blonde poker forum

I´m currently travelling in mexico and have a week spare at the end of my trip (15th - 22nd august) and quite fancy sneaking in a cheeky vegas excursion. flights are around 250 which seems ok. what hotels would people recommend that are cheap and are near the best poker places? I really have no idea where is good so any help would be appreciated. I`ll only be playing $1/2 and some low buyin tournaments ($50-100). cheers in advance.

I stayed in The Imperial Palace which is really cheap and it was fine for me and I wouldn't stay anywhere where the rooms weren't clean.It's also in the perfect location for the Venetian/Bellagio.

If you want a central location, Harrahs is a pretty good option.  Just checked out of there this morning and have no complaints.

Rooms were nothing special but probably a lot nicer than Imperial Palace next door (met a couple during my trip who stayed there and weren't impressed at all).

Off strip, Orleans is always good value and has a decent poker room.  It also runs a shuttle service to a sister hotel on the Strip.

Basically the best hotel you can afford within this circle. All the main poker rooms are here and within a 15 min walk of each other, actually include wynn too but that's expensive.

(http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq167/Andr4w/las-vegas-map.gif)

Stayed at Bally's. No complaints. Staff were really friendly too

Maybe I got lucky with my room as a few have complained about there stay there so you may be better taking the Sheriff's advice.

I thought IP was a shit hole. I like Bill's nobody else I know has stayed there, sometimes has great rates but its hit and miss but the rooms are good.

Thanks for telling me to stay there  ;)

If/When I next go I'd just stay at the Venetian for ease but as I say I didn't think it was that bad,I've stayed in worse and in a lot better.

LOL did I fk. In the unlikely event I did, I would have said its not the best, or if u need somewhere to sleep and now't else go for it. :D

tbh this is never a particularly helpful way to review a hotel.

For example I asked for opinions about a hotel I was thinking of staying at in London and someone said they thought it was one of the worst hotels they'd ever stayed at.

But when I dug down into why he thought that, it all came down to how bad he found the restaurants and bars, and he ended up saying if you weren't interested about eating or drinking there then it was a very decent place to stay - significantly different to his initial summary of the place.

Different people prioritise different things, so it's more helpful to know why it's bad - not that it just is.

Obviously if the reason was something like it was dirty, damp and full of cockroaches then, "it's a shit hole" probably was a good summary after all.

It's mond ffs.  He's lucky he found his room at the end of the night, never mind bothered with the look of it.

Yeah that was it,and I was happy with that.The casino is terrible and I never played there but I was happy with the room,it was clean and there was a maid everyday.Venetian is the nuts though and I'll be looking out for some good deals to tempt me for next summer.

Haha,true.

Just tell me what you want to know then? I'll be as helpful as I can................

A bit 1970's and motheaten though no? rotflmfao

LOL,Definitely agree with the 1970's bit haha.

When I last stayed there it was rammed with naaaaaaaaasty hookers. Most other casinos had turfed them out then, but IP still let them scour the bar area looking for drunk tilted victims for some time after that all stopped.............

First day I was there a couple of them pestered me for a bit but then I never got asked again,I was never in the hotel to notice them hanging about.

Remember Nico29 telling me he stayed at the IP and was woken up by pigeons every morning. Not sure whether they were inside or outside the room though.
If you're gonna play enough, I'd stay at the Venetian, $89 weekdays and £119 weekends. Think you need five hours cash playage a day but not sure, as never play cash.
At the other end of the strip The Excalibur gets slagged but really isn't that bad. Rooms are decent and it's fine imo.

I stayed in the Excalibur in May and thought the rooms were poor

Wrong end of strip too apart from MGM IMO............

If you're gonna play at the Venetian stay at Harrahs if you're gonna play at Caesars stay at Ballys both of them are much of a muchness, it's just the cab fares you'll save by being closer to the cardroom of said casinos.

If you're gonna be grinding a fair bit then the Venetian poker rate is sweet, I think you have to book at the standard rate and the costs are lowered at checkout though. It also means you are tied in to playing 6 hours a day in order to obtain the discounted rate. Best laid plans to grind always go out the window I find, or maybe that's just 'cause I'm a lazy twat who plays 1 tourney in 3 weeks....

Harrahs is also good if you're on a budget as there is a food court right on the strip outside with a Chipotle, Pizza place, Panda Express and McDonalds. The Grand Lux in the Venetian too is very good sized portions for reasonable prices.

I stayed at IP in 2008 and what a fucking mistake that was, I had a room right over Carnaval court and on the very few occasions I was in the room early trying to catch up on sleep I'd missed had to listen to the disco. 'American Boy' 5 times a night is not what you want when you're dying in your room lol.

