4 Queens and Downtown casinos, July 31-Aug.3

This is my first trip report so hopefully it’s readable.

This was a 3 day trip for my husband (S) and I. We usually travel to Vegas 2-3 times a year. S plays proper strategy on $1 VP and he also plays craps and some blackjack. I play basic strategy blackjack and lousy video poker. We don’t have a host but get plenty of offers from downtown casinos due to S’s play. I play enough bad 25 cent VP to get the odd free play offer but I don’t get rated for BJ since I’m not playing at the $25 level. For years my husband has told me I don’t press my bets enough so after a little practice before we left, I vowed to go for it this time. On previous trips, if I ever left the table ahead $100, I’d be grinning from ear to ear.


Heading into this trip, S had collected:

3 free nights at the 4 Queen’s
3 free nights at the Golden Gate (didn’t use)
3 free nights at the Plaza (didn’t use)
$80 freeplay at Binion’s
$80 freeplay at 4 Queen’s
$40 freeplay at Golden Gate
$75 food credit at 4 Queen’s
$75 food credit from Binion’s to be used at 4 Queen’s

I had amassed the grand total of $20 free play at Binion’s.

We also had some credits on our player’s cards from the Plaza, Binion’s and the Golden Gate which could be used for food.

We were a little hesitant to go during the summer when the forecast said it would be over 100 degrees but circumstances with our kids gave us an opportunity to get away without worrying about them ‘partying the house down’ so we decided to grab the chance. S recently retired and was given a gift certificate for free travel. After using the gift certificate, the trip ended up costing us $12 for tickets.

We left home around 6 am with 2 small carry on bags. Flew to Seattle and breezed through customs with a sigh of relief. Last April, we flew through Vancouver on the way to Reno and had a bit of an issue with customs. We were carrying $9600 on us and we filled out the form saying we had less than $10,000. (Canadians can take $10,000 per family to the U.S. without declaring it. Coming home, we are able to bring back $10,000 each without declaring it.) Anyhow, the customs guy in Vancouver for some reason asked how much money we had so we told him $9600. That seemed to set him off and he wanted to know if the reason we had $9600 was so we didn’t have to declare it. After a few more questions about our money and lack of baggage (we had 1 small duffel bag and a laptop bag – we travel light), he sent us off to the back room to have our bags looked at and our money counted. The customs guys were determined we were trying to hide something, even adding exchange onto the $9600 to try to bring it up past $10,000. (Ya right, the exchange was all of 2 cents so yes, that brought us up to $9,792.00) Then they added in the Canadian money we were carrying ($100). Just a warning to Canadians taking near or over $10,000 – leave some extra time. 30 minutes of dickering in Vancouver and we were on our way. So we were very thankful to breeze through Seattle as we didn’t have alot of time before our flight to Vegas.

We got to Vegas around 10 :30 and landed at the new terminal. Had a bit of a wait for a cab, seems they aren’t quite organized yet. We told the driver no tunnel and had a quick trip to 4 Queen’s for $28. We had no problem checking in early and got a room on the 19th floor. It was a typical 4 Queens room, basic enough to do the trick.

After unpacking, we headed out and hit the bar at 4Queens where S used his $80 free play for VP. I did my regular $20 and played quarters for free drinks. After an hour and a half of play, and 3 comped drinks each for courage, we both left as winners. We headed over to the D where I vowed to press my bets on BJ. I was playing $10 BJ and after 30 minutes, left a couple hundred up. Feeling pretty good at this point, we headed over to Binion’s. I don’t normally play BJ at Binion’s because of their rules and grumpy dealers but managed to find one table with pretty good rules ($10, D on any 2 cards, DAS, 3-2) so decided to give it a try. I was up about $200 when S came by with $1000 VP win so after I finished my session, we headed to the Golden Gate. S used his free play while I played BJ. Neither of us had much luck so it was off to the Las Vegas Club, followed by the Plaza and then to MSS for lunch.

I’ve heard Joe and others here rave about the 777Brew Club so it’s been on my list of places to go for a long time. We both ordered steak sandwiches and they were pretty good. This is the only meal we paid for and it was about $30 with tip. It was about 4 in the afternoon and we were running out of steam, so we headed back to the 4Q for a nap. Between us we had spent about $1000 and managed to put $2400 in the safe, so we slept well.

