Suggestions for two days in Vegas

[Poshua]

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This trip, I'll probably be the only poker playing and plan on spending the bulk of my time at the Mirage (5/10 - 10/20 and maybe some NL or PL thrown in) based on reviews I've read, though I want to visit the Venetian poker room and a couple of others. My brothers are mostly blackjack and craps players although my younger brother shocked me recently when he said he'd set up an account at Full Tilt (ah, the power of TV).

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Personally, I haven't logged much time at the Mirage room, but I'd recommend the rooms at Caesar's and the Venetian. They're both great playing environments (particularly Venetian, which has great drink service and, in my experience, relatively weak players). On a Friday/Saturday, they can be expected to spread games in the range you're looking for: 6/12 at Caesars; I think Venetian may be back to spreading 8/16, though for a while they had 6/12 and sometimes 9/18.

For food, I think the Cheesecake factory-run coffee shop at the Venetian (the Grand Lux Cafe) is the best of the 24 hour casual dining places that dot the strip. For upscale dining, I recommend Commander's Palace at the Alladin, for New Orleans cuisine.

Josh

[Kathy]

Bring a warm coat.

Kathy

[scottc25]

1. Wake up
2. Play poker
3. Get drunk
4. Bang chicks (or dudes, or strip club, your choice)
5. Repeat

I'm old now so I only get to #2 before I repeat.

[grando]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Wake up
2. Play poker
3. Get drunk
4. Bang chicks (or dudes, or strip club, your choice)
5. Repeat

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1. wake up
2. get drunk
3. GAMBOOOOOOOL
4. slay hot chicks
5. continually do 2, 3, and 4 as many times as possible, and don't stop for any reason

[Hoss1193]

Haven't tried Mirage yet, can't speak to it.

Bellagio an easy walk from Flamingo, though; good 8/16 there. My biggest beef with that game is that they run it using $1 & $5 chips, rather than $2 chips. Makes it a mechanically awkward game; even the dealers got very confused when there would be all-in side pots with multiple raises.

Venetian is a great room, give it a try. Roomiest/most comfortable of the "high-end" rooms I visited.

Give the Wynn a try. Some people hate it, others love it. At least as far as the softness & action I encountered in 4/8 and 8/16 LHE in my multiple trips there, I'm in the latter camp.

[Kathy]

The Palms has the best 2/5 No Limit game in town.

1K max. Also check out Green Valley or Red Rock, sometimes, no pro's and great action.

Kathy

[beernutz]

Thanks again for all the suggestions. Here is a trip report. Disclaimer: It is painfully obvious that I am not a professional writer.

We got up at 4am Friday and drove to Birmingham to catch our early flight through Atlanta to Vegas. Flights all went off without a hitch and the weather in Vegas was gorgeous when we arrived early in the afternoon. The cab line was incredibly long but went quickly and soon we were at the Flamingo and our room was both ready for us and nice, up on the 14th floor and overlooking the strip.

For a Vegas trip where you want to save a few bucks but still stay in a relatively nice place in a GREAT Strip location, I can't recommend the Flamingo highly enough. It is certainly not the Venetian or Bellagio but you don't pay what those places cost either. The room was clean and not tiny, even if it was a bit dated, and the bed was very comfortable. For what we paid ($450 for 2 nights including a Saturday for 3 people) I consider it a bargain. Since we got our plane tickets for almost nothing cashing in my late Uncle's frequent flier miles the whole trip was a bargain.

I played poker (most $1-2 and $2-4 NL Holdem even though I suck at NL Holdem) in the Bellagio, Flamingo (because my brother and brother-in-law were learning the game playing 2-4 limit there), Palms (in the $2-5 NL), Alladin , Rio, and Venetian. I liked the Venetian the best but I'm probably biased because I met Joe Hachem there on Saturday as I was playing in a satellite to get into the $1k buy-in tourney. Sadly I didn't win the sat. but had a great time and also played some NL in a crazo game there. I did get to shake Joe's hand and say hi and he seemed friendly enough.

The Bellagio of course is also very nice but I didn't make it there until 2am Saturday after having got up at 4am the previous day. My memories of the visit are therefore a little fuzzy but I played a few hands of limit O/8 just to say I'd played there. I did meet a nice working girl in the bar across from the poker room as I was relaxing with a Guinness. I assume she was a pro because she sat down next to me and starting chatting me up after I looked like death warmed over from being up 24 hours straight.

I only played in the $2-5 at the Palms briefly because we were waiting to get into the Playboy Club. My brother works for Comcast and he had scored some VIP passes from a friend who works at the Playboy channel but we had to wait for the VIP list to get passed down to the door from Hef apparently so I got into the $2-5 to kill some time but never even saw a flop.

The Playboy club was nothing special IMO. The women, employees and visitors alike were incredible eye-candy but since I've been happily married 18 years that's all they were. Something about the Playboy club must attract other hot women to the area because that side of the Palms near the club entrance had more hot women than I think I saw in all the other casinos I visited and that is saying one hella lot. The club had about 6 $100 minimum Blackjack tables and I saw only one person playing in the hour or so we were there. The dealers, OMG, well it is amazing what they can do with silicone these days.

Vegas was CRAZY. Walking the strip on Saturday night from the Flamingo to NYNY I saw AT LEAST 10 people in handcuffs. I can't even imagine what it was like last night after they closed the Strip into a walking mall. I know the sidewalks were so crowded Saturday night that you sometimes had to walk into the street to get around the masses.

Unfortunately we didn't eat in any of the fine places suggested by you all because we were too busy playing but a great time was had by all. I offered to use my poker winnings to buy my traveling buddies the Rio seafood buffet but they were turned off by the long line so instead we just ate pub food. In fact we just survived almost exclusively on pub food and Starbucks everywhere we went. The best of pub fare was probably Margaritaville, located in our own Flamingo, but the little Irish pub in the Rio was also nice.

Anyway, tha tha tha that's all folks. Thanks again for helping us have a super time with your suggestions. I'd tell you all what really happened on the trip, but you know about what happens in Vegas.