Last year was my first year at WSOP and I was overwhelmed with the multitudes of tournaments and events going on. This year I would like to hear from other people what there plans are during the WSOP in Vegas.

1: Where will you being staying?

2: What tournaments will you be entering? What is your schedule like?

3: Are there are any other venues you will also play at other then at the RIO?

4: Are there any tournaments that you will avoid during the WSOP?

Last year I missed out on some good tournaments because I did not know better. I was also very new at poker and during the last year I have gained a lot of experience. I hope to do much better this year.

I will be staying at the RIO for 10 nights from June 4 - June 15. I booked the room during a promotion and will earn 1,000 tier credits per night. The room average is $75/night plus resort fees. I hate the resort fees and thinking about getting a founders card just to get them waived. Can get one for $395 which will pay for itself during the vegas trip.

So far my Tournament schedule is still uncertain. Hope to hear other peoples plans to know what to consider. Here is a rough outline what I was thinking.

1pm Daily Deepstack: $235. Do this every day I am not in a bigger tournament.
June 9: Million Dollar Maker: $1500.
June 8: The Giant: $365 I will have to fly back to Vegas for a weekend if I get in day 2.


I am new to Vegas and do not know most of the other casinos. If I get knocked out of the 1pm daily deep stacks I plan on exploring other casinos poker rooms. Maybe play cash games.

1. All over the place (Venetian, Orleans, California, Tropicana)--girlfriend cashes in offers all over town.

2. Will play $200 - $400 NL Hold'em tournaments and a Badugi/2-7. Waiting for structures to be released before deciding where to play, but Planet Hollywood never dissapoints in that area.

3. Will play cash or sit-n-go at RIO and cash at Bellagio for sure. Will probably play cash at Venetian, Aria, Orleans, Golden Nugget as well.

4. Avoiding WSOP (out of my price range) and any with poor structures/rake. There's not a bad venue in Vegas so that never factors in.

Where is the Badugi, I'd love to play.

1. Rush Tower & GN for 1st 2 1/2 weeks, and Cosmopolitan the last 10-12 days.

2. Plan to play the Nugget $250k & $500k GTD, and maybe a $600 at Venetian when I move to Cosmo.

3. Will play $1/2 @ Nugget, and prob some cash the first few days on the strip.

4. Won't be looking to play anything outside the ones mentioned.

First trip to WSOP for me. Staying June 6th-11th. 5 nights for $560 which includes resort fees and taxes. Staying at Gold Coast. Still kicking around idea to spulge on a little better hotel but only planing to be in room 7 hours a day and 6 of those will be sleeping so probably wont. Either going to play the $565 Omaha or $1500 NL 6 max at Rio. Also looking to play any Horse events at other places during that time.

Theres a $565 Omaha at Rio?

June 8, 2018 there is a $565 Pot Limit Omaha bracelet event that last 3 days. It has multiple flights.

1. I'll be in Vegas June 5-11 this summer, staying off the strip (timeshare situation).
2. Planning on playing at the Venetian and Rio for sure, with places like PH, Wynn, and Aria being options as well.
3. Looking to play a flight of the $1100 3.5 million guaranteed, WSOP $1500 6-max, and WSOP milly maker as well.
4. Avoiding tournaments with poor structures, like the colossus, giant, and other low buy tourneys around town.

1. Staying at the Palazzo from 6/7-6/13

2. Rio Mega Satty, Milly Maker, Venetian 1 million MSPT, 235 daily deep stack, hopefully something at Wynn, If time PH HORSE + NLH + PLO + 2-7 I have maybe 5 hours of experience playing mix games but thought it would be a nice break from Holdem. Don't tap the glass

3. Cash games at Bellagio, Venetian, GN, Aria.

4. Food- Carne Vino, Cut, Bouchon.

5. Strip Club- TBD Need recommendations on this one.

Strip Club - Spearmint Rhino OBV

Planet Hollywood has 2 mixed Triple Draw tournaments on it's draft schedule:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/6...draft-1700899/

And I know I played a triple draw at the Nugget a few years ago, so check theirs when it comes out.

Only thing booked so far is Aria during Seniors week. It also coincides with birthday and so I treat the week like any other vacation. What good is discretionary income if you don't treat yourself well from time to time...