Our next session started around 8 p.m. Did the rounds of 4Q, The D and Golden Gate. Can’t remember too many details but we ended the night around 2 a.m. with our wallets needing a refill. Oh ya, we had dinner at Magnolia’s using our food credits and it was better than usual. I like chef’s salad but have always thought the chicken at Magnolia’s tasted like it was left in the fridge for a week. This time it was fresh and S’s clubhouse was loaded as well.

The second day started at the Plaza. I wanted to try Hash House a Go Go since I’d heard so much about it on this board. We went to the Slot Booth to check our points and found that they had been deleted from S’s account since our trip last February. This is the 2nd time his points have magically disappeared at the Plaza but we had free food at enough places that it wasn’t a big deal. We headed over to the Golden Gate and checked at the Club booth and found we both had comped credits, so we took a $20 voucher for breakfast. Did the rounds of downtown clubs, had lunch at Binion’s with comps from our card, played an hour of Sigma Derby at the D (they had great drink service there btw) and generally had an average day.

These are just random notes from the day :

The D was undergoing renovations at their Vue bar. They are building a larger balcony and adding an escalater from Freemont Street up to the second floor. They are also changing their chips at the end of this month so now’s the time to grab your last Fitz chips.

There is also a Denny’s coming soon downtown. I saw the sign somewhere but can’t remember exactly where.

We checked out the pool at Binion’s and where surprised to see no one using it. It was about 105 degrees and the place was empty. It looked like a clean pool with lots of seating area. We didn’t see any drink service though.

The Golden Gate renovations are nice, especially the new washrooms. But I do have one complaint about the sinks. They look like a urinal trough. The water comes on for 0.2 seconds (and I’m being generous about that time). There is no hope in hell of ever washing your hands under that water. By the time you flap your hands in front of the sensor and move the ¼ inch to the running water, it’s done! With the slope of the sink, water splashes everywhere and I noticed the floor in front of the sink is covered with water. How anyone manages to be quick enough to actually splash water is beyond me. Some designer sure goofed there.

The Golden Gate has a high limit area where the old washroom used to be. In the 3 nights we were there, we never saw one person playing. It’s all table games, no slots. They also have valet parking which is kind of comical given the parking lot out back is not very full and only 10 steps from the building. But it’s a nice touch. (Since writing this, I talked to my husband who says the valet parking was really busy. Who would have thought?)

Do not order bourbon at Binion’s. It’s beyond bad.

We wore shorts during the day and pants at night. Since the only time we are out of the casino is to walk quickly from one to another, the heat wasn’t really an issue. Standing at the corner waiting to cross over to the Plaza was the only time we got a little hot. Unless you’re spending alot of time walking, you can wear whatever you usually do and be comfortable. You can always zip into some casino to cool off.

I'll post the rest tomorrow.

 

Thanks for writing. I always enjoy a good downtown trip report.

 

nice report of Dtown....I will be checking out the GGate new room...interesting

 

Nice report! Sandwiches at 777 only "pretty good", sorry to hear that. I guess it's better than pretty bad.:evillaugh

 

The steak sandwiches were great Joe! What made them only pretty good, was that we couldn't play video poker at the bar while we ate them! Actually, all the food passing our way looked pretty good there. We'll definately being going back for more.

 

Day 3 started at Magnolia’s for breakfast. I ordered a mushroom, cheese and ham omellete and S had pancakes. The pancakes were delicious but my omellette was pretty bad. The mushrooms tasted like they had sat on the grill for hours and the eggs had been cooking since the day before. I ended up picking out the ham and cheese and leaving the eggs and mushrooms. It was free so no big deal, but I can’t say that I’d recommend Magnolia’s. It’s always so random as to whether it’s going to be a good day or bad there.

We then used the computer at the 4Q lobby to print our boarding passes. It’s $5 for a certain amount of minutes. I can’t remember exactly, but it seemed to be about 10 minutes. We printed our passes and had 5 minutes left so I wanted to check to see how a friend of ours did who was competing at the Olympics. Just then the computer froze. We waited about a minute, while our time was ticking down and then went to the front desk for help. She said those computers freeze up all the time and that’s just the way it is. Well, that was sure helpful! It’s quite the racket they’re running there. The computer finally came up with about a minute to spare . Unfortunately, our friend came in 5th so we were disappointed for him but not enough to slow us down!

