This Week in Vegas: A Leap of Faith

This week in Sin City, there are big guarantee multi-table tournaments, mixed games at the Bellagio, and the kind of low buy-in value that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. 

Over the next seven days, you can play No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and many other variants of the game we all love.

From the final days of the Mixed Game Festival XV at Bellagio to the Super High Roller Bowl and the start of Poker Masters inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA, big games are everywhere over the next seven days, where we also take a huge leap with our off-the-felt recommendation.

Let’s head past the infamous Welcome to Las Vegas sign and hit the tables.

Playing the Board: Falling for the Fall Classic

This week, I can’t help but recommend a trip down to the Wynn Fall Classic at the Wynn Las Vegas. The series has already been a success, with some big winners, but there won’t be many more huge top prizes than the one on offer in their latest event.

Costing $600 to play, Event #17 carries an eye-watering $300,000 guarantee, and with 52 tables in one of the biggest poker rooms in the city, there should be some atmosphere in the room. Flights run Thursday at 11am, then Friday and Saturday at both 11am and 6pm, before Day 2 on Sunday at 1pm.

Taking your shot in an event is always a risk, but if you’ve had a winning start to October, putting down $600 or qualifying in a satellite to play an event worth a big five-figure score up top could be great timing. I’ve always believed that if you’re playing well, then hunting for value in a bigger event makes the most sense. And if you miss this one, the Fall Classic steps up again next Thursday with an $800 event carrying a $400,000 guarantee. Good luck at the felt.

Around the Rooms: Mixed Game Value and Venetian Glamor

The Mixed Game Festival XV continues at Bellagio on Thursday and Friday (October 8 and 9), and the cardroom has been very busy so far. The $300 T.O.R.S.E. event was won by Joseph Hallock, who took home $2,534 after an ICM chop with runner-up Tony Porcheron, who won $2,228. They even awarded a $1,100 seat in the Bellagio Fall Classic Main Event to Las Vegas local Patrick Moulder after a random draw.

That Main Event runs this week, with a $100,000 guarantee and flights on Thursday, Friday, and twice on Saturday, which makes it a genuine alternative to the Wynn if you would rather stay at the Bellagio.

This week saw the conclusion of the PGT PLO Series in the PokerGO Studio at ARIA on the Strip. Eight events produced just six winners, with Sam Soverel and Jonas Kronwitter each taking two. 

The Austrian, not the American, celebrated the overall leaderboard win after Kronwitter’s triumph in the $15,700-entry Event #7, while the $26,000 Championship that closed the series went to Cesar Garcia for $420,000. 

The studio doesn’t get a night off: Super High Roller Bowl XI ($103,000) runs tonight, two $26,000 Super High Roller Series events follow on Friday at 10pm and Saturday at 7pm, and Poker Masters gets underway on Monday with $10,500 events at 7pm.

At The Venetian, the DeepStack Showdown series is ongoing until October 27. This week’s best event looks to be the $250-entry No Limit Hold’em tournament with a $100,000 guarantee, running six flights from Friday to Sunday at 11:10am and 5:10pm before Day 2 on Monday. 

For comparison, Jon Orlando’s victory in the $200-entry, $ 10,000-guarantee NLHE Bounty event saw him win a $2,203 top prize, so expect much more on offer given my suggested event has a six-figure guarantee.

South Point has awarded some big prizes too this week, including $1,245 up top for Crazy Pineapple, which, given it’s a less common format among an older crowd during a busy week, is very impressive. The casino’s staff member even stood in for the camera-shy player to take the obligatory winner’s photo. That’s commitment. Maybe they could play the event for me and improve my ROI.

One to Swerve: Late Reg Beats Breakfast?

I love a gamble, but I also enjoy a warm croissant and a fresh cup of coffee with the sunrise. You’d think that in Vegas, both are possible, but not if you want to beat the rush in the NFL football promotion at The Orleans. I’m not bashing The Orleans. 

I think it’s a terrific venue, and the fact it paid out over $50,000 in promotions in the last week alone – including in the Football Mystery Hot Seat promotion – is taking it to the end zone. 

I just don’t understand what benefit there is to their promotion starting from 6am. Maybe it’s because some games will kick off at 9am on the East Coast, but The Orleans should start promotions from 10am at the earliest. An early start to promotions can force all-nighters to play longer and feels slightly fair to anyone religious who doesn’t want to miss out but still considers Sunday a day of rest. 

The Orleans is a classic venue, and I totally understand why, in this day and age of casinos closing for a variety of reasons, they’d want to stay open as long as possible.

But playing poker while we can still taste toothpaste because the promotion starts then? It just doesn’t feel right. 

Off the Felt: The Evel Knievel Experience

If you’ve spent all week watching your fellow players at the felt risk their bankrolls, why not up the stakes and go see someone risk a lot more on two wheels… or maybe none! 

Lasting around 90 minutes, The Evel Knievel Experience is in the Las Vegas Arts District and centers on the career of one of America’s most famous daredevils, combining memorabilia with interactive experiences that put visitors right into Knievel’s world. His career produced some of the most famous stunts ever caught on film and will make playing king-queen offsuit out of position look easy.

Standard tickets cost $35, with reductions for military, seniors, locals, and kids aged 6 to 12; there’s also a virtual-reality jump experience for an additional $15 on top of admission, which I recommend. It’s open daily from 10am to 5pm at 1001 S 1st Street, so make it a morning before the cards come out rather than a post-session wind-down. 

Knievel made a living out of knowing exactly what he was capable of and then pushing the limits of that knowledge as far as he could. Consider it inspiration to push the limits and take your shot.

Just don’t take the VR jump as encouragement to start four-betting with seven-deuce.

With big guarantees on the horizon, this week sees a real chance for you to win big if you play your cards right. Wherever you find the value, take a page out of Evel Knievel’s book this week in Las Vegas, and take a leap of faith.