Best midweek Poker Tournaments

Because I have nothing better to do, I have charted out the possible tournaments on the Tuesday I'll be there. The Wynn and Venetian are out due to hosting their own major tournaments. The MGM Grand tournaments look insane (you can buy-in twice for double the chips, double buy-in again if knocked out, plus $100 50k add-on at break). Mandalay Bay's tournament structure is also terrible, but I may pop in to play some 1/3NL between sessions later in the week.

Aria will be hosting the US Poker Open, so I'm not sure how that will affect the number of runners--and I doubt anyone playing in the $15k or $26k buy-in tournaments would stoop to playing in a $200 tournament if they get knocked out. Again, 1pm might be a little too early for me, so I'm actually leaning towards Caesar's 2pm or 5pm tournament.

As an aside, I imagine the $26k Aria tournament will probably attract some of the big names, right? If so, I might go take a peek.

I just got home from Vegas and had some success in daily tourneys. The Caesars Palace tourneys are always fun, although you got be prepared for the structure changing rapidly after the break. The good thing is you can take a $50 addon after level 6 for 15,000 extra chips, which helps a lot to combat the escalating blinds. But you need to be super patient about playing sub-10 bb stacks at Final Table and not jam too wide if any of the OMC-nits sneeze at the pot.

The first 6 levels actually have no ante which makes them very 'risk free' to play, especially as the field is pretty terrible and most are afraid to put their money in without a monster. Although you can also run into people just limping in with hands like JJ or AK etc.

MGM Grand will likely get the smallest field; on a random weekday I will be surprised to see it get 20+ entries. That said, there is a lot of value in buying in late, and take the available addons. If you wait to buy-in until the latest second you can start with 75k at 1000-3000-3000, and the field is god dang awful. The players you find in an MGM Grand tourney are the ones I wish we saw more at the cash game tables.

That said, with only 15 minutes blinds and people in the field having hardly played poker before, they are unsure about every basic decisions and takes unncessary time each hand. So you need to get lucky with the card distribution.

Horseshoe tournaments are only 15 minute levels as well, but have very fishy competition as well. I think it's a bit more value than MGM Grand as it gets a slightly bigger field and you might get to see a few more hands per level.

If you have time and money to take an Uber, I strongly suggest that you make the trek out to South Point to play their $120 tourney at 10am (10:10am to be precise). It basically always get 100+ runners and there are very few serious players in the field. Lots of weird/tight OMC locals that randomly self-combust once they get tired of folding, or they just blind themselves down to oblivion.

The structure is obviously a bit crapshoot towards the end, but it has 20 minute levels (just like Caesars) so you have a bit more play for a while if you can build early. And should you make the final table you can actually play for some meaningful amounts (there was over $4k on top in the one I played one week ago, although that was on a Sunday).

Thank you for this detailed write-up! As I mentioned up-thread, I'm going to Vegas for a convention, and I don't think my company (who's footing the bill) would appreciate me skipping out on sessions to play poker. I pretty much only have time to play one tournament (most likely Casear's) and maybe a cash game or two (probably Horseshoe) and be in bed by 1am so I'm not a zombie during the day. Two of my three evenings there are already booked with company-sponsored concerts (Chainsmokers at Hakkasan and Weezer at Allegiant Stadium).

I'm flying into Vegas on Saturday, June 27, for my annual WSOP trip and was looking for a daily to potentially play during a fairly tight window. Plane is scheduled to land at 10:49 a.m. and I have tickets to see Seinfeld at the Colosseum at 8 p.m. that night. Is the South Point NLHE that day beginning at 10:10 a.m. one where I can hop in at 11:30 a.m. and have a decent amount of play, yet ends well before 8 p.m., you think?

Should be fine. I played it Sunday two weeks ago, and even with 226 players and me finishing 3rd I was done around 6pm or so.

Might be even more people during WSOP-times though, and I know from reading your book (2016?) that you are capable of some deep runs 😀

Were you able to Zoox it all the way out there?

you will be fine

most of the time late in these things people want to chop anyway

Even a blind squirrel like me finds a nut now and then.