In your experiences, where are the softest live games up to 500nl in the world?

Easy answer: Vegas.

Anytime you're dealing with a higher % of tourists and a lower % of locals, you're going to have better games. The same guy that's dropping hundreds on bad center bets in craps is going to be happy dumping away hundreds in poker without knowing what he's doing, too, because he equates it the same way: gambool.

My South Florida market is pretty soft overall but nothing compares to Vegas imo. This market still has way too many regs in it to be comparable to Vegas. I want a table with people drinking alcohol, and Vegas is the best place for it.

During the WSOP and other busy weekends through the year thats probably true, but in off season/downtime thats not the case at all. For example i spent more than 2 months grinding in Vegas November and December last year (logged around 400 hours during that timespan), and the amount of easy money is not on the level you may think.

Vegas doesent only have alot of tourists: it also have the most amount of serious pros/semi pros/grinders/part time pros, loads of nitty OMC that doesent make very big mistakes for stacks, nitty local promotion grinders that logs hours of hours all around town+++.

I would go on the limb and say that many posters on this forum actually woudnt be able to beat 1-2 and 1-3 in Vegas over a meaningful sample during off season when the games is at its worst.

Antarctica.

They cold-4bet too much.

I've been to Vegas 19 times in the last 6 years, and only 2 were during WSOP. The games are soft in the off-seasons too. You just have to be more selective.

The problem with people going to Vegas in the off-season is that they still want to play only at the nicer rooms or don't do well with table selection. Some of my most profitable 1-2 sessions have been at the Flamingo, for example, where I practically have to close my eyes when I'm not in a hand because the room is such an uninhabitable dump. You see a table with a few stacks and a lot of drinks and go to town.

As far as 2-5, Bellagio can be very profitable as well but you have to get off bad tables. There's plenty of tourists playing poker at the Bellagio year-round. The last time I was there in January, for example, I had to leave my table nearly immediately because even though stacks were big, I very quickly saw where the action was headed. The second table I went to was great, but I kept getting my money in ahead and losing. I ended up nearly breaking even (lost like 30 bigs?) but on a normal day when variance goes your way, it's a crushable table.

Have you played in Vegas? While soft games do exist I find the average games tougher (tighter and more aggressive) than my spot out here in mid michigan.

Sure, i agree with table selecting and that is huge especially in Vegas. I logged hours all around the city when i was there in the slowest months of the year Nov/Dec, and i didnt have any tables where i felt without an edge- but still, the picture of Vegas casinos always have ****loads of clueless clowns spewing off buyin after buyin is vastly exagerrated.

I just dont think its true that Vegas have the softest games by far as a definitive answer to OPs question. During the WSOP its mayhem all around town with fish/donks from all around the world looking to drink/gamble it up (havent experienced anything like it elsewhere)- but that isnt remotely close to how it is during off season or rest of the year as mentioned. Infact Vegas its well known for the oposite: hard nitty grinder filled games compared to alot of other cities.

If I was single and felt like making a year long road trip Id go with.....

Dec/Jan/Feb...S. Florida
Mar/Apr...WinStar in Oklahoma
May/June/July...Vegas
Aug/Sept....Maryland
Oct/Nov...New Orleans.....Actually I think New Orleans is the softest Ive ever seen.

There are also small remote rooms all around the country that most people have never heard of that are much much softer than any big named rooms. I played a 4 table room in Bangor, Maine that was so soft, I think I could at least break even without ever looking at my cards.

Ok, I'll alter my stance a bit to maybe appease you guys: On a given day, Vegas will have the largest volume of soft games but at certain times of the year it will require careful table selection since they also have a large amount of local pros and grinders.

You don't find drunken tourist games too often anymore in South Florida, for example, but you can find them nightly in Vegas. You sometimes have to search for them and I'd guess that constantly nitpicking your games to that degree can become tiresome. I don't think I can disagree that Vegas an also have the toughest games on average, too. I think that makes sense, though: when your player pool is full of both local pros/grinders and tourists, you're going to find the tables to generally be at the extremes as well.

I've played in five locales and I'd rank Vegas last for soft low stakes games. But that's just me.

if you're willing to play at 2 in the morning and table select like crazy, yeah, but there are a lot of grinders in LV, so the average table can actually have more skill than a lot of other locales, especially at 2/5 like the OP asked about.

Los Angeles. Huge population and people have money. Who needs tourists when there's 13 million people there?

Vegas blows bc none of the locals have money and you have to hunt for fish from room to room. It's much tougher to just play in one room everyday in Vegas but in LA its very doable at commerce or the bike

This is a strategy forum. This question belongs in Casino and Cardroom Poker. Don't post it there. though. Just do a search. They've had this discussion a million times.