Vegas in the summer is kid-in-a-candy-store time for live MTT players. All the good players are there, but the tourists and wannabes vastly outnumber them. Whatever your bankroll and predilection, there’s at least one comp a day for you. With so much choice, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, which is why I’ve put pen to paper to offer you a few basic tips.
How To Choose?
What do we look for in a comp? Other things being equal, the bigger the prize pool and starting stack, the longer the levels, and smoother the change in cost per round, the better. We want to see lots of hands while we have enough chips to outplay our opponents. On the other hand, time is money, so all comps should be turbos! I used to think that a comp with a 100,000 starting stack, 90-minute levels and every extra level under the sun was the nuts - now it sounds like a bad day/week in hell.
The Contenders
The WSOP is the WSOP ffs! Versus the others it has much bigger fields, and so bigger paydays (that you get less often). Also, the starting stacks are shallower (no hands and you’re probably gone in a few hours!) but later on the structure is smoother and so you get more intricate post-flop play when it gets to the deep end. The WSOP is also the only one with bling potential, which matters a lot to some and not a jot to others. Two years back, they changed the starting stacks at the Series so that players received triple the dollar value of the buy-in. For example, $1,500 now equates to 4,500 in chips. Rebuy events seem to be a thing of the past too.
The Venetian Deepstack and Caesar’s Palace Megastack are tournament series touted as giving you lots of bang for your buck. They attract 100 to 500 runners, are reasonably priced and you start with a large pile of chips. The Bellagio is a favourite haunt of UK players and has daily $1,000 or $2,000 comps throughout June, which historically attract 100-odd runners. From Jul 10 to 19, the Bellagio Cup is on and so the number of runners picks up. The June tournaments run at mid-afternoon so make for good second chance comps as other venues, such as WSOP, kick off at noon.
Digging Deeper
In my experience, Caesar’s and the WSOP have the weakest fields, but there’s not much in it - not enough to decide where to play. For the Vegas virgins amongst you, here’s my two cents’ worth:
The Venetian smells funny - too much perfume, and it’s cold. But the room is uber-comfortable and their Strawberry Julius is delicious.
The poker room at the Bellagio is a bit of a tight squeeze (the Bellagio Cup takes place in the more spacious Fontana Lounge, with a lovely view of the all-singing, all-dancing fountains), the floor staff are rude and there’s no electronic list (well, not the last time I checked) for cash games, which often means a long wait to miss your name being called.
However, the large(ish) buy-in coupled with smallish fields mean you’ve got a decent chance of getting a big score here. Plus, as the Bellagio is a home away from home for Brits-on-tour, if you’re lucky enough to get onto a final table you’re certain to have a familiar face practicing their nipping while railing you on.
Caesar’s has a separate tournament area in their cardroom, plus the Pussycat Dolls’ pit is nearby if you want to look at some tits while doing your dough on the break. Winners of Megastack events receive a non-transferable/non-refundable WSOP Main Event seat, which might put you off if you can’t play the Main Event for whatever reason. I can only assume that if you already have a seat they’ll give you the cash.
The WSOP at the Rio resembles a zoo-come-aircraft hangar, but watchagonnado? Us = Moths & Bracelet = Flame.
News Flash
We should be sufficiently rolled for all the comps we’re playing ($150,000 tournament bankroll anyone?) and thus not form an attachment to our tournament life because it was an expensive purchase (there might be other reasons…) If that’s the case, the WSOP becomes more attractive because if we bust out early without ever having a sniff, who cares? Those extra hours of folding time you get at the beginning of Venetian/Caesar’s comps don’t buy you anything. In the real world, not many people are properly rolled for tournaments, and hourly rate isn’t everything. If you want more ’guaranteed’ play for your money, fair enough. Just make an informed decision.
Alternatively, one of the structures might jump out as more suited to your style of play. A good MTT player should be able to adjust to any structure so I’d suggest trying all of them to see where you feel comfortable/run good.
A Cautionary Tale
You can’t play everything. If it’s not going well, burnout can become a problem. Take a break: cash games, lounging by the pool, shows, strippers - whatever floats your boat, Vegas is your oyster.
I went naught for twenty in tournaments there in 2008 and was happy with my play in most of them. Variance is a bitch, so try not to get too dispirited or pony up chunks of your bankroll for buy-ins.
Ante Pasti
Stack size and level length are good indicators of the type of tournament, but we need to know the structure to understand how a tournament is likely to play out, so be sure to download the tournament structure from the respective sites.
Online there are well established standard MTT structures, and the ante can stay a fixed percentage of the blinds. Live, there is less standardisation, but more importantly there’s the issue of chip denominations and rounding: unless you keep the small denominations in play forever, it’s an unavoidable problem. Or opportunity.
I’ve played some Megastack events in the past, and the structure was aesthetically unpleasing, but I’m not sure that makes it ‘bad’. The point of knowing the structure of a comp is not to moan that it should be better (although go ahead, preferably out of earshot of the competition) but to use the information to get an edge on our opponents. Facing this early structure the standard (good player) approach is to rock it up until the antes kick in and then go berserk and use our tight image to steal more, Or you can try and chip up before the antes kick in so you’re in a better position to bully when they do. That’s probably for another article, and is besides the point. The key here is that you notice unusual level changes which will enable you to change gears with better timing than your opponents.
It should go without saying but, hey ho, there are other factors that determine when you should be changing gears. Table composition and dynamics, your image, and the stage of the tournament (most people play snug early and on the bubble for instance) are all at least as important as the level on level changes. If you have just been caught bluffing twice in a row, it doesn’t matter if your ‘M’ has just halved, do not get involved on a move, etc.
Good luck and bon voyage. If you have any question regarding the comments made in this article, please feel free to post your questions in the comments’ box below.
WSOP Content:
Vegas 11: Operation Bracelet
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