blonde poker forum

Finally booked Vegas for our 50th birthdays. Group of eight of us going at Easter, stopping in the Monte Carlo. Everytime i mention to folk i'm going they always tell me to go and see the Grand canyon. I'm looking for others.

Mixed group?  Sporty?  Shoppers?  Thrill seekers?  Pissheads?  Shows?  Fine Dining?

The Vegas mob tour http://www.vegasmobtour.com/html/about.htm was a good laugh and gave you a cracking "romantic" view of Old Skool Vegas.

If you into Fish, tanks, sharks or the sea the Behind teh Scenes tour of the Mandalay Bay Shark reef is also amazing.
http://www.lasvegasconcierge.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=302:mandalay-bay-hotel-the-shark-reef-behind-the-scenes-tour&catid=136:attractions-and-activities&Itemid=40

Bellagio Conservatory and the Bellagio Art gallery are also good if you like that sort of thing, I did a Art and Wine trip around the Bellagio gallery was only about $30 and was very informative, and the wine was pretty good.

Lake Mead and the Valley or Fire are also worth a visit if you that way inclined.

I've heard there's a soft cash game at the MGM

Very soft apparently.

Happy to give some more suggestions when you let us know what type of things you are looking to do.

As a few ideas, I'd say Hugos would make a good birthday meal choice.  Go to Tix4Tonite booth and you will prolly get a 25% off total bill voucher for $3.  The restaurant is downtown in 4Queens, 8 of you may as well get a stretch limo down there for the same price as 2 clapped out taxis.  Old school Vegas charm (starting to wear a little bit, but still very decent)  The price on the entree includes tableside salad to start, sides with the main, sorbet course, table dessert, bottled water, so no real need for anyone to order anything else, $50/head (before discount) does it.  The wine list is about the best European wine list you will find in Vegas, and very well priced.  The discount applies to wine as well.  The sommelier will be happy to give you some suggestions from his private stock too, not on the menu.  Not at the CUT/Carnevino level, but it is a pretty good meal and very very good value, particularly if you like your wine.

Whilst in Tix4Tonite, may as well pick up some show tickets too - whatever the group are into.  I never tire of CDS and can see them again and again.  Love and O are the best of those imo.  Absinthe is also well reviewed and any comedy headliner that takes your fancy would also work.

If your group golfs, lots of options there ofc, won't write a para to find out you don't golf....  If the guys do and the women don't, drop them off at Premium Outlets and you can both take as long as you want.

Red Rock Nature Trail worth a look

If you do the Canyon, would massively suggest a helicopter trip that lands in the canyon >>> long-haul car journey.

Could rent a boat on Lake Mead

Oh, and if you aren't committed, would think about changing out of Monte Carlo.  It's ok, certainly nothing to worry about and a decent location.  But there are some very decent deals flying around atm, I imagine you could probably get a much better hotel for the money - unless you already got a crazy price.

All booked Simon i'm afraid. 4 couples not really sporty, deffo pissheads. I'm the only one pokering so i'll keep the MGM in mind. I'm thinking sightseeing stuff and nights out.

Hellicopter to GC is probably the way to go, but when we went there (we came in from the south and went to LV after the GC) we drove and it was truely one of those moments that takes your breath away.  You can't see it on the way in to the National Park as there's quite a few trees about.  After we drove up for a while we saw some cars parked up and wondered what they were looking at and as we got close it was like when you stand still and the world zooms out, it was so so amazing.   Camped there overnight and sat and watched the sun go down.  

Lovely trip.

With poker going to allow myself 3 maybe 4 tournies around the $50 mark, would i be able play this sort of tournie anytime?

Start off at Main Street Station lunctime, a drink in each casino downtown.  (MSS, Cali, PLaza, then onto Fremont)  Usually something crazy happening somewhere ~ and if not, you will be having plenty of fun yourselves by time you get to the Nugget.  Which will be a solid choice to eat too...  For me (adding Hugos ^^ another night) that's enough of Downtown, but others love it, so YMMV.

Can do a similar crawl on the Strip, start Mandalay Bay and work North and either see how far you get or just stop wherever looks like fun.

Depending on how young at heart the group is, some of the Lounge bars (Caramel @ Bellagio, GOLD @ ARia etc) are good without being full-scale techno nightclubs.  Unlimited choices of places to eat if dining will be the centre-piece of a night out.

