Hello All,

I have been a long time reader of this forum. Posting for the first time to get some guidance on how I should prep for my first serious poker trip to Vegas.

Few things about me, my bankroll and play level today:

Poker is my hobby and I am a winning player at my local 2-5 live game in NH. I have zero online or tournament experience. I started taking it seriously earlier this year and have built a $25k bankroll after about 400 hours of play.

My strategy is fairly basic LAG exploitative play. I am familiar with ranges, count combos and occasionally able to make good hero calls/folds and bluffs. I haven't gone through a thorough exercise of balancing my range but it is somewhat diverse - combo of suited connectors, premium hands for open and some suited aces for 3-bets. My study has mostly focused on old books like Supersystem, Dan Harrington, etc. and some YouTube hand analysis from Polk, Torelli and Poker Guys. I don't use any software or paid training content.

Here are the questions I have for my poker trip that is 5 weeks out.

Q1: Should I expect better or worse competition in vegas?

Q2: Depending on Q1, should I use this opportunity to play bigger games - 5-10 / 10-20 or should I go lower and grind 1-3 / 2-5?

We don't have stakes over 2-5 in New England and the 2-5 here plays like 5-10 with avg stack size of $1500 and pretty much an ongoing straddle in evenings. Given my skills, where am I more likely to win more during my time there?

Q3: What can I do in the next 5 weeks to improve my game even more to do better on my trip?

Thank you!

1) could go eiter way on weekends, id suggest moving around if you dont like your table. Weekdays.... probably harder.

2) yeah play bigger. Ive almost always taken my first shot in vegas, its more fun, plus you got nowhere else. Id set aside X BR to potentially lose at 5/T and Y BR for your 2/5.

Id say max buyin is the better indicator of difficulty (as well as size), so youve got Wynn 5/10 (unlimited), Aria 5/10 ($3k), Wynn 2/5 ($1500 and honestly maybe tougher than arias 5/T game), bellagio 5/10 ($1500), Aria 2/5 ($1k). Bellagio 2/5 ($500) is easy but also not as big as plenty of 1/3 games. There are plenty of 2/5 around town, 5/ T+ these are the main spots, not sure about Venetian cuz I hate shelden adelson (reminder that he single handedly killed federally legalizing online poker)

3) nothing. Youll probably spaz when you move up cuz youll think you gotta play a different game, so mentally prepare for a 6k+ downswing?
Plenty of other

One of the reasons why Vegas is a poker hub is that you can find a lot of different games at a lot of different stakes a lot of the time.

You don't need to plan your trip more than familiarizing yourself with the major rooms.

Play 2/5 and if it's not challenging list yourself for 5/T and if you get demolished walk over to the next casino and play 1/3 to build your confidence, then go back to 2/5 and then jump to 10/20 to chase your losses and run like Jesus on a scooter and then order a high end escort who then robs you and then go back to the 1/3 table to regale them with your bad beat story.

This seems very specific

Thank you so much! So I am thinking I will spend weekdays playing 2-5 and 1-3, build some bankroll and confidence to take a shot at 5-10 and 10-20 on the weekends.

So your advice would be to select the game based on max buy-in and not so much the blinds.. Do you have any experience with 1-2 (unlimited) at the Golden Nugget? I am staying at Aria and won't have a car so not sure if that's juicy enough to uber down there.

$6K downswing - I think I can handle it (especially when I get it in right). I am more concerned about not having the same skill level as the vegas pros who play these stakes (5-10 or 10-20). I think it's quite unlikely that a total fish or an recreational losing player would play these stakes when there is so much to choose from lower stakes.

What room would you recommend?

My experience is that Aria has the most and best pros (at both 2/5 and 5/T) but also the worst and biggest fish. Id get a seat at aria, if you see a lot of pro looking dudes just pick up and walk to bellagio (which id say is more consistent... the pros are a lot worse kinda ABC grinder types), and then on the way back id probably just stop by aria to see if you catch a great game one more time.

Yeah i mean, buyin matters more but i suppose isnt the exclusive factor. The unlimited buyins obviously people buyin for whatever amount so sometimes its really juicy other times its just s normal 1/2 game. Have not played that game specifically, but ive walked into the room a couple times and the times I was there i think a $800 buyin wouldve covered everyone in the room. If you arent looking for room diversity, i stayed at aria/bellagio basically all trip, but also uber will cost you like half an hr in rake so id say its well worth taking one if you think theres a good game. PH unlimited buyin is one that gets completely wild from time to time.

I mention 6k downswing because ive had like 3 in the 4-6k range since moving up to 5/T in like under 100 hours of play (and im a pretty big winner in that timeframe). The downswing could be much worse. Ive lost 5.5k in an hr and a half. I will also say, at least coming from a guy who had very few downswings at 2/5 (prolly 2x downswings >2.5k in my life before moving up), they hurt early on even if youre losing money you just won, and even if youre getting it in against a 2 outer. Its just a lot of damn money and sometimes you think lol wtf am i doing.

Wynn is nicest to play and has better action the bellagio 5T

If PH has an unlimited game, I will def try it out. I have seen some crazy games there in the past. Thanks for sharing your perspective on downswings. I will try to keep 5T and 10-20 for the tail end of my trip so it doesn't **** with my play style.

Are you from vegas? If not, when was the last time you played there?

By nicest, you mean chairs amenities, dealers, etc.? It makes sense as regs would be loyal to their Mlife rooms?

Well if you get a suite it's clear you have money so you can get more attractive hookers but you're more likely to get robbed, and if you get a cheapass room then you tend to attract the worst of humanity. I tend to find that a mid tier room really reduces your chances of getting robbed.

No. This July i did a 10 day trip and it was my first move to 5/T, did pretty decent despite getting killed early, so i did some research on the exact questions you had just a month ago.

Thank you.. your experience seems to be the most relevant then. Where did you run the best? How bad was the action on weekdays?

You my man.. keep things entertaining over here. By room, I meant poker room of course.

Since it's your first trip to Vegas I suggest you start out playing limits you're familiar with for the following reasons:

1. You're new Vegas Start out in familiar waters. You can sweat the higher games and then if you're comfortable, you can move up, but until then, start with what you've had success with.

2. If you were to go higher and lose significantly, that would spoil your first trip to Vegas (or would me for sure).

3. Larger NL's in Vegas play huge. If you were to get involved and win, great. If you were to lose, you'd not enjoy your first time in Sin City.

4. Play what you're used to and make time to do Vegas right. See a few shows, walk the strip a few times to acclimate yourself and see what there is to see.

Hope this helps. Have a wonderful time.

One tip for #4-that casino next door whose sign you are looking at. It isn't as close as you think it is.

best of luck and if it aint broke dont fix it!