This Week in Vegas: Bring the Battle to Sin City

The gambling capital of the world has plenty to offer poker players this week, and I’ve scouted out the best seats in Sin City. From The Bellagio to the Wynn, winning big is the name of the game and this week is all about maximizing your win rate, with daily events offering possible overlay for big series. 

From DeepStack Extravaganza events at the Venetian to a new NFL promo at the Golden Nugget, there’s plenty to play and one to swerve in my weekly round-up of where to go in Las Vegas this week to play poker. There is also a reason to leave the poker tables altogether this week, with knights, horses, and medieval combat waiting at Excalibur.

Let’s see some flops.

Playing the Board: Can You Win Big at The Venetian?

For anyone already planning a ‘weekend warrior’ visit to Vegas this week, one event stands out and it’s impossible to turn down, value-wise. The $800-entry No Limit Hold’em DeepStack Extravaganza Event #31 starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday, carrying a $150,000 guarantee. 

Day 1 flights begin at 11:10am on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with Day 2 on Sunday, while the wider series continues through September 27 and is sure to offer value.

If $800 is out of your bankroll, then the provision has been made for you. I’m very pleased to say that the more micro live players haven’t been forgotten by organizers, with $200 bounty tournaments at 5:10pm most evenings, $100 satellites into the $800 on Thursday and Friday at 3:10pm, and a $400-entry NLHE event with a $75,000 guarantee beginning on Monday.

As a good guide, last week’s DSE event was $600 to play and took place in NLHE. With a $125,000 guarantee, the prize pool reached $125,745, paid 32 places from 249 total entries and with a min-cash of $1,224, anyone who reached the final table was guaranteed to win $2,703 in ninth place. The top prize? A whopping $26,723, some return on a single $600 buy-in if you took part. 

Here are the rooms worth considering for your greenbacks this week.

Around the Rooms: Wynn on the Rise 

At the Wynn Las Vegas, preparations are going on in the background for The Wynn Fall Classic. The series, which runs for four weeks from September 28, will be the subject of one of our future columns for sure as I break down how to get the best value out of the 2026 schedule, but I wouldn’t put you off playing in their $160-entry nightly NLHE events this week. 

Last week’s nightlies only just covered their $10,000 guarantees, so there’s an outside possibility of overlay, and as last week’s winners Michal Nahum (above left) and Gladys Landegger (above right) will testify, the top prize was between $3,200 and $4,000. A great night’s work if you can get down there. 

After last week’s $50,000 guaranteed NLHE multi-day tournament and the $25,000 guaranteed H.O.R.S.E. tournament the week before, the Bellagio is back to hosting regular events, and this week re-introduced Ladies Night! Taking place on Thursday 17^th (tonight), there’s low-stakes NLHE on offer ($1/$3), and Bellagio promises “food, drinks and swag!” from 6pm to 9pm. 

There’s another good reason to acquaint yourself with the cardroom and the clientele, which I’ll come to in the next week or so here, so get familiar with the felt as you’ll soon have a reason to ‘mix it up’ with intent at The Bellagio… and that’s the only clue you’re getting.

Our photo of the week from any poker room is from South Point. How can you not be charmed by Jon and Gary (above) celebrating chopping the title in the Pineapple event for $1,000 each? The Orleans continues to do what it might just do best – cater to its audience, keep up engagement, and provide the people what they want on a nightly basis. 

Last week’s Saturday $15,000 guaranteed NLHE only just made that guarantee, so if you whiff at the Wynn or strike out at South Point, then pitching up at The Orleans might not be a bad idea. The field is almost certainly softer than at the Wynn or The Venetian this week, so if you bust out of a big one, The Orleans might well be your saver. 

Finally, while the Golden Nugget continues to prioritize cash games, we can get on board with their Football Squares promotion. With the return of the NFL, Americans who are fond of a gamble mid-game, or a sweat while they watch the game, should certainly indulge in the Game Day Promo running at Golden Nugget Las Vegas. There are between $2,000 and $5,000 up for grabs, so if your team doesn’t reach the end zone on the field, at least you might. 

One to Swerve: No News is Bad News 

While I’m a fan of all the classic venues in Las Vegas, if they don’t get in front of players in the here and now, they can quickly go the way of oh-so-many casinos that are no more. Of course, massive guarantees and big multi-table tournaments are a terrific way of attracting that action, but you don’t need to rely on it. 

As shown by South Point and, to a lesser extent, The Orleans, keeping in touch with your customer base is everything. To that end, whoever has fallen asleep at the social media wheel for Caesars Palace needs to wake up and smell the action. The last time that Caesars Palace advertised their poker room on September 1, they said only this: 

“Game on 2/5 NLH just kicked off – $200 to $1,000 buy-in. Come get into the action!!”

To say that sentence is disconcertingly vague is a bit like saying The Rock likes lifting weights. Following up on the fervor of the Chainsaw Mixed Series of Poker was an absolute must for player retention, and I hate to say it, but someone needs to advertise what happens on a daily basis at Caesars with the kind of enthusiasm Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler displayed throughout that series. 

Otherwise, all the hard work in that event might be for nothing. 

Off the Felt: Tournament of Kings

Image source excalibur.mgmresorts.com

If you’ve spent all day playing poker, sometimes the last thing you want is another casino, so if this is you, why not head to Excalibur for something completely different? The Tournament of Kings is a live show performed by mounted knights and adapted from the tale of King Arthur. 

OK, it might be more like that infamous scene from the Jim Carrey movie The Cable Guy, but it’s still a hilarious night out. From around $70, the live-action production seats 900 and guarantees the crowd an immersive experience of “valor and treachery”, a.k.a. special effects and fireworks, while they wolf down roast chicken with their hands. Sounds great to me. Shows run at 6pm and 8:30pm Wednesday through Monday. Maybe the horses like Taco Tuesdays elsewhere. 

Stay hungry, stop c-betting with jack-ten if you don’t hit, and I’ll return in seven days with the latest poker to play in Las Vegas.