I am going to Vegas in September for a few days and wondered about low-stakes no-limit hold-em poker tournaments. I have been playing NL Hold 'Em sit-n-go’s online (1 table, 45, 90 ppl) for a few months and have played with friends as well as $2/$4 Limit Hold 'Em at casino’s.
What can I expect for the lowest buy-in for NL hold 'em tournaments? Any recommendations for specific casinos? Am I crazy to think you can buy into a tournament for $10, $20, or $50?
I don’t know about on the strip, but two years or so ago I used to play NL Hold Em at Nevada Palace on Boulder Highway in the morning (like 10 a.m I think) for $20.
I’m in Vegas right now and it looks to me that the minimum for a no-limit tournament is $60 on the strip. I am looking to play tomorrow night (I’ve been working) and I hope it doesn’t go up.
P.S. I was able to go to the WSOP last night and it was a blast. I watched the ESPN table for a while and got tired of having to dodge the boom camera, so I went to another spot and saw Scotty Ngyuen and Tobey Mcguire playing. It was a fun time.
I think the tourneys are usually kinda spendy in Vegas. Last time I was there they had a $60 tourney at Binions. Kind of funny since most places still spread cheap live games (2/4, 3/6).
They are out there, Hooters casino for instance has one every day where I think the buy in is under 100, it starts at 10am, or so. I only saw maybe 20-30 people ever in it. It will suck, but I would just call every poker room and ask what tourneys they have, and when. I would imagine the smaller casinos/poker rooms are your best bet, since the bigger ones have no need to run tourneys where they only rake $5 per entrant
You shouldn’t expect to actually win money in any way - to run a tournament with such small stakes the house cut would have to be a pretty ridiculously high proportion of the prize pool, ensuring that everyone loses.