Las Vegas guide and MSE thread 2011

Porthorg

May

I keep seeing people mention Harrahs on here and have just found it for £350 for the week when we are going with no resort fee. Sound good but really heard of this place before....any advice?

adamg

August

koloko wrote: »

Can anyone help me with the last bit? I'll want to eat out for breakfast and dinner every day, grab a sandwich or salad around Rio's hotel at lunch, 4/5 coffees each day and a few beers each evening. £20pp? £50pp? £100pp? £200pp?

buffets 15pp breakfast 25pp dinner, + lunch & drinks 70pp is adequate depending on what sort of food you want and quality. Bogof vouchers for buffets are easily available as are $1 foot long hot dogs. Drinks at bars are stupid expensive so easier to sit on a cent machine and grab the coctail waitress.

mookybargirl

March

koloko wrote: »

I'm going to Vegas from 8th June - 16th June to play a couple of events in the World Series of Poker. My budget is:

£1200 flights (me + gf),
£1200 8 nights hotel (hopefully I can afford a suite in the Venetian, from what I've read)
$2500 entry fee into WSOP
$? spending money for 8 days

Can anyone help me with the last bit? I'll want to eat out for breakfast and dinner every day, grab a sandwich or salad around Rio's hotel at lunch, 4/5 coffees each day and a few beers each evening. £20pp? £50pp? £100pp? £200pp?

Good luck btw
I'd try to book your hotel as early as possible on a fully refundable offer, as I expect rates will be higher due to the wsop, so best to have something if prices go a bit crazy, then look around for better offers and cancel your other booking.

Budgets can really vary as it really depends on your tastes etc. Are you happy to eat at McD's, or a fancy restaurant or something in between? I'll give you what I would maybe work on. If it was me, I'd say maybe £10pp for breakfast, £20 for lunch incl coffees & snacks, and £40pp for dinner. Drinks are free when playing so maybe a £10 extra for other bits and bobs, so that's.... £80pp per day. I'd do something similar for yourself on what you plan on eating. Lots of people like Cheesecake Factory at Caesars, Grand Lux Cafe at Venetian and Palazzo and PF Changs at Planet Hollywood. You get good food for a reasonable price. Great for evening meals. We usually spend about $40-$60 total in one of these kinds of places for dinner, so that would only be £25-£40 for both of you, so you could easily reduce my estimate.....

I'm rambling on, but I'm sure you get the point. The thing about Vegas is you can really find places to suit every budget, so work out what's comfortable and you'll have no problem in finding something to suit your budget. Most if not all the hotels cater to all budgets, ranging food courts, take out pizza places, coffee shop/quick bites to fine dining.

Ok, I'll shut up now

mookybargirl

March

Porthorg wrote: »

I keep seeing people mention Harrahs on here and have just found it for £350 for the week when we are going with no resort fee. Sound good but really heard of this place before....any advice?

Harrahs is part of the group that owns Caesars, Paris, Ballys, Flamingo & Rio (think that's them all....). Have a look at page one, as there's a map to show you exactly where it is on the strip. I've not stayed personally so can't give too much advice.... I'm sure someone else will be along shortly though to give more info

Oh, and none of the hotels in that chain have resort fees...

duchy

May

Weirdly I booked Harrahs for August this morning too and I've never stayed there -but was the only TR that was comping for the weekend I wanted (apart from IP <cough>)

Not really too bothered as all my time will be spent at the Flamingo at an event and it's an easy stroll "home" but honestly don't know much about it at all room wise. So long as it's a little nicer than the IP rooms I'm quite happy as it's free. Two trips planned in 3 months I need to cut costs somewhere LOL

photome

August

StuieUK34 wrote: »

Sugar is opposite the coffee in Morrisons in Cardiff
I was watching the movie Casino the other night, see what your saying about the machines, if they pay out, then they get moved somewhere else, etc etc.... makes sense for the casino i guess.....
Going on the minimum bets that tables do, say $5 or $10 on BJ tables, how does it work with the roulette tables ?
Same as over here ? i ask for $30 worth of chips, which equate to 50c each ? could i play just 1 chip, or would i have to play 20 chips ? (if it were minimum $10 on table)

I used to play a lot of roullette (mostly poker now) and it is difficult to find roullette tables at less than $10 minimum bet per spin with $1 chips.

