f13.net

Yep, I am going again- will be there Friday the 26th through Monday the 29th. Staying at NYNY (not my first choice, but reasonably close to the Hard Rock, where most of the bachelor party is staying, and where I refused to stay). Anyone gonna be in town? I would love to have a cocktail or 40 and chat for a bit. I may even slip you a couple of green chips to come back and say how handsome and charming I am IRL  :-D

I don't understand why you don't just live there.  You seem to really love it. 

Probably because his wife would then ask what time he'd be home, so boozing and gambling (and whatnot) until 4am and then crashing in a pool of his own vomit on the floor of a room somebody else will clean up would cease to be an option.

I just got back from vegas. Was there 19-21. Stayed at Hooters hotel, cause a friend of mine had a family member in upper managment, so I got a discounted room. Besides the amount of "WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOTERRRRRRSSSSSS, SHOW US YOUR TIT" guy, it was quite a nice hotel. They have a very nice Diner type resturant called "The Dam Resturant" and they have Hooters Calander Girls dealing Blackjack. All in all was a very fun trip. Helped that I came home +$200.

That is SUCH a good point!

Umm... why are all the google adverts about God?  Is God trying to tell WAP to behave?

I got one for Pledge furniture polish.

I happen to like NYNY, although I stayed at the Paris when I got married (hell, got married at the Paris). The wifey and I figured that it being our second marriage, screw all that wedding shit. We were going to elope and get married in Vegas, but a few friends caught wind of it -- had about 30 people take the oppurtunity to show up. :)

Sadly, I came back down about 800 that trip, on gambling alone. (My wife's fondness for fine dining set us back more. I'm happy with McDonalds -- she's not. And it was my honeymoon, so I was not angering the wifey).

Trip before that, though, I won 30k messing around with Let it Ride. Got dealt a Royal Flush. Both the dealer and I just stared at it for awhile, then I ordered a VERY large drink. Good times....

Plus, did you know they actually HAVE War? You put down your cash, he deals out two cards -- highest card wins. I'm waiting for "Guess a Number".

I'll be there June 11-15. A buddy of mine writes for a magazine and they asked him to moderate a conference and are putting him up in a suite at Mandalay Bay (= free room for me).  It'll be my first time staying at Mandalay Bay and I'm looking forward to that, moreso since we have a 900 sq. ft. suite. I've previously stayed at Luxor, Bally's and the Flamingo Hilton. I wouldn't necessarily go back to any of those 3.

Way, the poker room at the Wynn is pretty nice.  If you haven't been there yet, I'd stop by.

I stopped by and saw it in my last trip, but didn't have time to play there. Gonna try to get a couple of hours in there this time around. Also wanna check out the new Venetian room- it just opened last month. By most accounts, it is a beautiful room that is still trying to get going; hopefully it will be full of hotel guests instead of locals  :evil:

The rest of the bachelor party is going to rent a cabana at the Hard Rock Pool Saturday and Sunday. Now I like staring at scantily clad ladies as much as the next guy, but this is VEGAS! How could I possibly lay around the pool all day when I could be gambling?

Anyone know of any good sites with listing of the different poker rooms, what limits they spread, and any daily tournies that are taking place?

This  (http://www.allvegaspoker.com/) should cover most of that. Pretty good site.

Just a quick question. Why did you say you refused to stay at the Hard Rock? What do you have against it?

It is off the strip, it doesn't have a decent poker room, and it was like $400 a night for Memorial Day weekend.

Oh. Ok.

It's also full of hipster doofuses (doofi ?).

Yep. This is perhaps the most important point!

And, of course, you don't NEED to watch pretty half-dressed women poolside because you have a perfectly lovely wife at home.  Right?

You really don't have to go to Vegas for that. There's far cheaper ways.....:)

Yes!


Well, and the fact that I can pay a cover charge to see non-dressed women at several locations around town as well.  :evil:

I think we've found ourselves a peeper!  Shame on you!   :-o

Honestly, what guy isn't?

