but do the job with acceptable level of comfort. Bus pass is cheap. Food comp is easy to get if you are not picky. $20K for an extend vacation/pro trial run is OK.
According to the introduction provided by OP. MY educated guess is OP's poker skill is better than mine. My skill level is 1. Yes I am serious, I am 1/one/uno.(0-10 ,0 means have no clue, 10 means WSOP bracelet level). Why I have this conclusion? Any seasoned, confident and well educated player will turn on his/her computer. Do a research on Vegas about poker, rental, recreation and other general life aspects. Two days later, an initial plan will be drawn. Then he/she will come here to ask for advice to plug holes and fine tune the plan. Cool down for a week or two, then book flight, execute the plan. Has the OP done anything mentioned above? NO. Just spend 2 minutes creating a thread and expect the best. Just another wannabe and a kind donor. Case closed.

They only rent by the month They're an actual apartment complex where human beings live (if you stretch that definition). They did the extended stay thing several years ago.

There are several former ratty flophouses downtown that thanks to the "pretty up downtown" "Arts District" push of the last few years, have been transformed into multi-unit permanent housing. As a result, downtown is actually a reasonable place to live; you only need to carry one gun and the bums say "please" when they ask you for money.

If you can find an extended stay place downtown that isn't too frightening, the rent for a couple of months will be in the $2400 range, and you'll be within walking distance of the Nugget (good tournament this October) and the transit center.

We can do sophisticated RoR sims if need be, but most info I've see on low stakes 100BB buyin NL gives SDs of like 55-65 per hour? Let's say 60 in the middle. OK. Say he's going to play 30hr/week by 8 weeks = 240 hours. So his SD for the entire trip is 929BBs. His bankroll is 4000 BBs. So if he's a breakeven player and down 4000 BBs at the end of the trip, he's running more than -4 sigma. If he's a winner, it's even less likely than that.

20K is MORE than enough bankroll for a winner to play 2/5.

Make up your mind--are you postulating that he's a winner or a breakeven player?

I don't know how you got your 929BBs standard deviation figure, but losing (net) nine buyins over the course of two months would hardly be an unusual result.

And that right there is why I understand this and you persist in being clueless

That’s an absurd discussion.

If, and that’s a big if, you’re a proven winner at 2/5 with a $20k bankroll but don’t want to play 2/5 because of risk aversion, you might want to do something else with your time than poker.

You’ll have to play an ungodly amount of hours just to cover living expenses playing 1/2 or 1/3 if you don’t want to live in a dump and plan on experiencing what Vegas has to offer (dining, partying, entertainment) instead of eating Ramen noodles for lunch and dinner.

I know this is the internet, but pulling some number out of your rectal orifice with no explanation of how you derived it, and then calling anyone who asks where you got that number "clueless," is so unoriginal as to be a cliche.

I know you're a studly poker genius who understands concepts that are invisible to mere mortals. Everyone here is

The OP said he wanted to be able to play for the entire two months. Therefore, he should focus on longevity and yes, that unmanly, impotent "risk aversion."

If he wants to partaaaay while he's in Vegas, he should set aside funds for that--as he should for housing and food. He shouldn't, and probably doesn't intend to, pay for those things with his hypothetical poker winnings.

A lot of people here (and, of course, a lot of people everywhere) don't understand that another person's goals and POV may be drastically different from their own. The OP wants to experience Vegas poker. I know from bitter experience that there's nothing worse than to go bust halfway through a trip. I would therefore advise him to avoid that outcome.

It's almost as if there's a relationship between the SD for the sum of a smaller sample and the SD for the sum of a larger sample...

Have fun googling

+100, very succinct

The 1/2 lb bean and cheese burrito from Del Taco should also be a staple of any low budget poker player cuisine. It even has 1/2 in the name..... and they serve Tetley iced tea for very cheap, with free refills.

Or you could do what a female friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, does: visit a cheap buffet and take along an empty and very large purse. First meal regular price, next five meals free (it's a huge purse).

I didn't know that the "1/2" in that burrito's name meant "for 1/2 NL players who are running bad," but it makes perfect sense.