Last year, I stayed downtown for two of the three trips during June with a few days each at Vdara and Aria.

Have not mapped it out yet, but I likely won't play much of the actual WSOP events. Will be at GN, Venetian and Aria. May contemplate a couple at PHo but was really disappointed in dealers during the O8 last year. The mixed events get my attention above and beyond the NL stuff. It is not at all uncommon to find players at the table that have no live experience with some of the games and very little experience with the online variants. Those are the ones where a competent player can go deep...I admittedly knew nothing about Badugi last year before I entered a triple draw event- I bubbled when I lost with badugi to a better badugi (the only time I think we had that situation all day).

see above

Will likely skip anything where the structure shows the use of a BB ante instead of traditional ante format.

There are a lot of schedule overlaps that make it easy to miss some of the good events. You are also having to guess who will show at which properties as that can really change the complexion of the field.

I'm rated through Caesars Entertainment, so probably at one of their strip properties. Pretty much all of them are fairly convenient to walk the strip between Wynn, Venetian, PH and Aria. Its good exercise and there's lots to look at. In recent years I have played more non-WSOP events than WSOP events, so catching a cab or ride share to the Rio from wherever I am on the strip from time to time has proved to be more cost-effective than staying at the Rio and having to travel to the strip.

I'll be in town for 5-6 weeks. As far as WSOP is concerned, I will definitely play the Monster Stack. Outside of that, I'm a little ambivalent. I'm not a huge fan of the way the WSOP structures their tournaments. It's not that the structures are bad (at least most of them), its just that I'm not a fan of short-stacked (relatively speaking) tourneys, even if the blind levels are super long. It basically just incentivizes people to play really tight and also leads to really long tourneys. I much prefer tourneys which provide a pretty good starting stack (~20K), make the money fairly early on day 2 and don't last more than 3days.

There's not much to pick from at the WSOP that fits that description. The MS is just about the only event that comes close.


Definitely going to play a good number of events at the Venetian. This is the first year I'm basically planning my schedule around events there. I'm really excited they are expanding into convention space.

Venetian Schedule here:

https://www.venetian.com/content/dam...8-Schedule.pdf

When the Wynn schedule comes out I will likely try to work in a few events there. That venue has definitely stepped up its game in recent years.

Wynn schedule should get posted here:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/6...assic-1698709/

I may play an event or two at PH. I've soured a bit on that venue over the last couple years. They will still offer some pretty good events, depending on the buy-in level one is looking for. It's just they have continued to have issues running their tourneys when it comes to things like registration, logistics, etc. Who knows, maybe they will get their act together better this year.

PH preliminary schedule:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jAZ...v1W2alVHI/view

In years past I have also played the Aria WPT 500 and the Golden Nugget Main Event. Both of these are very good events for that price range in NLH. The Aria is obviously a more upscale venue, though in the past, the actual tournament location was not great for a variety of reasons (smoke, noise, etc.). I don't know where it will be held this year.

And the GN is also a very good option at that pricepoint, though it's a bit out of the way off the strip.

Aria schedule:

https://twitter.com/TDPaulCampbell/s...36709473927168

GN schedule:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=2056205556


Don't think I am going to play the PH ME, for the first time ever. They have made that event more expensive each year from both an overall cost and rake standpoint), and have not increased the guarantee, nor provided any other reason why someone should want to play it. At that pricepoint, I think there are other, better options. But I'm sure it will make the guarantee (it would be hard not to), and the event itself should be ok. Its just not the must-play tourney it was a couple years ago, IMO.

Doubt I will play the WSOP 1111 One-Drop event, though I have played it the last couple years. Even though the prizepool will be a bit smaller, I think the similarly priced-events going on at the Venetian in that timeframe fit my structure preferences better.

I will give the BB-ante format a try, but I don't think its something I will seek out. And unless I have some sort of unexpected and really positive experience, I image its something I will avoid if I can. The system has warts which I care about more than the tiny time savings gained by essentially eliminating antes.



Yeah, I would say my second trip was a much better experience overall. One mistake I made the first time (at least it was a mistake for me... I guess other individuals might have a different experience) was that I played every single day for nearly three weeks. By the end I was completely burnt out and not only playing less-than optimally, but also having a miserable time doing it. So, in subsequent years I learned to space things out more and take days off from poker. There are plenty of diversions in Vegas and if one has a little bit of discipline, the diversions don't have to cost a ton or lead to embarrassment, injury or incarceration.

