Spent 3 days in mid Oct in Vegas after doing much research on this site.

First off, a big thank you to allvegaspoker.com for the "poker room rates" tab. After phoning a few rooms, we settled on the Stardust who's poker room manager was very nice and easy to deal with. I booked four rooms at ultra-cheap rates and saved all the boys some money!

Started off playing the $500 freezeout at the Wynn on the Friday afternoon. What a great experience this was. Beautiful poker room, very friendly staff, unbelievable servers, top notch chips, tables, seats etc, and probably the best tournament structure offered in Vegas right now. 3000 in starting chips and 45 min levels allows for "real poker" to be played, and I thouroughly enjoyed myself. With automatic shufflers, the levels are more like 50 min+ when compared to standard shuffling. The competition was very good, with a few pros in attendance. Definitely not allot of fishy players at this buy-in level. I ended up in fourth place after getting very lucky on a hand at the final table when I was all in with 10,10 against K,K and rivered a third 10! Top reviews for this venue and specific tournament - if you are considering bucking up for a big tourney, this is the one.

The next tourney I played in was the Daily one at the Sahara. Obviously a big step down from the plush niceties of the Wynn, but for the money, also a very decent tourney. Doing the one allowed re-buy right away allows you to start with 3500 in chips, and the levels are fair. MANY fishy players at this tourney! I was actually surprised at how many first or second timers there were here for a Vegas tournament. There were allot of plays made that a few of us look at each other and just shook our heads at - not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but just be prepared for it. Staff here were also very acccomodating and server was always working hard. A couple guys in my group had decent final table appearances over the two or three times we played here. I certainly highly recommend this tourney over other cheap ones that are clearly designed to get you in the door, bust you out as soon as possible and get you playing cash games.

We decided to try the Sunday night Plaza tourney since we were going to be downtown anyway. This was a HUGE disapointment for all of us. I do not recommend even setting foot in this casino. I phoned for details in the morning and was told there were 30 min levels. This proved to be false (20 min). After arriving with about 10 mins to spare we were almost rudely told, "I have no more room, I only set up for 4 tables". What? You show up at a Vegas casino with roughly 15 - 20 poker tables and they want to cap a poker tourney at 4 tables? Eventually after others showed up, he agreed to allow one more table. I almost wish he didn't. Brutal open-air "poker room" with craps players yelling at the top of their lungs about 10 feet away, dealers were sub-par, and the blind structure was super aggresive. At one point the manager actually yelled at a dealer on break and made degrading comments to him. None of us really did that well in this one, and we all promptly left with a bad taste in our mouths. NOT RECOMMENDED!

Lastly, we played quite a bit in the Stardust's poker room. A very plain room, but the staff really made up for any shortcomings. Pete, the manager, was every bit as friendly as when we talked on the phone, and many of the older dealers were very, very funny. Certainly a relaxed atmosphere here, which was nice to come back to. The servers, though not of a big name hotel calibre in the looks department, were always coming back and did a great overall job. A few fishy players, which can be expected, but just a nice room to play in overall. At the discounted room rate, I certainly recommmend staying/playing here - especially if you are on a budget. You're still on the strip with the Wynn across the street and the cheap Sahara tourneys just a 10 - 15 min walk up the road.

One last thing of note is that it is certainly worth checking out the Bellagio's room if you are a hard core poker player (which if you are still reading this, you must be). Extremely nice, and ultra busy room, where you might see some "name" players. We spotted TJ Cloutier, Jen Harmon, Phil Hellmuth, and the player of all players ... Doyle himself!

Again, many Kudos to this site. It certainly contributed a great deal to my trip, and I felt compelled to hopefully add some worth while commentary for future visitors. Good Luck!