If you’re aiming to beat the post-Christmas blues and treat yourself to a cheeky poker holiday early this year, you can’t do much better than booking a trip to Las Vegas! First off, there’s the weather – an average of nine hours of sunshine a day in February and 10+ hours in March. Also by March temperatures are seriously warming up in Vegas and it’s almost time to whip out the swimming trunks and bikinis! Even if it’s not quite scorching, it’s certainly a great improvement on the weather in Northern Europe.
Visiting Las Vegas in late Winter/early Spring brings a host of other benefits too. It’s kind of the off-season in Las Vegas so shorter queues, easier ticket reservations and so on. Although to be honest, there is no real off-season in Vegas as there’s always so much going on and lots of poker! Nevertheless, below are just a few ideas to whet your appetite and get you planning your first fun poker trip of 2024.
Sports Events
There’s an exciting schedule of sports coming up in Las Vegas but the absolute highlight is the NFL Super Bowl LVIII, which is taking place February 11 at the Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders. Las Vegas is pretty pumped about hosting its first-ever Super Bowl, a contest being dubbed “the greatest sporting event in the greatest sporting arena.” Check out the official video here. The Raiders will hosted the Broncos in January and won!
For NHL fans, late winter/early Spring is also the ideal time to catch a Golden Knights ice hockey game at the T-Mobile Arena. Las Vegas’s home team are the reigning Stanley Cup champions and has more than 20 matches taking place from January 1 through to the season-ending on April 18.
NASCAR returns to Vegas the first weekend of March (March 1-3) with the Spring NASCAR Weekend at the Las Vegas Motorway Speedway. Events are widespread throughout the strip over the weekend but don’t miss the NASCAR Cup Series Hauler Parade on the Strip.
St Patrick’s Day – Sunday, March 17
Las Vegas LOVES St. Patrick's Day and you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a lively Irish pub in which to raise a pint of Guinness (or two) and celebrate. Some of the more famous venues are the Rí Rá pub at Mandalay Bay, O’Sheas at The Linq, or Nine Fine Irishmen at New York, New York – a bar that was completely built in Ireland before being disassembled, shipped to Vegas and then reassembled! St Patrick’s Day events include a Celtic Feis (pictured) on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, New York and the five-day Shamrock Fest (March 16-19) down Fremont Street.
Stars in Vegas
Early 2024 is also a great time to catch some legendary pop stars in action. In addition to U2 at The Sphere, Adele, Christina Aguilera and Kylie Minogue are all in town over the next few months. You might struggle to get Adele tickets but it’s still possible to book Christina or Kylie! The Wu-Tang Clan are also heading to Vegas for their first ever residency and will be performing “Wu-Tang Clan: The Saga Continues …” at Virgin Hotels with four dates on February 9/10 and March 22-23. Vegas is also world-renowned for spectacles such as the aquatic Cirque du Soleil extravaganza “O" and the quirky "Blue Man Group" (pictured) show – all easier to get into in late Winter and early Spring.
DJs and producers from around the world now call Las Vegas their part-time home with long-term residencies at some of the town’s top nightclubs. The early 2024 line-up includes Steve Aoki at Omnia at Caesar’s Palace and Kaskade at Zouk Nightclub at Resorts World. By early March, many of the big resorts are launching their pool party season so look out for opening events at many of the top casinos.
Staying in Vegas
When it comes to accommodation, MainEventTravel has rooms available at hotels all over the city in early 2024, to suit budgets of all kinds. This is a great time to snag a bargain stay right on the Vegas strip (perhaps not so affordable in the height of WSOP season) but also to explore other areas of the city.
Major Attractions
The Sphere
The Sphere opened to huge acclaim last September and U2’s show there has been an enormous hit. The Irish band has more than a dozen more concerts taking place in January, February and March, all built around its seminal 1991 album Achtung Baby. Another show getting rave reviews is The Sphere Experience featuring Darren Aronofsky's Postcard From Earth. This 50-minute immersive, multi-sensory film takes the audience on a sci-fi journey deep into our future. EPT champion Liv Boeree saw the show in December and described it as the best art experience she’d ever had. She wrote: “I can’t believe we get to live in a time where this thing exists!” With a capacity of 18,600, The Sphere is the world’s largest spherical structure and cost some $2.3 billion to build. Its bowl-shaped theatre contains the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen but even if you don’t go in, you’ll certainly be able to admire The Sphere from outside. The exterior is illuminated 24/7 with animations and other imagery.