In any case, I am fortunate in that my job affords me the opportunity to come out to Vegas for at least a few weeks each summer, so I am not pressed to cram a ton of play into a short amount of time.

My advice would be, if your schedule allows it, find some time to do some non-poker things. I think there's a thread on 2+2 under Vegas Lifestyle, or something like that, that may offer some ideas.

So after further research you decided to just stay home this year?

Not sure yet. Probably a mix of Rio and some place like Ballys.

Not sure yet. Probably the first few days of the Series, and then a few days mid-June. Might play the Monster Stack if I run good early.

Not tournaments. Maybe cash at various places.

Will definitely NOT play tournaments at PHo or Venetian. Poorly run and/or ***hole floor and TD's.

Be careful with those. If you run deep it could be 4-6 am, which wrecks your next day. You sure as hell don't want to play one the day before you play a bracelet event.

Can we please not lose another thread to this argument? Pick one of the other million places it's come up.

1. staying: tbd (prefer to find an airbnb though, hope to again this year)
2. tournies: tbd (depends whether I can play the main, will dictate schedule. Obv I want to play that the most, but if I can't I plan to find the best PLO/PLO8/Big Bet stretch of time play those, hopefully with some draw games mixed in)
3. other venues I'm excited to play: Wynn, PH, Binions
4. other venues I will avoid: Aria, Venetian

There are plenty of tournaments that use a traditional format. Some of them are even no-limit.

1: Where will you being staying?
Probably the Wynn, same as last year. Maybe Aria

2: What tournaments will you be entering? What is your schedule like?
Playing the WSOP ME. I like to work in 1 or 2 smaller warm-up tournaments before the main course. Undecided as to what those will be. If I bust day 1, I will see what is available.

3: Are there are any other venues you will also play at other then at the RIO?
Cash games at the Wynn in very short sessions (waiting for dinner, etc.), and tournaments maybe at Venetian, Wynn, Aria.


4: Are there any tournaments that you will avoid during the WSOP?
I will avoid low buy-in tournaments (below $500). My preferred buy-in range is $1500 - $1000

The 1pm daily runs till 4-6am? That's awful.

This is from 2017 when they started at 2:00 ; check the numbers and results and it becomes unavoidable; the norm was 1000+ runners.

http://www.wsop.com/news/2017/Jul/91...K-RESULTS.html

I cashed in a 9pm which was ending at the same time as the 1pm (I think it was 2pm start last year for that one), around 6am that night/morning.

Will be there July 2-7, staying at Monte Carlo and playing either the ME on July 4 or the $1500NL on July 5.

I live in Vegas so I can pick and choose.

I've got about $5K budgeted for buy-ins and the Venetian DSE looks like it will get most of my business.

There a bunch of NLHE events with guarantees ranging from $1M to $3.5M guarantee with buyins or satellite of $400 or less. There is also a $600 O8 event with a $100K guarantee and a $600 Senior event with $600K guarantee.

From 5/26 - 7/6, the series is located at the Sands Convention Center adjacent to the casino and we'll see how that goes as I've not played there. Venetian has free parking which is a plus.

Beyond that I'll probably be looking for loose O8 cash games at the Orleans (which now runs 4-8, 8-16 and a new regular 15-30 game). If I strike it rich, there is juicy 20-40 and above cash games at the Rio.

Tips for new players.

If you are going to the Rio, bring layers. It can be freezing in there. The supply and demand for bathrooms at breaks during big tourneys is not good. It might be worth it to miss the last hand before break in order to beat the rush and avoid a long line. Pack a few snacks and a drink.

I like the structures at Planet Hollywood, but the lighting is just bad.

Wynn is a great facility and I like the seedy charm of the Golden Nugget and downtown.

The Wynn has a semi-regular $9-18 mixed game and about 1/3 of the games are variants of Badugi. Call and get your name on the list for that game early if you are interested. The regs come early and play late so open seats don't open that often.

As far as tournaments go, I'm not aware of any that are Badugi specific. They are part of some mixed game events.

Binion's has a $365 mix on 6/20 with a Badugi variant Razzdugi as part of the format. The WSOP has Badugi in the mix at a much higher price point.