vegas trip el cortez/advice wanted

[jomatty]

im leaving for vegas next weds. and will be there for a month. i plan on playing the nl games ranging from the 1-2 to the 5-10 and limit up to around 30-60. any advice on this would be appreciated.
i also will be staying at the el cortez which i am somewhat worried about but since i am there for so long it and the gold spike are the only places i can afford. unfortunately on the weekends i could not even get a room at the el cortez. i will be staying at their overflow property across the street, which sounds like the worst place in the world. my question is how bad are these two places. the lady on the phone assured me the el cortez was "beautiful" lol but im just wondering if it is at least clean. im not even hopeful the overflow property that she described as older and less beautiful than the el cortez is clean but i guess i just wont sleep much on the weekend. does anyone have any experience with these places?
i posted on some of this before but i made some mistakes and although i got some good responces noone had any first hand info.
matty

[balt999]

Let me get this straight....you're looking to play up to 30-60 and El Cortez is all your can afford?? Interesting...

[Jeffage]

I was thinking the exact same thing - your safety is worth more than a few dollars in my mind. If you're there for a month, maybe check out budget suites? Or use Craigslist and rent someone's condo? It probably won't even be that much more and will be much better for a longterm stay.

Jeff

[cman710]

I would second what Jeff said. The El Cortez is NOT in a good part of town. Even though it is within blocks of Fremont Street, I have read that those blocks are not ones you want to walk at night. Especially if you are carrying around cash, this will be bad.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I personally have not been to the El Cortez. However, my wife's grandma used to work at a casino (not the El Cortez) and somehow got her and her family free rooms there one night last year. All I heard about was how bad it was and how she didn't feel safe. I can't believe you're playing 30/60 and 5/10NL and you can't afford something better than the El Cortez.

[ThunderEagle]

There are a couple of Travel Lodges on the strip, no idea the price, but the El Cortez sounds scary. I felt perfectly safe on Fremont street, but the streach of downtown from Fremont street till the Strip started again looked a little scary, and the road down to the El Cortez from Fremont street looked similar. If you go to Binion's web site they are offering some rooms at 49 a night if you book online, doesn't count weekends though and was through April 23rd.

[MMan710]

You should also look into Poker Room rates. If you are planning to play as much as you say, you should be able to get decent deals. I looked at AllVegasPoker.com's list of Poker Room rates. You can get the Stardust for $30 from Sunday-Thursday, and $45 on Friday/Saturday. I'm guessing the El Cortez can't be that much cheaper, and the additional money you'd pay would surely be seen in much better accomodations.

To qualify for the room rates, you do have to play a certain amount each day, but supposedly the Stardust is only 3 hours a day. If you are going to play everday for a long time, 3 hours is nothing.

Also, make sure you cash in on player comps. The Imperial Palace is one of the best, at $3 an hour. If you play there 4 hours a day, that's $12 of comps everyday. If you do that for enough days, you can possibly earn enough to even get a room there on weekends, so you can avoid the El Cortez. And even if you don't use comps toward a room, you might be able to use them toward food and other expenses that help you more easily pay for lodging.

Also, if you are bringing enough money to play 30-60, why not drop yourself down a notch (15-30 perhaps?), and just use the extra money for nicer (and safer) accomodations. The other possibility is to look into what someone else suggested - the possibility of renting an apartment or something for a month from somebody.

[jomatty]

30-60 is the upper range of my play and the vast majority will be in the 15-30 range and some low limit nl. the el cortez is 30 bucks a night and i have not been able to find much better for less that 100. thats over 2000 dollars in difference for my stay. im surprised that noone thinks that is significant for a pro who is trying to make a go of things in vegas. i mean if i can make 50 bucks an hour at 15-30 then thats like 40 hours of play. if i was going on vacation i would spring for it but not when things are tight and i need to give myself the best chance i can to make a profit. i will hopefully be able to get a box so i dont have to carry a lot of cash around.
matty

[Jeffage]

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/sub/134600931.html

One example of a condo to rent cheaper than what you're paying to stay at El Cortez.


Big List of Such Properties

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/sub/134600931.html

Jeff

[jomatty]

thanks jeffage for looking into that for me. the prob is im not going to have a car so it will be difficult to find something like that that will work but ill definetly look into it.
matty