Going to Vegas tomorrow until Monday, advice wanted..

[johnp158]

So I'm going to Vegas with my family for New Year's thanks to a high-rolling friend of the family who got us a room comped. For anybody who has spent any time out there, I was looking for some last minute advice. I've looked at allvegaspoker and plan on doing some more research on there tonight.

Another perk of having this friend is that he wants to stake me in a "big" tournament, up to $1000 buy-in. I think my 2 options are the $500 and $1000 that they run at the Bellagio. I also plan on having $1000 available from my bankroll to play cash games, probably mostly 1-2 NL. My main concern with the tournament is that I have almost no live experience, other than very small home games with friends maybe once a week.

I guess my plan is to try to just play some cash games for a while to get used to it before playing the tournament. I'm wondering if I should opt for the $500 since I might feel more comfortable with the smaller buy-in, knowing that it's not my money. Although I think this guy (he doesn't play poker) is perfectly ok with the idea of staking me and me not cashing. He's a gambler. He understands how it works.

Hmm. Maybe the $500 is just on Wednesdays. Anybody have any other tournament suggestions outside of Bellagio? I think I'll stay away from the smaller (<$100) ones. I could buy into those with my own money on my own time.

So anyway, all advice is appreciated.