on 5, be careful about local places especially from 9-5, if you are even awake then. They tend to be soft-play rocks and wouldn't take kindly to a youngster trying to take their money.

On seeking out the higher rake, I'd probably reverse the order. Start at a low rake place and move down the street if the game is not what you need. IMO it's better to be a rounder than to get attached to a couple places.

allvegaspoker.com has many of the room specific answers you seek

Thanksgiving weekend 2008, I was playing at the Palms 1/3 NL. There was never a flop with less then 75-100$ in the the middle of the table the whole night. I never seen/played at table like that since. I was up 1500$ in 5 hrs. and lose it all, going all in pre w/ AA vs JJ and of course J on River.

As someone who lived in Las Vegas from 2005-2011 and still going back for trips about every 2-3 months I'd like to give my opinion in this thread on several of the rooms with some thoughts.

MGM - I believe this is the best casino for 1-2 on the strip. They raised the buyin on the game to $300 sometime ago making it a deeper stack game. MGM gets the highest number of young starry eyed players looking to play in a fun atmosphere. Advantage also goes here to sheer number of games around the clock.

Bellagio - This is my 2nd favorite 1/2 NL place on the Strip as it gets the most variety of players from my experience there. You get a nice blend of soft rocks, aggro young cats, and donky tourists while also playing in a world famous room.

Mandalay Bay - The softest room I've ever played in with regularity in Vegas. It's actually a nice room though a little small and while it has some quirky rules the games are never slow.

Excalibur - My favorite bum hunting place. While the room is subpar aesthetically it gets some good redneck traffic and has uber soft games.

Venetian - The highest number of decent players at the 1/2 level will be found at the V. You can typically find 3-5 decent-solid players at most tables in this room during non-late weekend hours. However, it is the most gorgeous poker room in Las Vegas.

South Point - Very underrated room a few miles south of the Strip that offers a nice blend of tourists and locals. They redid their room about a year ago and it is definitely a step up from before.

Red Rock, Green Valley, M, etc. - Don't bother going there just to play 1/2. These 3 casinos are all nice properties and good for a night out if you wanna include some table games and dinner but avoid at all costs during the day. Big ups to the M with their beer selection for the poker room.

Good luck at the tables.

--Dizzle

I agree with most of what you said above. The only point that I would disagree with you on is that regarding South Point. I would basically throw them in with your last group of Green Valley, the M, etc. Back before the M was built the South Point had a great game, especially for a local's room. Green Valley was just far enough away that they didn't really eat into each other's business. But the arrival of the M has thrown off this balance and now the 3 rooms are basically fighting over the same clientele. As a local's casino, the South Point has many great deals in terms of the overall casino experience but their poker room has become much too nitty and now they're having throw multiple free rolls just in order to survive. With so many other options available, and you mentioned may of them, I just don't see a reason to ever go to local's casinos like the South Point if you want to play poker.

Wow there were some fantastic scouting reports in this thread to answer my question! Thanks a lot to everyone for that.

why? i love the wynn.

I moved the derail re albo gator's goals over here...

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...iving-1135038/

Please PM me if you have any questions.

Thanks for the explanation on the very mediocre quality of SP's games. I ground out my 100 hours there for the Christmas free roll and the 1/2 is the nittiest live game I have ever played.

Do you see what I did there?

I certainly know what you mean. It's one of those rooms where I'll get into a heads up situation with someone where we both flop strong and after the showdown I'll shake my head asking myself how is it that the money didn't get all in at some point. Good luck in their free roll.

pre-Christmas is often a slow time because everyone is out shotting.

Meant to type shopping but I'll let that one stand.

the golden nugget downtown is good, 100 min with no max makes for a good game, pretty much one game 24 7 but gets really busy as early as 9am.

I hate the B as its max 200 buy in, but some good value.

Mgm is good, huge selection even on a tuesday, as i was in there this evening and there was 6 or 7 1/2 games at 9pm

This year I played 500 hours in random places at 1/2 finding almost all games are good. There's not gonna be one place that is a whole lot better than others. If there is its mgm due to more games to select from. I've played in games at redrock that were better than almost any 1/2 game I've played in and have always had no problem winning there. I prefer to play action players obv and I find the strip does have more but I usually get action anywhere. Advice for 1/2 players is go where you are comfortable and take it from there. Some small rooms worth checking out are excaliber, mirage, trop runs decent promotions sometimes, and maybe the nugget and flamingo. MGM, Mandalay, ballys and red rock have always been good to me.

Red Rock? Where's that at?

I've played 1/2 NL "recreationally" since 2007. I use quotes only because I'm not a pro in the sense that I play for a living, but I have never had a losing year at 1/2 NL. In 2010 I lived in South Florida and started keeping a spreadsheet of my earnings, and I left the state at $21/hr, and that's playing nowhere near optimal over 12 months time. So take my reply for what it's worth.

