Dos and Don'ts in Vegas

Do fly direct. It may cost more, but you’ll feel much better for it when you arrive. Think about it. If you get one of those cheapo flights you’ll end up in any-destination-USA and then have to wait around for maybe two or three hours for a domestic flight on some rickety old plane to Vegas.

Once my connection was from JFK in New York. After having gone through immigration there I then had to wait for over four hours for my Delta flight to Lost Wages. Now bear in mind that the flight from New York to Vegas is almost as long as the flight from London to New York. The whole trip ended up taking about 20 hours. By the time I had checked into Binion’s Horseshoe I was absolutely exhausted, but of course I had to get into action immediately. Naturally you can imagine the consequences. Which brings me to my next tip.

Don’t get into the biggest game you can find as soon as you arrive, there’s plenty of time during the rest of your trip to get stuck into big cash action. But hey, you didn’t come to Vegas to go to sleep which is probably what you need the most after a long day of travelling.

So the best thing to do is find some game that is smaller stakes than you usually play just so you can get that need for action out of your system. With any luck you’ll crush the game anyway and get your trip off to a good start. If you lose (which is the most likely scenario when you are completely knackered) it shouldn’t be too much damage to the bankroll and at least you’ve let off steam and got yourself acclimatised.

Do take as much money as possible. In fact, think about trebling the amount you are considering taking over. And then double that. The truth is you can never have dough in Las Vegas. Even a million dollars isn’t much in that town. If you’re reading this and planning your trip to the WSOP I imagine you are probably going to play in quite a few WSOP events and other tournaments around town.

As I’m sure you already know even the best players are not guaranteed to win so it’s highly likely that you’ll find yourself behind the eightball from the start of your trip. After whiffing and bubbling in about 5 or 6 tourneys in a row not only is it easy to feel disheartened, but it’s very easy to feel the pressure to get some of that lost cash back.

Obviously the more readies you have out there the easier it is to withstand the variance of tournaments and poker in general. I can remember trips over there where I have lost every single day; it’s pretty depressing knowing that $1k in your pocket is in fact your case thousand.

Do declare any amount, whether it’s in cash or traveler’s cheques (any negotiable instruments is the term they use I think), that is over $10k as you go through customs. This applies for when you leave as well.

I can think of at least two players who couldn’t be bothered and ended up having all their cash confiscated. They then had to go through a very long-winded bureaucratic process, lasting weeks sometimes, to get their money back which meant of course they had to go on the borrow in Vegas.

Don’t stay at the Gold Coast or the Palms. My reason for this is not because they are both bad hotels (in fact they are both fine establishments) but you may feel tempted because both places are next door to the Rio.

Next door in Vegas, however, means a twenty-five minute walk from casino to casino. During June and July the average temperatures in town range between 37 and 41 degrees Celsius. Couple that with the pollution from all the cars and the crap being pumped out from the vents of the hotels and casinos the atmosphere outside is quite uncomfortable. Don’t forget, you’re in the desert out there – sweltering, I believe, is the best word to describe the heat.

If you’re walking from the Gold Coast this also means walking through their car park which may be one of the most unpleasant places in the USA. By the time you get to the Rio you are probably suffering from mild heat stroke and then all of a sudden your body has to adjust to the arctic air conditioning inside the casino. Which brings me to my next tip.

Do wear warm clothes, especially if you’re playing a lot in the Rio. As I said above the air conditioning is basically set at about minus 100 degrees in every casino in town and it’s even colder in the Amazon Room at the Rio where all the WSOP events take place. Essentially this is a huge room about the size of an aircraft hangar, so you can imagine it gets pretty cold in there.

The merchandising stands at the WSOP in the last few years probably made several thousand dollars extra from players buying sweatshirts and jackets to keep themselves warm.

Do play the $525 single-table satellites at the Rio. These are by far the best value satellites to enter. At the level below ($325) the juice is the same ($25) and you get less chips, so you’re paying more for extra variance.

The $525 single-tables are also better value than the $550 mega-satellites which they run daily. As you can see the vig on these is $50, but they also withhold 3% from the total of the buy-ins for the staff. Also they take up a lot of your time (presuming you go deep) whereas the $525 single-tables take around two hours at the most which means you can squeeze in four or more in a day if you wish. For this same reason you don’t want to bother playing the $1k single-tables (sorry, I can’t remember the juice on these, maybe $60? ) – these not only take ages to fill up, but also take about four hours or more to finish.

Do go to the Gambler’s Bookshop (630 S 11th Street, get a cab. Telephone: 702-382-7555). This is probably the best bookshop in the world. The staff are super friendly and helpful and if like me you end up buying so many books that you need another suitcase you can get them to send the books to your home address.

Do go to Ping Pang Pong at the Gold Coast. No guide to Las Vegas is complete without a restaurant recommendation and my tip is this excellent off-the-radar Chinese restaurant. This is not some fancy expensive joint like Nobu, so don’t worry, it won’t eat into the bankroll. Favoured by the Las Vegas Chinese community and locals in the know this is a must if you like Chinese food.

This next hint was provided by Irish Open Champ Neil “Bad Beat” Channing and I’d like to thank him for general assistance with this article. When you’re catching a cab from the Rio to the Bellagio do make sure you tell the driver to drop you at the North entrance. This saves you loads of time as you avoid the congested main entrance and you’re right by the card room when you enter the “B”.

Conversely, if you’re going to Rio make sure you tell the driver to take you to the Pavillion entrance. Most cabbies know this is where the WSOP is held so these days you can also say the WSOP and they should know what you are talking about.

Don’t forget if you are staying in any Harrah’s property (this includes Caesars, Imperial Palace, Paris, the Rio and the Flamingo) and are playing in any WSOP event you can ask for the poker rate at the hotel.

Finally, try and win your seat in the WSOP here.