These are going to be "10 a.m." tournies - check out the tourny schedule from cardplayer magazine available free in the cardrooms to see what time & where near you.  Might be better to use the same budget to play 2x noon tournies at Aria or Venetian if you want a better structure as a 'poker purist' ~ the 10am jobbies will undoubtedly be hyper-turbo, which is fine if you want a quick fix and not get docked too many brownie points.

Question re Tix4Tonite, if you get there super early in the morning do you get better seats.

I gave up on them towards the end of my last visit, they either only had balcony or rear seating available, or when they had the good seating areas it was obvious they were only allocated sides, rear stalls etc

Simon may correct me here but I think personally it would be worth choosing your shows pre trip and booking seats where possible either on ticketmaster or direct hotel sites to guarantee good seats.

Monte Carlo is short walk to Aria. 1pm and 7pm tournies are $125 buy in so probably too pricey but cracking structure.

I think if I had my heart set on seeing show X, I'd book pre trip and lock up the best seats.  If it was a case of "let's see a comedy show/hypnotist show tonight" then it doesn't really matter and I'd take the discount tickets.  As for optimal times, I haven't used them enough to know for sure.  I have gone there and just baulked at the Q length several times tho and just booked direct anyway!  I have also had some pretty good seats just by asking "what else do you have further back" or whatever.  The restaurant vouchers are definitely worth doing if you can be arsed to get them.  "Dinner for 6 persons 8pm" for young poker players tends to be "dinner for 3 people somewhere else at 10:30" so the vouchers aren't worthwhile, but for a group of 50-year olds, there are plenty of higher-end restaurants offering decent discounts and table availability.

Yah, agree with this. Went to see Penn and Teller via them and the seats were so far back it was hard to see.

Is it just me that thinks the Grand Canyon is way overrated? I reckon I can easily think of 10 places in the US alone that have been more impressive with regard to natural scenery imo.

Ofc I would still go, because it is still worth it, just way overhyped.

1/2 day helicopter trip way to see canyon

I really like going up the eiffel tower and watching the bellagio fountains at night

Whats temp like this time of year? Will it be warm enough to have a dip at say 10 in the morning?

Easter is quite early this year.

At worst, you will be fine for a quick dip.  At best, you will be fine all day.  Depends largely on how windy it is, air temp should be fine.

Depends on what you mind as well.

I was perfectly within my comfort zone to go for a dip first thing when I went in November - but I saw one person swimming in a wetsuit because of the same temperature.

Yeah I was assuming "for the average Brit" - they guy from Arizona has the wetsuit on in the summer too.

I don't mind the swim in November either, get in, do some lengths, pool to yourself.  Just a couple of lifeguards huddled together for warmth thinking "those Brits are bonkers"

Mind you, when you get out, you disappear pretty quickly, no drip drying by the pool....

Helicopter ride tongrand canyon shit boring look out of plane window as u come into land
Helicopter ride along strip at dusk brilliant
O at the bellagio seen it 3 times dunno what it's about but still v good
Love at mirage
Roller coaster at new York new York
Never had a bad steak there yet but smiths and wollenskys most expensive all others fine
Any buffet at the bellagio
Saturday dinner buffet at aria
2/7 bus ride along strip
Caesars palace well worth a walk round
Star trek exhibition ( if it's still on ) at Hilton plus drink in bar after ( we got shedded in there one time had great crack)
Most taxi drivers sell gear / know good rub n tug places
Ballys Sunday brunch
Don't play Omaha with lil dave !!!

i lold

Swimming, wetsuits reminds of a mate who went to his first Iron man sesh at the local lake, everyones gearing off to reveal wetsuits, mates stood there in his trunks.

What time you planning on playing your poker tournies? In Vegas they tend to either be crapshoot affairs in the morning or eveing tourneys. Not many run in the arvie. At your buyin level they are raked to fk too 30-40% off the top will be the norm

(http://www.spearmintrhinolv.com/sites/1/pods/shophometop.jpg)

Vegaslover- What would you suggest. 30/40% sounds shit crapshoot sounds shit.

Ah yes, but the players are also shit so they are +ev

As has been mentioned - a couple of $100+ tournaments instead of a few really cheap ones should be much more satisfying.