1) Bankroll requirements: at 1/2 NL I'm sorry but you don't need the standard rule of 20 buy ins. I'm currently working off a $1,000 roll and I've double that in a month while running absolutely horrendously. The players are so bad at live 1/2 NL that the variance just doesn't rear its head like it does online. While I think $1,000 is too little, I think a $2-3,000 bankroll should be plenty. Although it also depends on how you play. LAGging it up at 1/2 NL is obviously going to make for more swings. Also don't play LAG at 1/2 its nowhere near as profitable as TAG.

2) I kind of answered this but I am by no means a 1/2 NL boss and I earned just over $21/hr over a 12 month period. I can remember multiple (as in > 10) sessions where I got tilted, played tired, spewed like a lag monkey, played drunk, etc. that had I not done that I'm sure my winrate could have been in the upper 20's to lower 30's.

3) Also touched on this. Variance at live 1/2 NL is nowhere near what it is online. Not even close. I set a stop loss at $500 for myself at 1/2NL. I can count on one hand in 4 years how many times I've actually had to stop for the night due to reaching my personal stop loss. If you're seeing some sick 20 buy in downswing at live 1/2NL, you're simply not playing well.

4) I'm not much of a vegas insider so someone else will have to address this.

5) I'm not so sure I agree with this, but like I said I'm not vegas expert. I just find it hard to justify paying more money to play 1/2NL because of some theoretical increase in "shark presence". It's live 1/2NL guys. You can't be that good if you're playing 1/2NL. If you are then you're playing higher and not wasting your time with 1/2. I just find it hard to believe that it's difficult to find good 1/2 tables in these enormous card rooms in vegas.

Just my two cents.

zeprush, wasn't live poker kinda new in Florida when you were playing there?

This is going to be answered from the perspective of poker in Vegas:

1) Bankroll requirements really depend on the reason you are playing poker. Bankroll requirements are obviously going to be bigger if you are trying to play for a living. Personally, I disagree with the above poster in that it is my opinion that you need a bigger roll to play live. I don't think variance is greater online simply because of the speed of the game and the ability to multi-table. It often seems as if variance is greater because losing players have their leaks exposed that much faster and will lose at a more rapid pace. If you are a winning player online, variance will even out much quicker. Conversely, in a live game even winning players can drop multiple buy-ins in a short amount of time. The only difference is that live players will need a much longer time to make that up.

2) Once again win-rate is dependent on why you are playing and how long you play. I do think it is possible for recreational players who have a much shorter poker week to average near or over $20/hour. I think this scenario is still unlikely, but certainly more possible than someone who is putting in 40-60 hours per week. Hitting an occasional free roll or a high hand may inflate your numbers in the short run, but over time I don't think most players beat the jackpot drop.

3) See #1

4) $4+$0 rooms:
Bellagio
Venetian
MGM Grand
Aria
Wynn
$5+$1 rooms:
All HET properties

I believe all other rooms are $4+$1, with a couple of rooms possibly being $4+$2. Although they don't list it, you can probably go to allvegaspoker.com and ask in each rooms forum what they charge in rake.

5) In all honesty I've never run all the numbers but I think too much money comes off the table in higher rake rooms. I think there are enough good games at the lower rake rooms that you shouldn't have to seek out such rooms. MGM is a $1-$2 mecca so you can probably start there.

Nope it had been around well before then, but in mid 2010 the buy in limits increased to 100 bb's max

Also would it be all that inaccurate to include bad beat jackpot table shares? I figure if you're paying for the drop you should include it in your annual records when figuring out a win rate. Any thoughts?

Great thread...

For those of you advising to focus on table selection more than the rooms themselves, allow me to ask a noob-ish question: how exactly do you do that in a big room? Seems like it would take a while to roam a room, observe tables, and compare them. Or do you just sit down at a table but quickly assess and change tables ASAP if you don't like the dynamic?

when you've played for a while you'll be able to profile a table in abt 5 seconds. im still amazed by how accurately you can assess a player just by physical appearance. also, look for games where like 8 out of 10 cupholders has a beer or cocktail in it.

You walk up to a table and not a single player is talking to another. Most are in hoodies and wearing headphones. Chips are constantly being shuffled and every cup holder is filled with a bottle of water.

You walk up to another table where everyone is laughing and having a great time. Multiple cocktails can be seen and not only can the players not shuffle their chips but also their stacks look like it was built by a Down's kid.

"Choose wisely."

He means engage in racial, sexual, and ageal profiling.

people are probably gonna laugh, but i played at the Strat last year, playing 1/2, and i made quite a bit of money. I dont know how the action is there now, if any, but that was the most easiest game ive ever played in. It was almost is if i could see through the cards