I have a completely free week, from April 19th to 26th, and I'm considering my options (making a completely poker related trip)

I've been to Vegas 3 times and beat it 3 times, last time I made $6k in a week playing $2/5 at the Venetian. I am under no illusion this will be in large down to run good, but the other trips have also been nicely profitable.

I'm from England though; and can literally go anywhere, I just don't know if I should come back to Vegas this time.

This is about making money, so I have to take in to account the costs of hotel / travel, which is looking like a normal hotel on the strip with flights is going to set me back around $1300 for that week.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I am available to travel to anywhere in Europe. I don't want to go further than Vegas though, so wouldn't consider East Asia / Australia.

Things that are important include:

Flight prices
Hotel prices
Best cash games (rake taken in to account)
Cost of living / food

If anyone has any other good ideas please let me know. I've considered Europe, but don't know really where the best games are. I've considered Atlantic City, but it's going to cost me the same as Vegas, and I'm not sure about the quality of the games?

Florida seems like a decent choice. Half the trip length I think and the weather is better there depending on the time of year though I'm not sure if April is that time.

Thank you. I have heard previously that the hotels are costly and there is a bigger rake, although I can't find anything that tells me what the rake is.

You might wanna check out options in eastern europe. Much shorter travel and very low (or free) hotel cost. However the amount of action will depend on if any tourney or festival is going on, so make sure to check what is running. For example
Kings Casino in Rozvadov
Olympic Casino in Talinn
Royal Casino in Riga

I know that the Hardrock in Hollywood, FL is crazy expensive. Easily $300+ per night. I don’t know about independent hotels around it though.

If the ONLY thing you want to do is sleep and play poker, Vegas is far from the optimal location.

There are casinos and cardrooms all over America. Most of them will have cheaper hotels than Vegas.

If you went to a cardroom in the midwest or the south, the local players there will be much more impressed with your English accent.

However, Vegas is certainly the best vacation destination if you want to do something besides play poker with dummies.

Are you SURE the ONLY thing you want to do is play poker?

Good question. To be honest Vegas always appeals to me because of the variety in things to do. But I'm riding solo, So won't be doing much more than eating and playing poker.

I just love the variety of games / casinos. Also in my experience the games have always been great/soft at my limits.

Would you recommend elsewhere? I looked at The Borgata in AC and the hotel itself was more expensive than a package deal in Vegaa.

The one thing Vegas offers that no place else does, is roughly 30 poker rooms in one town. Granted, many of those won’t be good or have your stakes running, but you have options in a small area. If you don’t like the game at Aria, walk next door to Bellagio. Don’t like it, walk to Caesars, Venetian, or the Wynn. I don’t know a lot about poker in the rest of the country, but I don’t recall hearing about an area with so many options in close proximity.

Now the down side to Vegas, imo, it has a lot of regs/pros in the 2/5 and 5/10 stakes. So finding weaker fields can be challenging some times.

What about the commerce? I’ve never been there, but they have LOTS of tables. Maybe someone else can give feedback on it.

The weather in South Fla in April can’t be beat - perfect time to go.

I don't think the rake in Florida is any more than in Vegas. I haven't played there in several years though so I'd be curious if anyone has any info on if that's changed.

Atlantic City is alright, not as nice as LV but has enough poker and is a change of scenery if you've been to LV enough. You can also get to NYC or Philly from there.

I’m also from England. I used to play online for a living but now have a real job and play live poker for additional income. I’ve planned a few poker vacations in the past and have a few planned this year. IMO, you are looking for high income areas so, although I’ve never been, I’d avoid Eastern Europe like the plague. If you find a good game in Sunny Beach, it’ll be because of Russian tourists, not the locals. Vegas offers good game selection, but having spent several months there I don’t think the games are particularly amazing. If I was going to the US, Florida would be my first pick. You’ve got a few casinos to choose from, so offers decent game selection. Get an Airbnb instead of a hotel, it’ll be cheaper. Only downside is you’ll need a car or you’ll be spending a non negligible amount on Uber’s.

If I wasn’t going to Florida I’d probably look in to going to LA rather than Vegas too.

If you don’t live in a major city in the UK then consider just going to London for the week. I’d avoid Nottingham and many of the secondary cities because I don’t think it gets many fish due to having less high net worth people living there.