The IP does have a karaoke bar though which is pretty com for a night out, XS it's not but there is always a good bunch of characters both local and visitors up for a laugh. Carnaval court is between Harrahs and IP, or Harrahs and Casino Royale which is a good crack too.

www.cheapovegas.com (http://www.cheapovegas.com) is a good website for a basic insight into all the casinos along the strip

Good advice from a ex fellow fat bastard ;D

I wouldn't be in such a hurry to choose 1 basic hotel.  If you are ok with the concept of staying in a basic hotel, use the map on p1 to familiarise yourself with what hotels there are, then use a discount site such as http://www.smartervegas.com/ (http://www.smartervegas.com/) to see where the crazy offers are for your dates.

You have to be careful with statements like "Excal was ok"

Excalibur have some newly remodelled 'plasma rooms' which you can either select when you book, or grease your way into when you check in.  If you got one of those, you'd prolly think the Excal was fine.  If you didn't, you'd be lying in one of the original rooms, with chalk marks on the floor, blood stains on the walls, thinking how the hell did you end up recommended this dump?  Fwiw, the hotel will still be a dump whatever room you get in there, but a fresh remodelled room is well worth going after, you have to do your homework a little bit before getting to the hotel to know what those remodelled rooms are called, so you can do something proactive about making sure you get into one.

If you are playing plenty of cash, just snap-pay a poker rate in a 5* hotel and it is impossible to go wrong.

Wynn & Encore 119/189 with poker rate if the budget can stretch that far, simply the nuts.

thank you all very much for the quick response! this forum is the nuts me thinks....anyway given that i have been staying in the shittiest of mexican hostels during the past 5 weeks i think any of these places will seem like the ritz so might just go for the imperial to save monies, but harrahs sounds good too. So am i right in thinking that you get money off if you play a certain amount of poker there everyday?

Yeah you get discounts for playing a set amount per day in the casino card room, normally 6 hours. By the sounds of things you're looking to budget a bit so it's not even worth getting in the Wynn on their poker rate as it would still work out about $1k for a week roughly.

I'd avoid the IP at all costs for sleeping, pay the small bit extra and get yourself in Harrahs and that way you're close to the Venetian as well. I'd imagine some of your hostels are good compared to that place. I obv ran super bad and got a really shitty room when I stayed there a couple years back.

I'd forget about the poker rates in Harrahs as I'm not sure they even do them, this way you're not committed to doing anything and can play as and when you feel like it. The last thing I want to do when I'm in Vegas is play poker but each to their own ofc.

I've done the poker rate thing too, I really can't be arsed with it now. I hate being tied down to play x number of hours at a certain room. The games are a lot harder than they were a few years ago and there is nothing worse than being forced playing a shitty game full of grinders to get your hours up when there is better games elsewhere. Especially during the week when there is no events on/fish around, you need the ability to be able to pick and choose the game you sit at.

C'mon guys - its a pretty easy game.

a) take the best discount rate you can in a 4* + hotel where that is better than the poker rate
b) If that price is higher than a poker rate, take the poker rate
c) when you get there, slip the manager/poker host a twenty discreetly (as in don't shout across the cardroom!) and ask if there will be any problem with your room.

err.. that's it.

Ok - for the sake of completeness, if you managed to be the first person ever to fail at this, and you don't want to meet the poker obligation, start at a) again and check out.

I stayed at Caesars Palace last week and can confirm the hookers were much nicer.

Can someone who is familiar with these services confirm if it is normal to be offered a "good deal" by her AND her girlfriend??

This is sound advice.

If you feel you're gonna get stressed out by it all, I recommend the Orleans too. 24hr bowling and a cinema = win after doing your brains in cash.

Mandalay Bay has sound chill-out facilities as well.

Yeah you don't even need to do this at the Venetian during the deepstacks as one of the managers posts the code for rooms on 2p2. You give the code on booking and you don't even need to play a tournament. As you have given the code when you ring and book the room, you are charged 89/139 for the duration of your stay.

plus resort fee???

Can anyone comment on the qulaity of the hookers at Planet Hollywood? A friend is going there soon. Thx

LOL

Thought I could treat you to having your cherry popped bud.  :-*

I know it was a complete mess but your sister still counts mate

I've heard that they seem fine after about fourteen pints of Guinness....

LOL, you actually don't see too many hookers in the casinos at all these days, they normally throw them out. I first went to Vegas about 16 or 17 years ago and the place was rammed with them. You couldn't get a drink at any bar without being approached, some real babes too...........

Not sure only takes a phone call  though

Nah they're still everywhere, almost every casino you go into they are floating about. There weren't a ton of them in PH, they do hang about at the 'Heart bar' though if you're looking. The ones I saw were pretty tidy tbf although when you've been slamming Sambucas/Vodka for about 12 hours what doesn't look good  :D

Cos.

LOL!

:(

Yes, you have to add resort fee of $17 per day to Venetian/Palazzo price.  I stayed at Palazzo and got Deepstack discount when I booked as they are sister hotels.  I did play a deepstack so have no idea whether this was somehow known when I checked out, but they never asked and it wasn't shown on the bill.

Is there a poker rate for said ladies? Does Cos get a free one for every straight 48 hour .25/.50 session he puts in?