We did the rounds of all the clubs again and I managed to pull a few wins (going with $100 – leaving with $200-$250). Unfortunately, S didn’t do so well and just couldn’t get on a roll anywhere. We must have putzed the day away somehow and went for a nap to kill time. After our rest, S played VP at 4Q and I headed over to the D for BJ. I sat down at an empty table and hit a great winning streak. After about 45 minutes, I headed out with my very first $500 chip. Yahoo!!! The dealer was friendly and made some money off me as well.

After my big win, we headed over to the Golden Gate. I like playing there because the dealers are friendly and the rules are pretty good. S and I both sat down and managed to get some wins. At one table I pushed my bet up to $100 when I had to double down. Not that I was worried, I was feeling lucky in my bones. But you know how it goes…that’s the one I lost. Played a little more and left GG with a few hundred more than I started with. It was around midnight and we had an early morning flight so we headed back to 4Q. Of course we couldn’t just walked directly there, that would be silly. We wandered through Binion’s on the way and S decided we should give BJ just one more try. I was ahead for the day and wanted to go to sleep a winner so I wasn’t as keen as he was. But it was either sit and watch S or play along, so we both sat down with $100 each. And guess what happened? We won, we won again and we just kept winning! There were 5 of us at the table and we were all winning. About 45 minutes later when the slump came, S cashed out with $260 and I left with $520. My second $500 chip of the day! It was so tempting to stay longer but we really needed to get some sleep.

We stopped in at the Chicago Brew Club for some of their great pizza (billed to our room and comped) and then got some sleep.

Up at 6 am and checked out of our room. Total cost for room for 3 nights - $1.50 (phone calls). Taxi to airport was $32.

Final tally :

Flight : $12
Meals : $30 at 777 Brew Club
Drinks : lots. We didn’t actually buy a single drink but tipped $1 per drink from our gambling money
Hotel : $1.50
Taxis : $60 plus tips
Total win : $920 with our original bankroll intact for next time

Another great trip and we were home early afternoon. That gave us the evening to search the flights back to Vegas. A week later and we’re booked for October!

 

Very cool, I've never touched a $500 chip. Of course I'm a low roller at craps and the darn VP machines never spit out $500 chips.

 

Thanks for Trip report..Enjoyed it

 

Thank you for a great trip report. Love the Downtown reports. We'll be checking in to the 4 Queens the end of next month. (We've not stayed there before).

Were you in the South Tower?
How was the noise?
Anything we should be aware of?

I sure hope our trip goes half as well as yours.

Thanks again.

 

Great trip report

You had a great time. Somehow you found a cab ride downtown for 28 bucks.

You spent $103.50, plus drink tips, plus meal tips.

You still had $920 more in your pocket than you started with.

Now, did the kids party down the house anyway?

 

Well done! Good times and you came home with 1k more

 

Very nice TR. I'm heading to 4Q at the end of this month and can't wait!

 

We stayed in the south tower and it was very noisy. On 2 of the nights, the band between the D and 4 Queen's played from 11-2 am. After the first night, we checked the schedule so were able to adjust our hours to match theirs. And having enough to drink also helped!

I don't know what you're playing ValerieJo but I would recommend playing blackjack anywhere else but the 4Queen's. All the tables I saw this trip payed 6/5. If your playing VP, there are 2 rows of good machines by the keno lounge.

Beware of the tall bartender at the back bar. I'm not really complaining, just saying to use this information wisely but my husband actually had to leave the bar because the guy just kept bringing him really good drinks and wouldn't quit. I know it's hard to believe that that's a problem but last trip he did the same to me. It was around noon and I was having a couple drinks while playing VP at his bar. He came by with some special raspberry concoction he had made. I really didn't want it because I was trying to pace myself, but not wanting to hurt his feelings, I drank it anyways. I kid you not, I had to go for a nap after drinking it because I was so woozy. No way would I have lasted the night if I had of kept going. He's a great guy but his drinks are wicked!

And one more tip for what it's worth, if your using points to grab some free gifts at the club card booth, the blue blankets are really nice! I have 4 so far and would have got another this trip but didn't have room in our carryon. I'm collecting them for the kids for when/if they move out!

And to BackInVegas, the best win of all was when we got home and the house was still standing! Having the boy out of town while we were away, made all the difference. His parties (or should I say, his clean-up abilities) leave alot to be desired. It was all good this time!

 

Great report...gotta love downtown.

 

Thank you Gambler for all of your advice. I might try to request a room away from the music. I will certainly beware of the tall bartender

Thanks again for the info.