In Europe, there are many cities that have legal poker and a good amount of people with a lot of disposable income. Rake is atrocious compared to the US and encourages a nitty style of play to win, but the games are largely beatable. I’ve got trips to Barcelona, Zurich and Frankfurt planned this year. Other places on my list in no particular order are Vienna, Athens, Paris, Stockholm, Rozvadov and Campione. The problem with many of the euro destinations is that you’re not going to find many options on a midweek timeframe and a lot of then only start games in the evening.

Also rethink your choice about avoiding the Far East if your bankroll allows. I really don’t see the difference between an 11 hour flight to Vegas and a 15hr flight to HK.

Heck no! You're not going to be happy when you show up in AC. It's just a busted up low-rent version of Vegas.

Vegas is the best. Treat yourself to a nice dinner and a show. You can't find entertainment like Vegas has anywhere else!

I was considering London + The Vic for 10 days, the cheapest place I could find to stay within walking distance though is £400 for the duration, which is OK, and it will only take me 2 hours to get there, I don't think staying further away for cheaper and getting the tube is +EV, the prices aren't that different either. So that is on my shortlist. I just fancied getting away for a week.

I looked in to Cambodia / East Asia but the rake is also a joke. Up to $20 in some of the games in Cambodia.

AirBnB + Florida is an option. But then I have to get a car.

I think right now it's between Vegas, the Irish Open (5% up to 15 Euro rake) and London...

Hi OP, I've travelled solo to Vegas for (mainly) poker multiple times, also from the UK. I've just managed a $29/hour win rate over the past 2 weeks playing 1/2 + 1/3 NL ; 4/8 9/18 Limit and 1/2 PL ; I consider that an excellent win rate for my stakes, Total poker profit $2600 - yet it has not covered all my expenses. Close, but not quite. I would not do it for the money, I do it because I enjoy the holiday as a whole. Vegas is a nice break from London lifestyle, I enjoy eating out, playing a little bit of Pai-Gow/slots/video-poker and being able to talk to some random people at the poker table or around town.Not sure whether your hourly expectation at 2/5 will give you a NOI to make it worth for that alone.

Yes, looking favourable. Loved the Michael Jackson show at Mandalay Bay. Would deffo see again.

Fair assessment. I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not there to make a huge amount of money, if I covered my trip and got to enjoy Vegas a little bit, I would be happy, anything beyond that would be considered a bonus. But that's Vegas. It's hard to go there and not enjoy what the City has to offer!

I live in London, in my opinion the games are about 5x tougher than Vegas. Vegas games are not a lot different compared to 10 years ago. London games are way way way tougher than 10 years ago.

That's the right way to approach it, imo, go there with the expectation of enjoying a poker vacation which may be a lot cheaper than other options thanks to your poker winnings.

In Europe I would recommend Barcelona (don’t come to Holland).

Looking at the States, I’ve only been to Vegas, but someone told me the games in Daytona are pretty soft.

I live in London too and I massively disagree. That said, the games at the Vic aren’t the ones I’d pick to play in.

Why the hell would you want to go to London and travel two hours in to play??

Where the hell you staying? Norwich??

You are using up your valuable free time to play poker and so you need to be where the best options are. In LV you will have the best choice of games in the WORLD available 24/7. You won't get that in LA, NOLA, Florida or anywhere else in the US or Europe.
It might be nice to visit these places or similar so to experience their poker 'vibe' but ultimately you cannot beat LV for the choice of game 24/7 and with limited tie on atrip you'd be daft to go elsewhere unless you were prepared to accept the limit in games.

Stay downtown or off or poor strip to reduce costs (Circus Circus??).

I live in London and play occasionally.

But Vegas is so much better.
People are on holiday.
Drinks cost $1.
Weather is better.
You can walk to another casino whenever you feel like it.
At the end of the day, you just take the lift back to your room.

I have also looked at other locations than Vegas, but I'm not aware of anywhere other than AC which has multiple options within walking distance. And AC looks way worse and harder to get to unless you drive (which I don't ).

A shi**y day in Las Vegas is better than a good day in AC. I literally used to fly to Las Vegas from Delaware rather than drive 1 1/2 hours to AC.

Fwiw, I play 1-2 and 1-3 in Las Vegas and am pretty bad, you can earn your daily nut just from giving me action ....

How about LA? Commerce club has 79 tables of action as I post this right now. There's a hotel right next to the casino.