I'm taking a poker trip for a week in late June as a treat to myself for surviving the Covid year with most of my sanity intact. I'm fully vaxxed and have no problems sharing the space and air with others.

I'm staying at Bally's so I'm in the middle of everything and it was much cheaper than bigger name hotels.

Planet Hollywood is my favorite place to play since the eye candy dancing on the tables after 8PM is pretty great and the games are a bit more wild and loose. I play 1-3 and 2-5. Also, I have no desire to beat people at the top games, I hold my own at my local room, and that is good enough for me. So, 5-10 at Bellagio to take down Brad Owen is NOT a poker bucket list thing for me.

What places should I hit and why?
What are your favorites and suggestions?

And what is the cheapest way to get to Fremont Street from Bally's? Think I might want to take in the insanity of Fremont street on either Friday or Saturday night of my trip. Is there a poker room down there? I thought there was one left.

I agree Planet Hollywood for low buy in tournaments and low buy in cash games...

Aria for higher buy in, better structure better payout tournaments. Same for Wynn, Venetian and Bellagio but Aria if only doing 1.

As for Fremont I always hit Golden Nugget also when I am in Vegas for good cash games.

Hope that helps.

The Deuce will be the cheapest way to get to Fremont street from Ballys. Its a public bus that goes between the strip and downtown. Your safety may vary.

Probably a shared uber / lyft would be more efficient in most cases. Uber and Lyft are having issues getting their drivers back. Was in Vegas a few weeks ago and it was a pain in the ass to take ride share to dinner. Heading there for a wedding this weekend. Hopefully its better. Staying at the Nugget

Reading between the lines you are rolling on a budget so my answer will address 1-2 nd 1-3...

Planet Hollywood 1st choice for games. The music cuts down on the nits, and the room attracts bad agrro players.

Flamingo for the $500 buy in 1-2 game. deep with players who are bad at deep stacks

AS good as Flamingo can get for 1-2 (agree w/above) I feel the same can be said for Caesars 1-3 in the last year as well. Good games, plentiful tables making good table selection.
Golden Nugget is the must play DT, and the game is uncapped. Table select here as well.
For a different and pure poker visit, check out South Point for a visit. They have been doing great things lately; their promos are getting tons of players in the door. Plenty of good food. Cafe is 24/7, Del Mar deli in the Book is really fresh.

The golden nugget has a uncapped buy in 1-2 game seems crazy.

Aria and PH are good spots for sure. Bellagio in the morning is good with Players waiting around to go the airport and/or trying to recoup losses from night before.

I've been hearing good things about Cesar's as well.

GN is uncapped and could be some fun.

If you want to see a low limit 'Vlog' game then get ahold of Trooper on YouTube and sign up for his Thursday game at Westgate.

You should 'feel' just fine playing 2/5 at any location, even Venetian and/or Wynn. But those locations seem to have a few more 'for money' Players at the tables. GL

+4. I stay at GN when in Vegas. Farther from Strip but the game can get crazy good.

I've only played in it once a few years ago, but from what I've heard, the GN game is great. If I played NLHE in Vegas, I'd play there more often. (I'm a PLO junky.) I was in Vegas late March and there were a couple of deep tables going at GN on a Monday afternoon -- was with family so couldn't jump in

Aria is my favorite room, but obviously for PLO.

I've been to Vegas three times in the past two months. I always stay at flamingo cause it's cheap, in the middle of everything, and I'm never in the room anyways...Aria and venetian are the best places to play at on the strip area....

HOWEVER this last trip I took (just last week) I played at Golden Nugget for the first time and will DEFINITELY be playing there when I go back in the coming weeks. Nugget game was crazy deep with awful tight passive players and calling stations. Several people on the table bought in for 3000+.....the game was just super easy to beat. Plus they have a few promotions they run which is cool.

Also Im not sure what people are saying about the flamingo. The games ive plahyed there are short stacked and full of grumpy nitty regs. Awful game imo but maybe ive just timed it wrong whenever ive played there

So with all that being said Aria and Golden Nugget are the best places to play. South Point was also good.

I cant wait to go back to the nugget.

Over 12 consistent years of travelling to Vegas I racked up over 3000 hours of play there.

I usually played in 3-4 rooms per night, and loved to make sure I wasn't missing out on the hidden gem. I played a lot of 1/3 and 1/2 and 2/5.

1 year I was a reg at Hard Rock (it's gone)
1 year I was a reg at Rio (they made the game there smaller so it sucks now but used to have good late night action)
Planet Hollywood was always one of my go to rooms.
The Wynn was my favourite room for feeling classy and comfortable.
Belagio had it's benefits. The Venetian too. So both of those got some of my action. There was a time I played a decent amount at Caesars too. MGM had decent action 10 years ago too.

I hated Orleans, never spent more than 30 minutes there. I'd hear people talk it up, then go there and want to die within minutes and just run out as fast as I could. Hated being surrounded by the player pool there.

Nugget was interesting to go hit up something different. I usually found it wasn't worth the effort of getting there and back though. Chairs were horribly uncomfortable. Felt like going back in time 30 years, which had it's pros and cons.

In more recent years my bankroll grew and I became more of a mid-high stakes PLO player. So now I just go to Aria. The Wynn game never seemed as good. If I feel like taking a break to go do something different I'll occaisonally walk over to PH or Bellagio for some NL.

If a tourist asked me what to check out on a tourism trip now, I'd say

Aria
Wynn
Bellagio
Planet Hollywood
Venetian

And Golden Nugget if you want to see something different and don't mind going downtown. Don't think any of the other rooms offer anything worth the time.