Best midweek Poker Tournaments

Had some guy telling me how great Resorts dailies were while we were playing the Venetian tourney. The 12:05 at Resorts is the same structure as the Wynn noon. But Resorts only gets 30-40 while Wynn gets 100. I like a bigger field (more $). I think the Wynn runs the best tournies.

Only other options are SouthPoint and Orleans which usually get anywhere from 75-100 daily, blinds faster and not as deep as the ones mentioned above.

check out pokeratlas. they have the complete schedule with structures

Yeah that's how I landed on Resorts. Of course doesn't give volume.

SP or Orleans... for daily's.

At least you know you're going to hit the FT.

Actually you are able to see this information for Resorts World on PokerAtlas (if you are logged in).

I can see that yesterday they had 19 entries in the $200 at 12:05 PM, with 4 places paid.

For the $200 at 7:05 PM, there were 17 entires with top 3 paid.

Resorts World is however the only room I have seen that routinely puts out this information. But at least if you are considering playing that one, you will get a good idea of field size by being able to see how many entered the day before.

Another consideration with Resorts World is their guarantee. When I played their 12:05 in October, they fell short of the minimum number of players to cover the guarantee, so there was an overlay. So, small fields aren't necessarily a bad thing.

Bravo shows tournament clocks for some casinos when you are logged in. From those you can see number of entrants.

Interesting, I have only see this for Resorts World. Which other rooms are doing this?

Just checked Bravo and currently they have tournament clocks at least for Horseshoe, MGM, Orleans and South Point. SP seems to have 139 entrants in their morning tournament. Orleans has already 51 and tournament has started less than half an hour ago.

South Point Daily $200

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RW is a great place to play, but suffers from newness and proximity to the Wynn. The Wynn has the early arrival advantage and has built up its player pool over time. Given a choice between the two venues, there's not much reason to pick RW even though there's nothing wrong with RW. They're just attempting to fill a niche that was already occupied, which is why they've struggled for business. I think they need to consider differentiating themselves in some way. Venetian runs a nightly bounty tournament that usually does pretty good numbers. Whether you like that tournament or not, it provides something different compared to the standard Wynn nightly. On the other hand, the RW tournaments do not provide anything different to stand out. They might want to consider a once-per-week PLO, HORSE, or big bet mix to give players something different.

In weeks when Wynn is running a big series with $400-1100+ buy-ins, the daily and nightly $200 RW tournaments become an appealing alternative for budget-minded players. However, in normal weeks when nothing special is running, the RW dailies are just smaller versions of the Wynn dailies. I plan to give RW a lot of business in the summer, but I've had a few LV trips where I haven't set foot in the room because they weren't offering anything compelling enough to pull me away from Wynn and Venetian.

Sorry for this necrobump...

I'm flying in next month for Google Cloud Next at Mandalay Bay. I'm looking for a decent Tuesday (April 21) afternoon/evening tournament that isn't single-table but also not like 100+ runners where it will run until the wee hours. Ideally $100 initial buy-in, but willing to go higher if it's a good tournament.

I'm staying at the Park MGM, and I would prefer something within walking distance (so on the Strip and not further north than The Venetian).

There may still be stuff that runs in the $80-120 range at rooms like Caesar's and Horseshoe, but it's likely to be a very goofy turbo structure. If you can dig a little deeper into the wallet, I'd recommend a $200 daily at Aria or Wynn. Wynn has a series starting on 4/20, so their daily won't be running on the 21st. Given that you'll be at Park MGM, the short walk to Aria makes a lot of sense for you. Their 1PM $200 typically draws around 35-55 entries. Perhaps not an ideal field to get that true MTT vibe, but not depressingly small either. I played the event back in November or December. Pretty fair value in this price range. Likely your best option.

Alternative would be a ride share to South Point or Orleans to play slightly smaller, but you'd be burning money on the transportation.

Tangent: RW tried some of the stuff I suggested, briefly running a Sunday $200 HORSE and implementing some gimmicks like mystery bounty.

Nothing has stuck and their turnout has cratered. I've checked their clocks on Atlas a few times recently and unfortunately there have been many dates when the daily and/or nightly have not even run at all. I recommend the room highly and still think it will be a great place to play events in the summer when there's a population to sustain decent turnout, but man that room is struggling mightily. The vultures are circling.

Aria is definitely near the top of my list. However, there is a very real chance I may have to forego afternoon poker for work, so what would the next best option be like at 4/5/6/7pm? Again, I'm not looking for a huge 100-player MTT, but I also don't want to show up at a tournament and it's me and 7 old regs. I see on Poker Atlas that the 5pm Westgate $70 tournament tonight has 13 players.

I would also like to avoid taking a taxi/Uber elsewhere (only exception might be Lotus of Siam with co-workers). It looks like perfect walking weather, so I'd like to take advantage of that, especially since I'm probably going to be eating quite unhealthy the whole week.

I'm also hoping that the Mandalay Bay poker room will see an uptick in players during the convention--which may allow me to sneak away for an hour occasionally to play a cash game.

In that case I would go with the 6:10 PM $200 Venetian Bounty ($50 bounties).

Relatively popular event that usually has about 50-100 players in it. Decent prizes up top. Decent structure and level of play, with a mix of regs and tourists.

Bounty factor means you have a pretty good chance to scrape back some of your entry fee even if you don't ultimately cash.

Too bad the Wynn won't be running dailies (check to verify anyway), their afternoon tourney is $160. It's the early one that's $200.

If you want to get in and out quick, Horseshoe has lots of dailies with terrible structures. Figure 2 or 3 hours tops.

If the Venetian has closer to 50 than 100 runners, then I might be interested. I need to be at Mandalay Bay at 8am the next morning, and I'm old and need my sleep.

I'm used to turbo structures, so Horseshoe tournaments wouldn't be out of ordinary for me. It's kind of annoying that I can't find their daily tournament structures online.

haven't been there in a year but Mandalay Bay usually has multiple cash games going when it is open. I enjoy playing there. the cash games are usually filled with tourist recs (not the reg grinders and not the nitty locals).

The Venetian tournament runs pretty late if you get deep. Not very sleep-friendly. Wynn will have a 6PM $200 turbo that night, but I believe these usually have a $100 add-on, so the price point is starting to get pretty steep if your goal is closer to $100. Your best bet might be a small turbo somewhere like Horseshoe. Maybe check on Bravo for tournament info. All else failing, you can call the poker room and ask.

MGM is right across the street and has what you're looking for. Look on bravo.

The kind of people that play Horseshoe tournaments don't even know what structure means. They used to be $60, then they doubled the entry price with no other changes. So, they are $60 tournaments that cost $100 to enter.