Way,

Did you make it over to the MGM room the last time you were there? I can't remember if you did or not. Supposed to be nice even though the MGM the hotel isn't. I didn't make it there.

Just FYI if you didn't know (what sparse info I have from my jaunt two months ago so may have changed since then): The new expanded room over at the Bellagio is nice (suprisingly fishy in the 4-8 and 8-16 games on the weekend) and the Mandalay has gone all non-smoking.  Seems like craptacular $200 NL games are all the rage down there.  Be sure to give us the inside scoop on the Venetian room.

Apropos of nothing: today I found at the local fru-fru market green olives stuffed with blue cheese so now I can approximate my fav drinks from Red Square in Vegas.

I stopped by to see the MGM room (and its cool electronic board!), but didn't get a chance to play there (I played at Bellagio since I was staying there, plus a couple of hours at Binion's under the WSOP photos and a tournament at Mandalay Bay). From what I have heard it is mostly low limit (up to 6-12 or something), with tons of drunken idiots. My plan is to play there while obtaining as many free cocktails as I can, and save any higher limit 'serious' play for Venetian or Wynn.

When did they expand the room at Bellagio? I was there in September last year. Has it happened since then? It was definitely full then, but that was when Wynn was still getting started and Caesar's hadn't opened yet. I figured all the nice new rooms would take a bit of the traffic away from Bellagio.

Ok new question...

To get a cheaper flight I've decided to go 2 days before my free hotel room kicks in. Means I need a room for Friday and Saturday night (yeah I know more expensive those days).

Anyone know of a cheap hotel near a decent poker room that isn't too shady? I basically saved about $150 on the flight by staying over a weekend so I'm trying to keep it less than that for the 2 nights.

So far I've totally struck out on priceline.come trying to name my own price for a strip hotel. I don't know enough about downtown to know if there's still a good poker room there and where I would stay.

Are you talking about this coming (Memorial Day) weekend? I am guessing there aren't too many rooms available.


Oh, and I will be at the airport in less than 48 hours!!!!

My buddy and I are seriously considering a 1 day membership to the Alaska Airlines Board Room (http://www.alaskaair.com/www2/flights/boardroom/BenefitsAmenities.asp). It is only $25, and I am pretty damned sure I can drink $25 worth of free call brand hootch in the 2 hours I will be waiting.

No I'm looking for a room June 9th & 10th. I have a free room then from the 11th to the 15th.

Check out Cheapo Vegas (http://www.cheapovegas.com/index.php) for some ideas. It is worth a read anyway- the reviews are pretty amusing, as are the trip reports by the authors.

In case anyone is wondering, I should be halfway to Vegas in 48 hours.


WOOHOO!

Have a wonderful time!  I hope you win at whatever it is you play... probably poker, no?  Win lots of chips! 

I'm not entirely sure.  Did it have the "fishbowl" private room for the bigshots when you went there? If so, that was after the expansion.

Does it include DKP?

Bobby's Room (up a couple of stairs behind glass doors)? Yeah, that was there. When I was there last, I was peering into the room from the front of the poker room to see who was playing- saw Jen Harman, Barry Greenstein, and (I think) David Benyamin. While I was pointing them out to my buddy, a tiny Asian man walked past me to have a cigarette (no smoking in the poker room)- it was Chau Giang! Also saw Robert Williamson relaxing in one of the bars at Bellagio (actually I heard him first- he has a very distinctive voice).

You know you are a poker nerd when poker players are celebrities!

I've stayed at the MGM both times we've gone to Vegas (were just there 5/6-10 for our anniversary, actually) and I rather like the MGM.  Granted, I've not stayed at any of the other hotels yet, but I'm not complaining either.  Besides, who goes anywhere to spend time in the hotel room?  We were put in their West Wing this time, and while it was very nice, I thought it was a bit too far from the rest of the hotel amenities personally.

I'm not a crazy cards player like the rest of you though.  Slots are my thing, and according to my Players Club card, I lost $700 this trip. Not bad really, since that was all "start with $20 and stop when it's gone" playing.

