Wow, it's finally almost here -- start of the unofficial blogger weekend in Vega$, part one. The Good Doctor Mondo and I take off around 4pm tomorrow, and should be checking into the MGM around 6pm. If'n yer in the area, you may find me at a 1/2 table. Or 4/8L, haven't decided yet.
Anyway, I've been tossing around various options for the trip in my head, and I'd love to hear suggestions tonight, if anyone's around.
My original plan (and my desire), has been to play two tournaments during this trip. The WSOP is out, because I'm not rolled for it, and I don't plan on those two tournaments to be satellites.
I originally was going to allow myself to play two tourneys, a $180 daily at Venetian (8pm), and a $150 at Caesar's (7pm). Both are reasonable tournament values, though neither is deep-stacked.
I then saw that Friday's Casear Megastack event is a $310+30 (for 12.5k chips and 50 minute rounds), and my first instinct is to jump all over it. True deep stack poker, imho, especially for those of us who aren't on the circuit. But the buy-in probably precludes me from playing a 2nd tourney (assuming, arguendo, I don't cash).
On the one hand, I really want to play two tournaments. On the other, I have been running pretty badly lately, though I think that started turning around last night, when I won a $75 token frenzy (only to donk off the token later), final tabled a Limit O8 (for a smallish cash, because there were only about 110 runners), and cashed in the Bodog $5k guarantee (but again, not a very deep run).
My point being, I'd been running terribly, but think I'm slowly starting to come out the other end, even if I'm still losing out to a few runner runner perfect perfect catches. Aside from last night's Bodonkey, where I was already mathematically out of the Top 18, so was just donking for a chance at a bounty, I think I've played very well the last couple of days. I know I only played "okay to half decent" on Sunday, but I've played about 22 tournaments since, and feel better about my game, if not my suckout-avoidance abilities.
I very rarely make it to Vega$, and I desperately want to play a true deep stack good-sized field event, and the Mega Stack series fits the bill. The Venetian Deep Stack is definitely out for me, as the buyins during my days there ar $540 and $1060, and I'm definitely not rolled for that, unless I have a miraculous 4-5 buyin night to the good in my first MGM Grand session, which is more than unlikely, I'm sure.
One thing to consider is, the Good Doctor Mondo and I need to average 4/hr a day cash play at the MGM to keep our poker rate, and I was planning on playing 1/2NL instead of my normal 4/8, 4/8 with half-kill, or 5/10 limit, and I need to be prepared to potentially lose a buyin or two.
So my question to you guys is, what do you do? Do you suck it up and only play one tourney and make it the Caesar's Mega Stack series? Or do you skip the Mega and play a couple of $150 type tourneys? Or do you maybe play the Mega stack and them some bullshit $60 tourney elsewhere? (My last Vega$ trip, I took down a Sahara $62 daily, and never felt less skilled than those at my table.)
I'm looking for suggestions, though my present inclination is to play the Friday noon Caesar's, and a Sunday at Sahara.
To those of you going out this weekend, I hope to run in to some of you, and that you run hot like the wind. To those of you going next weekend, pffffffbbbbt...we'll have to wait until the Winter WPBT to sling chips. Stay awesome.
4 comments:
i've read a few places that the Caesars Megastack is actually a pretty fast structure once the antes kick in. Venetian runs single table sng sats into the $540. i think it was $125 and 2 players win seats but, it's been a while. give them a call or stop by to find out for sure. their nightly tournaments are decently structured for the prize and i honestly luv the fact that their tournament tables have auto-shufflers. this gets you a lot more hands each level. so, i'd suggest one sng sat and one nightly at Venetian. i'll probably do the same the following weekend. GL
I hate the Venetian SNG structure though. It felt *incredibly* fast, with 6 players still left in the one that I played in Feb, the average M was about 6-7.
I love the Venetian Deep Stack Structures though, so if you're feeling like your turbo SNG play is good, go for it.
Otherwise, my friends have been hitting the Venetian 8pm or the Caesars Mega.
Smokkee makes a good point about the auto-shufflers though, which gives the Venetian the edge. Oh, and did I mention that the Venetian is my fave room?
See you soon!
I should have mentioned that my turbo SNG play is not my strong suit, and that when I only get two tourneys max, I don't want one of them to be a 1-table satellite.
I, too, have been reading comparisons of the Venetian DS versus Ceasar's MS, and while the auto-shufflers are a big deal, the MS levels are 10 minutes longer, and their first $330 event a couple days ago drew 498 runners -- it seems the Ceasar's fields are running larger than anticipated.
Hmmmm...guess I probably won't truly decide until I arrive, but I'm leaning pretty heavily towards the noon Ceasar's Mega Stack on Friday.
Anyway, $mokkee, wish you were there this week, and CK, hope to see ya! I'm sure I'll be mixing it up at MGM tonight.
CK is correct about the Venetian sng structure. but, it's pretty much the same with any live sng sat you're gonna play.
in the WSOP single table sat i played last yr, none of us had over 4 BB's when we got 3-handed and after a bunch of monkey shoving we just decided to chop it. i've played a lot of turbo sng's so i'm pretty comfortable with it. plus i'd rather not spend a bunch of time trying to win a sat anyway. cash games is where the $$$$ is.
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