Going to Vegas. How much $ should I take?

[warrantofice]

Better to set aside money though. Kinda like if you were playing on a poker site and basically played off the credit of your credit card. After a few to many brew pops, things get hazy till the morning

[mxp2004]

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You guys heard of ATM machines?

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ATMs are not really good options in the casinos. Although I didn't actually use any, I read the signs on a few of them out of curiousity. There were huge transaction costs associated with them . . . costs that went beyond the usual small service fee associated with using an ATM from a bank other than your own. In particular, most of the machines that I saw charged a percentage of the money withdrawn on top of other service fees. I think that you are far better off bringing cash as opposed to relying upon a machine.

As for a decent stake for 1/2 NL in Vegas over 4 days... I would suggest $2,000. I played 11 sessions over 6 days, and although I ended up overall, there was a lot of variance. Particularly in the evening sessions, I found plenty of players willing to put their whole stacks in against me on a draw. I lost a good number of all-in confrontations with big hands against flush and OESDs. Even in some of my biggest winning sessions, I had to pony up another half-buyin or more to make up for a beat and keep sufficient money on the table.

I think that if you start with only $1,000 and hit a rough patch early on, you'll be tempted to play overly tight (and perhaps weak?) to protect your remaining roll and make sure it lasts for your whole trip. That's not a good way to play against the competition that I saw in Vegas.

[SNOWBALL]

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If losing $1,000 would bother you, bring what you can afford maybe mix in some limit. Easier to control variance that way.

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have you PLAYED limit?

[PorkchopDJG]

You need to also factor a little in for food, taxis etc... as things are getting pretty expensive out there.
I would bring at least 2 Grand
You don't want to run out of money or use those crappy ATM's with the bad fees.

[Jeffage]

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Although I didn't actually use any, I read the signs on a few of them out of curiousity. There were huge transaction costs associated with them . . . costs that went beyond the usual small service fee associated with using an ATM from a bank other than your own. In particular, most of the machines that I saw charged a percentage of the money withdrawn on top of other service fees.

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Those signs and percentage fees are for cash advances, not regular ATM withdrawals.

Jeff

[dave88]

All of it!

[sapol]

Well....thanks everyone for the advice....

I decided to take something between 1000 and 1500 plus money for food and stuff.
I might buy in short if I drop some buyins but hopefully I won't.

[pig4bill]

Don't forget lapdance money.

[JoshM]

I played similiar limits on a similiar trip so here it is:
I went to san diego for 4 days, took 1k cash for poker, played 8-16/kill and was sent packing to the ATM on the morning of the second day. It took some soul searching for me to reload, hit the table again and make it all back plus some, knowing the whole time i could easily have lost it again. I didn't ever plan that ATM trip, but i knew my financial status could afford losing 2k, which is the only reason i played moderately well on the reload.
On the 4th day i moved to $1/$2 NL for a change of pace, and felt like i was playing with little desperate kiddies crying about $4 here and there. (the money came easier there).

My suggestion is don't play limits where you are praying for an early lucky streak, it's not a good way to improve your long term goals.

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Don't forget lapdance money.

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if thats a priority, then play poker in san diego and hit TiJuana for your lapdances+, definately higher expectation!

josh

[bav]

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You guys heard of ATM machines?

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ATMs are not really good options in the casinos.

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Depends. They will charge you I think $4 for the transaction. But I have an ATM card that refunds up to $10/mo in ATM fees, so I could do two visits and it wouldn't cost me anything. But I also have a $300 cash advance limit ($500 on weekends, I think).

When I did Vegas vacations in the past to play small stakes I'd typically bring something like $1500 and if I lost half I'd reload at the ATM. When I came later aiming for bigger games I gave up on using the ATM and just brought a large pile. Last thing I'd ask the person at check-in was "where do I go to get a safe deposit box" and the majority of the roll would go into the box before I ever went up to the room.

Some people know they have no self control and will not bring ATM cards with them to Vegas. Good plan if you are that sort. I have a friend who did that when he came to visit around Christmas, and about 3 days in after getting stacked one evening at Tropicana (of all places) he disappeared for about 45 minutes after saying he'd be right back. Turns out he was at the cage working to get a cash advance of some sort (dunno what... credit card, check...not sure what he did). So much for not bringing the ATM card. His claim was "at least it's really expensive and inconvenient, so I won't do it often".