Matt no one will know how many people you have in the room really. I would pay the extra 17 a night to stay at Mandalay over the IP, definitely will be money well spent. As I did point out, that Sunday night will be tough. Many places won't even give you a room, they require guests to stay the full 3 nights of the holiday weekend. I highly suggest you find a way to get in on the 6th if you can unless you really don't mind paying the price in an inflated rate.
As for tourneys, there usually nothing in Vegas that time of year. They always tried at Binions with the Hall of Fame and another at the Four Queens, but they never did that well. Usually the Bike has their big tourney in LA during August and then people in the poker world seem to go on vacation after feasting on the summer tourists at their respective card rooms. Mirage has decent sized daily tournaments Sun-Thur and the Orleans has some of the best low-limit tournaments going anywhere. Don't bother with the Mandalay or Luxor tournaments, they play ridiculously slow when you get a few newbie tourists in the games and even their dead money doesn't make up for much when the prize pool is so small.
As for tourneys, there usually nothing in Vegas that time of year. They always tried at Binions with the Hall of Fame and another at the Four Queens, but they never did that well. Usually the Bike has their big tourney in LA during August and then people in the poker world seem to go on vacation after feasting on the summer tourists at their respective card rooms. Mirage has decent sized daily tournaments Sun-Thur and the Orleans has some of the best low-limit tournaments going anywhere. Don't bother with the Mandalay or Luxor tournaments, they play ridiculously slow when you get a few newbie tourists in the games and even their dead money doesn't make up for much when the prize pool is so small.