I didn't play them but the Aria $125's have been highly rated by everyone I know who played them

Grinding those full time would be a mistake.  But playing 2 on holiday... totally fine.  Relatively inexpensive buyin, sensible structure (a fair balance between having to row for home from level 1 and having too much of a marathon on your hands)

Excalibur has a few trnys around $50

1 p.m. - $40 buy-in
3,000 starting chips • 50/100 starting blinds
Blinds increase every 15 minutes
5 p.m. - $40 buy-in
3,000 starting chips • 50/100 starting blinds
Blinds increase every 15 minute

You can get an extra 1000 chips for $10

I played one of these when in vegas last July. Standard is terrible

Also have a trny every saturday night where there are strippers on podiums, didnt see or play in this so no idea if it was any good

I stayed there in Nov, played one of these, never again. Was something like 8bigs ave by the 3rd level, raked to fuck as well. Soo few entrants just not worth it.

Probs the best structured, low buy in game is at the Stratosphere. $45 plus 1 optional rebuy/add on for $20 . Think its 4k chips plus 4k for rebuy/add on. Have a very slow structure, especially for Vegas. Gets 70-100 runners in the evening.

Another cheap tourney is the 2pm tropicana tourney. Its about $40 but again is raked to fk. Structure okay though.

A couple of locals I spoke to rate the Wynn $120 evening game. Decent numbers and not so good players

I was staying in the tropicana and played that 2pm twice, both times was only 9 players, and yeah the rake was massive

www.allvegaspoker.com (http://www.allvegaspoker.com) has a rundown of everything in all casinos, it's normally pretty accurate and even gives estimates as to the top prize (no idea how accurately)


Here are a list of the ones in the better poker rooms to save you looking :)

Aria
 
 
$125 Daily @ 1pm and 7pm
 
Re-entry
 
10k starting chips
 
30 minute clock
 
$2800 for first average with 70 runners
 
 
Bellagio
 
 
$120 Daily @ 2pm
 
Re-entry
 
10k chips
 
25 minute clock
 
$3k for first average with 45 runners
 
 
Venetian
 
 
$150 Daily @ 12pm
 
No Re-entry
 
8k Chips
 
30 minute clock
 
$3200 first average with 100 runners
 
 
$120 Daily @ 7pm
 
Re-entry
 
8k Chips
 
20 minute clock
 
$5k first prize average with 110 runners
 
30 minute levels after first break
 
 
 
Wynn
 
 
$125 Daily @ 12pm
 
Re-entry (100)
 
10k chips
 
30 minute clock
 
$1800 first prize with average 40 runners
 


Caesars
 
$65 9am/3pm Everyday 2500 chips 15 min clock
 
$80 10pm Everyday 5000 chips 20 min clock

I got lucky, 20 odd the couple of times I played it. Shame as it's a nice little room

Grand Canyon by helicopter, is it best to book with travel agents (they say it is, as you would expect) before you go out there £264 or book while you are there £???

Just do there, its around $300 I think.

£188
here

http://www.viator.com/Las-Vegas/d684-ttd

Great website, thanks a lot.

Small print- price does not include $45 processing fee, fekkers.

That's an extra with everyone and the charge varies too. Make sure you get a courtesy pick up and drop off back to the hotel too, most do it via limo.

Thinking about doing this - Grand Canyon chopper tour with landing, with me+3 at end of March. Obviously several companies offer this all at similar prices ($300ish). Has anyone been with one of these companies and would definitely recommend one? Other one I've mainly seen is Papillon, who are linked through from smartervegas.com.

Other thing I'm looking for at the mo is a traditional US steak place. Don't want anything fancy at all, just giant steaks at reasonable prices. Guys I'm going with are definitely not blonde-balla. Any recommendations appreciated.

I've used papillion and maverick, they were both pretty much the same tbh.

(http://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu339/Andr4w1/2006_0917CanyonGrand0020.jpg)

ill add that Sundance were good too

Just to add some weight to the 'driving there' argument.  We hired a 4x4 and drove over, left about 11ish, had an hour or so at the Hoover dam, then a couple of hours at the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  Cost like $60 each for 5 us for the 4x4 with fuel.  One guy loves driving a little to much tho, and was happy to do the lot, I was happy with my feet up in the back chilling. :)

Thanks all. We are considering having a car instead, it just seems like a very long drive out to the Canyon. Google maps says 5 hours each way. Accurate?

Edit: Just had a search and realised the skywalk is closer to Vegas. 3h20m says Google, not so bad.

5 hours seems pretty accurate to grand canyon village, so assume the 3hr 20 is close as well.