MGM isn't a dive, but it really isn't in the same class as the nicer places on the strip (Bellagio, Venetian, Mandalay Bay (especially the TheHotel all-suites expansion which I recommend).   I wouldn't even put it in the second-tier class with the Aladin and Monte Carlo.

IMO its way too big for its own good. 

Yeah- not sure I would ever stay at MGM; some of those rooms are a serious hike to the casino floor!

30 hours until I touch down at McCarran. Not that I am counting.

There's a reason I don't play real poker in Vegas. I figure there's sharks, see? The guys that make a steady living eating off the minnows, which are mostly tourists who've seen way too many Texas Hold 'em tournaments on ESPN and shit. And then there's the chum, which is what lures the damn minnows over in the first place.

I think I'm the chum. :)

I'll play with friends where the pot limit is 10 bucks and the big blind is like 50 cents, but I ain't plopping down real money to get raped that fast. I'll go play slots or blackjack or let it ride and lose nice and slow.

I get to the same place (out of that day's gambling cash), but I figure it takes longer if I'm not losing to the sharks.

In my (albeit limited) experience, the games in Vegas are FAR softer than the normal games in casinos around here (and those can still be pretty soft). Tons of tourists who are there to gamble and decide to try poker out combined with free cocktails makes for a nice game. Variance can still bite you in the ass, but I can't remember not feeling like I was the best player at the table at any point in Vegas. Of course, I was playing at baby limits (3/6, 4/8, and a $40 buy in tourney). I am sure things change as the limits increase.

I'm a pussy of a gambler. I limit myself to a 100 dollars a day in losses. (If I'm by myself, 200. The wife likes the expensive resteraunts, I've mentioned...cuts into my gambling). The upside of that is I don't go chasing my money back. I lose my hundred, I go find something else to do. Then again, frankly, I only gamble a few hours a day at most anyways.

I'm not touching those damn poker tables until I get some more real play with decent players. Winning money off my in-laws doesn't count. :)

You mean once a day while you're on holiday in Vegas, right Morat?  You don't mean a few hours every day of your life, do you?   :|

Yeah. I do go to the local dog track a lot, but rarely gamble. It's mostly an excuse to hang out with my dad, who I believe actually owns several dogs there. Or did. I can't really keep track.

For lower limit stuff, I really like MGM's poker room. Lots of tables and lots of tourists. Add to that the massage girls that walk around  selling massages at the tables, I get tingly just remembering it.

Just make sure not to try to play big pots well being massaged, it fucks with your mind.

On a total tangent, I need to go get some sleep because I'm in a pre-Satellite qualifier for the WSOP tomorrow. Gonna try to win my way in the cheap way.

Short story- I survived and had a blast. I will cobble together a long and mostly boring trip report sometime this week when I have more energy. Up 3 bills for the trip, so I can't really complain  :-D

Look forward to reading it. I leave in 10 days.

Finally picked a place to stay. Going to spend the first two nights at the Sahara. Not the best place but by far the cheapest. Looking at $70 for friday and $75 for Saturday. Compared to $129 for MGM's poker rate where I'd have to play 10 hours of poker at MGM. Staying at Sahara I can play wherever I want. The selling point was when I realized that the Sahara was a stop on the monorail so should be easy access to anywhere on the strip.

The next 4 nights will be spent at THEHotel at Mandalay Bay.

I had 3 Bills on one trip once.

Oh wait... we might not be talking about the same thing.

I think you will enjoy that place. It's where we stayed the last time we were there. Nice suites, 2 plasma TVs, etc.  We like the Mandalay Bay in general and found THEHotel great. Bigger rooms, newer and quieter than the main place. Was great for me too because the elevators are actually closer to the poker room than the main hotel.

If you are going for a spendy dinner, I would recommend Fluer De Lys which is over in the restaurant area of the Mandalay.  If you call ahead (an early sitting is probably a better shot) you can reserve one of the private booths that are behind curtains and separated a bit from the main dining room. It's a great dining experience. Tremendous food, service and wine. Like I said, uber-spendy but worth it.  We went there and then saw Henry Rollins doing spoken word at the House of Blues.