Some upper end properties the minimum is $25 minimum per spin with $1 chips

Minimum bet is either inside or outside not a combination of the 2.

Casino royale still have 50c chips I think and poss a $4 minimum

photome

August

Porthorg wrote: »

I keep seeing people mention Harrahs on here and have just found it for £350 for the week when we are going with no resort fee. Sound good but really heard of this place before....any advice?

Great location but thats about all, much better would be Flamingo which is almost next door and usually cheaper than Harrahs

stoneman

October

Spursman180 wrote: »

3:2 is 6:4 and please tell me where this is available on the strip, because it isn't at stakes less than $25 per hand, there are enough news reports out there as well as blogs bemoaning the fact.

An extract from the wizard of odds:

Many casinos now offer blackjack games in which blackjacks pay off at odds of 6-5 rather than the traditional 3-2 that is, $6 for a $5 bet rather than $7.50 for a $5 bet.
It might not seem like a significant issue to many players, who tend to think, "Hey, I got a blackjack; I'm getting paid anyway."
But that minor adjustment in the odds can make a major dent in a player's bankroll.
Take, for example, a blackjack player who uses proper "basic strategy" meaning he knows when to hit, stand, double down and split. Let's say he bets $10 a hand and plays 100 hands per hour.
At a decent six-deck blackjack game dealt from a shoe such as those at the Palms, the MGM Grand and elsewhere he would lose an average of $2.60 in that hour, according to computer analyses.
At a good single-deck blackjack game such as those at the Las Vegas Club and elsewhere he would lose an average of $1.80 in that hour.
At a game that pays 6-5 for blackjacks, however, our hero can expect to lose more than $14 an hour.
In other words, he will lose his money at least five times more quickly at a 6-5 game than at a shoe game, and eight times more quickly than at an old-fashioned single-deck game.

Whilst it is not straight forward to change an individual machine, it is an eprom in and out, the commission rules don't stop machines being changed, a good casino team can change a bank of machines in 1/2 hour. I've seen it many times in the wee small hours, they also move banks of machines around the casino regularly, just like supermarkets move various key lines around the supermarket, why is the sugar never near the coffee.

There are only to sets of odds offered at Vegas casinos, 3:2 and 6:5, so if you are looking for a table that pays 6:4 you are correct, you will not fand any and your own quote from WOO even states that "some" casinos are offering 6:5, not that it is all that is on offer. Every casino that I walk into offers 3:2 at lower levels, nickle and up. I play a lot of BJ and have been playing it on the strip for donkeys years. Bellagio offers it at $5 & $10 level along the main walkway, PH offers it at $10 & $15 on all tables by the centre bar, it's only the pleasure pit that pays 6:5 Flamingo offers it at $5 and $10 on the tables around by the cashiers desk, it's only at the tables at the entrance with the girl dealers that are 6:5. Paris also by the long bar, changes to 6:5 on Saturday, but still normal odds along the cobble walk. Ballys all levels everywhere. Caesars at $15 with the added bonus of late surrender by the craps tables, only 6:5 at the pu$$ycat doll pit. Shall I go on. And the line in WOO about 100 hands an hour. Unless you were playing at a table on your own that would never happen. Casinos try and push the dealers to deal 60 hands an hour, and that is going some.

jaytay

September

Stripburger,el segundo on now

Matt17

jaytay wrote: »

Stripburger,el segundo on now

Yeah just got a $25 cert for stripburger.
I managed to get it for $3 using the 80% discount method that Vikki posted.
Thanks Vikki