From memory is was about an hour to the Hoover, then about 1h30 from there to Skywalk. 

Never more than 2h30m anyway, definately not.  If I had a gun to my head I would say 2h20m.

Just been reading more about the Skywalk. Looks pretty amazing, but you can't take your own camera on it "to protect the glass". Hah!! Then they let they're own photographers on who charge $30/photo! And the ticket price is $30 each (reasonable I guess) but then you ADD $43 for getting into the West Rim area!! Taking the piss a bit there aren't they? Makes hiring a car the cheapest part of the day.

Yeah its not cheap, forgot it was that much tbh. 

I think the helicopter ride is probably better option, I was just saying the car option is not as bad as you might think perhaps.

$25 per car for a week pass at the proper Grand canyon national park fwiw.

Would recommend either Hugos (which I wrote about earlier in this thread) or Circusx2 steakhouse Circusx2 (http://www.circuscircus.com/images/PDF/SteakhouseMenu.pdf) or Riviera Riviera (http://www.rivierahotel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rsteakdinnermenu.pdf)

Any cheaper than that, you are in shoe leather from a 24hour cafe territory - and that's just not cricket.

I haven't been to the Riviera one yet, but feedback from friends is that it is not top notch, but very good, and very very good for the money.

Thanks. Riviera 24oz Porterhouse for $30 is exactly what I was after, especially if it is reasonable quality. American excess ftw. Circusx2 looks pretty good as well. Will consult with the chaps.

I love driving over there too, there's so much to see driving about and I hate being a passenger.  Works well for the Mrs and me as she likes a snooze along the way.

Let me know if it's any good pls?

Plans are fluid, but if it happens, I will report :).

I went on the skywalk with my stepson in 2009. They made out it could take the weight of a jumbo jet ? But could not take on phones and cameras in case you dropped em and chipped the glass.

Would never drive/bus there again tho

Having returned yesterday, thought I'd report on suggestions here:
Skywalk was good. Knowing what to expect helped, $300 for 4 was pricey but not unexpected, so liveable with. Having done the South Rim before, the West was different, but still extremely impressive. The Skywalk itself was good - I have no problem with heights, but I think a couple of the guys I was with found it fairly exhilarating! Bought one group photo ($30), and will scan/share between the 4 of us. Was about 3 hours from Vegas, including about 9 miles of unavoidable dirt road, but no problem. Car got fairly dusty, glad we swerved the convertible in favour of yank-tank SUV in the end. Did the dam/bridge on the way back; day worked out really well.

Didn't do Riviera steakhouse, sorry Simon, but did do the Steakhouse at Circus Circus, which thoroughly deserves it's reputation. It was very very good indeed. Nice ambience, great service, superb food. Went down very well indeed. <$100 each although only had 1 bottle of wine

Other main meals:
Outback steakhouse - chain restaurant, but very very nice steaks
Hooters - chicken, shrimp and cheap beer. Yum yum
Buffet at Fremont Hotel (Downtown) - old school Vegas buffet, $15 prime rib dinner. Was on a recommended list, and for that price it was excellent. Good selection. I only had 4 main courses (prime rib, sushi, pizza, mexican), plus salad and dessert :).
So a good mix.

One thing we learned is that if you're not gambling, the price of drinks can vary massively. From paying nearly $40 for a round of beers in the Venetian, we found we could get $1 bottles or frozen margaritas just down the road in Casino Royale (even not gambling)

Nice one will look for them. We fly in morning. Report back in a week.

Have a great time

Got back last week had a great time. Folk really friendly, Monte carlo pleasent enough stay, rooms a bit dated but best i've ever stayed in. Drinks on strip really expensive $17 for two pints of Bud in hotel. Harley bar just over the road £17 for two Coronas. Found Bills casino just past Ballys, 2 1/2 pint jugs of Millers or Coors $7 usually half decent entertainment on, big (and i mean big) Elvis on an afternoon. Downtown worth a visit much cheaper beer $2 for Corona. Poker wise just played cash in the Monte Carlo, bit daunting at first sitting down and realising you are the only English guy round the table. Soon settle down though when you realise the biggest part can't play, easy money. Took a couple of bad beats and still come out even. Did the GC with Maverick, $350 for 4 hr trip. Worth every penny. I'd go again but not at Easter really busy over the Easter weekend.

I loved this place (and the bar), has a downtown feel to it slap bang in the middle of the strip!