March Madness in Vegas - help with logistics, please

[slogger]

I'm flying out to Vegas Wed. night for my brother's bachelor party. We're staying at the Rio.

Any Vegas locals or March Madness in Vegas vets have any suggestions about the best books to watch the games and tips regarding how early you need to stake out your seats in the books? What about best places to get in some good time at the tables while being able to keep tabs on all the games first hand?

Our group consists of about 12 guys and we're hoping to mix in a good amount of vegging out in the sportsbook, gambling and typical bachelor party activities, so naturally, I'm concerned that I could end up spending the better part of four days staking out seats in the sportsbooks and watching the games, rather than just having a good time.

Any help at all is much appreciated!

(cross-posted, kind of, in Sports)

[giantsrule]

I'm no Vegas expert, but I have been there for the NCAAs. I think you would need to be very early to try to stake out seats. Personally I like Mandalay Bay. They've got a nice sports book and the poker room is right next to it, though they don't have 2-4 if that matters. For playing poker while watching in the past I've done it at Mandalay, but I've been reading that Harrahs is supposed to be the best place to watch sports while playing poker. I like MGMs sports book to watch games, though I haven't been in the MGM in years and their new poker room supposedly isn't open yet. Have fun (it shouldn't be hard).

[ItsJzH]

He just nailed it with the Mirage,Mandalay Bay and MGM sportsbooks, the Excalibur has soft poker games, also the mandalay bay has loose games and pretty hot cocktail waitresses but like he said the lowest limit they offer in the poker room is about 4/8 or you could play 2/4 NL $ 200 buy in.AS for staking out your seats and making bets.The best time to make bets would be the night before the game cause lines are generally an hour or so long it looked like to place a wager. I'd get there 1hr-30 mins before the morning session tips off to get a seat or else ur gonna be screwed, i think the casinos are at 98% capacity and it's gonna be a helluva time finding a seat in a sportsbook or poker room without a wait time. Good Luck maybe we'll run into each other since i plan on being down there Thursday-Sunday for the next 2 weeks.