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Planet Hollywood - Great low buy-in tournaments
I've posted before regarding a number of poker rooms and a separate trip report for the Aviation Club in Paris, France. I live in Vegas and recently visited the new Planet Hollywood (formerly Alladin) room. Wow...what an improvement. While the room still needs some minor upgrades (mostly plasma tv's), it is already spectacular, secluded enough to be quiet but not so secluded that you feel like you're playing in a vault (see Caesars' Palace). Also, the dealers were very competent and very friendly as was the management.
The primary reason for this post is to rave about the tournaments. If you want to a low buy-in ($50 to $150) tournament with a looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg structure, Caesars' morning/early afternoon tournament is for you. However, if you don't have 7 to 8 hours to win a tournament, but don't want an absolute all-in fest after the first hour as is the norm with most low buy-in tournaments, then the $60 tournaments at Planet Hollywood are for you.
I used to advocate the Sahara tournaments, but the Planet Hollywood has a similar structure, a nicer environment and, for my taste, a better location on the Strip. The $4,000 starting stack and good structure (tournament should be over in 3 to 3.5 hours) allows for some play but, as I said, you won't be there all day. I'm not going to profess that it doesn't become an all-in fest around the $1,000-$2,000 level, but you should get some play and, if you keep an average stack, even some opportunity for post-flop action after those levels.
As for my experience, the tourney I played had 44 runners with 6 places getting paid (1st was around 650 with 2nd at 450 and 6th around 125). I was crippled early when my AK ran into 55 after the flop on a board of KX5. That left me with around 1,200 chips at 300-600 blinds about an hour and a half into the tourney with 20 left. Fortunately, I picked up AJ on the next hand and doubled up and 33 on the hand after that to win a race and double up to around 5,000 when we broke down to 2 tables with an average stack of around 9,000.
My AK held up against AJ on an AXX board all-in post-flop and my QQ held up against TT all-in pre-flop and suddenly I was at the final table with around 20K (the average) and 2,000-4,000 blinds. The final table had 4 real short stacks, 4 huge stacks and 2(including me) average stacks. The shorts busted putting me 5th out of 6 as the money bubble burst and my TT lost an all-in pre-flop race to a big stack's AK to bust me in 6th just inside the money.
In the end, some well-timed aggression, a little rush of good cards, and winning one race put me in the money. My cards weren't great (AK twice, AQ once, QQ, TT, 33 and 66 (which I correctly folded pre-flop to multiple big raisers) were the only memorable ones in three hours), but I played well. Only other memorable hand was the first one of the tourney when I laid down 6-3 spades against a woman who bet $2,000 into a $400 pot on the first hand of tourney when the third spade fell on the river. There was no full-house possibility, but I didn't want to get crippled to what I assumed was a bigger flush with no read on her play. Final remarks: great room and the best low-level, fairly structured tourney in Vegas right now.
Nice to hear LocalPlayer, you should copy/paste this report on this thread too as it would be of help
viewtopic.php?t=1545
As I have stated and asked for opinions in other posts, I was once decided on the Sahara tournament. Then PH opened and I have been hearing good things about them.
I am still on the fence but it is starting to lean towards PH. The low number of runners cuts down on the donkeys but also cuts into the prizes. The large field at Sahara makes for a large payday and increased Watching-Poker-On-TV pros going all in everyhand making it feel like an internet game.
If I could only decide. Maybe I should flip a coin?
If you have time, why not try both? Seems like both of these tournies have been getting a lot of praise around here lately and judging by their chip counts/levels they certainly are the best bet imo. Seems like more locals at the Sahara if you weigh that into consideration... good? bad? Well more players anyhow, better pay off if you go all the way.
Last year I played exclusively the Sahara tournaments. I will definitely try PH this July, but I'm just wondering if these are freezeouts, rebuys, add-ons, etc.?
Jooky,
Just got back, and agree with LocalPlayer that PH is a lot of fun. I'll do a trip report when I get time...
Here's a little story in the mean time...
PH tourney is open to alternates until the first break at 1 hour (3 levels at 20 mins each, 25-50 50-100 100-200). So, if you bust out before the break and there is no-one waiting for a spot, you can get right back in. No other rebuys, addons or anything. BTW, this is exactly how my friendly typical home game is structured.
In the Monday 10am, we had legend of the silver screen Terrie Snell (the Aunt from Home Alone and current agent/scout/talent managery-type) at the table. Before play started, super-dealer Junior spotted her as an actress but couldn't remember from what. With a little coaxing she told us who she was, and admitted that she was as green as the felt.
Junior was very patient with her, and when she busted out after about 15 mins, someone sniffed the dead-money and suggested she get right back in. Junior hinted that she had lots of time to decide since there was no-one waiting, and that she could learn a bit by watching the button go around a few times. She ordered a cranberry juice and just chilled out and watched for about 30 mins, then bought back in.
She made it to the break, but not much further, but she did have a good time.
The deep stack, slow blinds, no antes, no auto-shufflers mean you can play pretty tight, make it to the break , and then start squeezing the thinned-out field. You will have seen lots of crap, had a few laughs and played for well over an hour before the nutbags start to be a major risk to you finishing in the money.
Thanks for posting the details. This tourney alone will make me check out their room soon.
I'm headed to LV on Thursday for a long weekend, because of the posts here I am definitely going to check out the PH tourney's, I'm also planning on playing a couple at the Sahara, so I will post my comparisons when I return.
Not sure how I feel about the 20 minute levels, but other than that it sounds good.
@Jooky
Your not going to find anything longer in a low buyin tournament in Vegas
Psand is correct. There are no "good" tournaments for under $100 in Vegas. Some are better then others, but in general, for a tourney with 30min levels or longer, you would need to pay at least 150-200 or more.
Caesars has some that are close to $100-150 with 40 min levels, but the antes start earlier as well as the levels increase greatly at 3rd.