Atomic Golf
Due to open last November, Atomic Golf at the Strat is now scheduled to (finally) open its doors in February. The 100,000 square-foot, four-storey golf and entertainment complex will host next-generation golf technology with an immersive experience through gameplay. The project will host four stories with 103 hitting bays facing the stunning Red Rock Canyon, eight putting bays featuring projection mapping technology, six bars – including a featured tap room with 15 locally brewed beers, meeting spaces and a 12,000-square-foot Astrocade with giant-screen televisions and a sports bar atmosphere.
Speedvegas
Get behind the wheel of some of the world's fastest, most luxurious cars at Speedvegas, a thrilling new facility where you can enjoy the ultimate supercar driving experience along with Exotics racing, a top go-kart track, Superkarts and a leading off-road circuit. Only 10 minutes from the strip, the award-winning SPEEDVEGAS was designed from the ground up by a team of racing experts and offers a wide range of exclusive exotic and muscle cars including Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche. Speedvegas provides solid instruction and promises maximum time behind the wheel with over 10 turns, 20-degree banked turns, and a monster half-mile straight. No experience necessary!
Vegas Poker Tournaments – early 2024
Venetian Deepstack Vegas
Deepstack poker fans know exactly where they’re headed when they get to Vegas: the Venetian. This sumptuous Italian-style casino holds major series all year round and has been a mecca for deepstack players for more than 15 years. The Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza kicks off on January 29 and runs through to February 18 with nearly $1.5 Million in guaranteed tournament prize pools. Highlights include the $1,100 NLH MSPT Mystery Bounty Poker Bowl $200K GTD (February 6-8 and the $1,600 NLH Card Player Poker Tour $400K GTD (February 15-18). The $1,600 NLH MSPT Poker Bowl, which runs February 8-10 and comes with a $300k guarantee, is an eligible event for MainEventTravel’s amazing #FinalTableFreeroll promotion. This gives you the chance to win 100% of your travel costs back in travel credits - check out the full details here and full list of eligible events here.
Grand Poker Series Winter Classic
If you hurry up with your booking, you’ll just catch the tail end of the Grand Poker Series Winter Classic which runs from January 4-13 at the Golden Nugget. With over $300,000 in prize pool guarantees, this is a great option for low- to mid-stakes players with tourneys starting from as little as $100. The highlight is a $200 buy-in NLH event with a $100k guarantee and six starting flights from January 11.
Poker Go – Aria
The PokerGO Cup gets underway in late January. Held from inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino, the series has already crowned champions such as Daniel Negreanu, Alex Foxen, Ali Imsirovic, Jake Schindler, and Jason Koon. There is also a PokerGO Cup series champion, and Negreanu was the inaugural winner in 2021. The 2024 event runs from January 22 to February 3 with eight different tournaments. All events offer PGT leaderboard points to each event’s in-the-money finishers. The 2024 PokerGO Cup features two-day, NLH tourneys starting with a $5,300 buy-in event – cheap by PokerGO standards! The series finale costs $25,700 to enter. There will be a $400 “on-time registration” rebate to all players who register and sit down before the first cards are dealt. Each of the eight PokerGO Cup tournaments will have their Day 2 final table live-streamed on PokerGO.
Poker at the Wynn
The Wynn Signature Series returns in January with 20 events, including four multi-day events, Seniors, and mixed games including Limit 2-7 and BIG O. The series runs from January 8-21. Even if you miss this Series, the Wynn has tourneys going on all the time. The slate of daily tournaments runs twice a day offering a total of $220,000 in guaranteed prize pools every week. Tournaments include the $40k guaranteed NLH Rebuy on Fridays and Sundays, and a $10k guaranteed event every evening at 5 p.m.
WSOP Circuit event
The WSOP is hosting a Circuit Event at the Horseshoe Casino from March 21 to April 1. Schedule details have yet to be released but this is definitely one for MainEventTravel players as the WSOPC Horseshoe Las Vegas $1700 Main Event forms part of our 2024 #FinalTableFreeroll promotion – click here for details.
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