9/5 First Time to all Casinos on Fremont Street

This was my 8th trip to Vegas and I finally managed to make it downtown. I had planned to go downtown in May during my last trip, but time went by so fast and I didn’t want to miss an entire day of playing poker on the strip to go.

After listening to the advice of some posters here, I decided to spend a bulk of my time at Main Street Station but I stopped at every casino to collect a chip for my collection. I already have one from every strip casino from a trip in 2011, as well as Rio, Palms, and Gold Coast so this would mostly complete my collection minus Hard Rock and some smaller and locals casino’s which I don’t really need to have.

I am mainly a poker player, and this was the reason for my trip. After arriving on Wednesday and checking into Flamingo, I played poker the rest of the day and won about $250 so a decent start to the trip.

I woke up Thursday morning by 7am and after getting ready for the day, I decided to go to Planet Hollywood to get Earl of Sandwich for breakfast. I checked out the bus stop for the SDX in front of Paris and how to use the ticket machine for later, and then after eating my sandwich, it was only 8am so I decided to play poker for a little while at PH before going downtown. It turned out to be a wise decision as I made over $300 in less than an hour.

I decided to take the SDX at 1030am from Paris and was excited to finally check out old Vegas. I also was happy to only be bringing the $500 or so I was up at this point so everything would be “free” regardless of the outcome and I would enjoy myself. The bus trip was quick and smooth and arrived in under 30 minutes to the Fremont Street Experience.

It was desolate once I arrived, I was one of only a handful of people walking around in the morning, but I was surprised at how close the casinos were to each other.

The first casino I went to was El Cortez and then back to the canopy. From this point on, I will detail my general impressions of each casino.

El Cortez- It was a far walk from the rest of the casinos and I only decided to stop there since I arrived so early downtown. It was very smoky and I just didn’t like the vibe of the place. I walked around for about 15 minutes or so before heading to the cage for a dollar chip. There was a line and the person in front of me had some in his hand so I just gave him a dollar for one.

The D, Freemont- Both places seemed ok but since I wanted to check out every casino, I didn’t spend much time there and just got a dollar chip from the cage.

Golden Nugget- I planned to play poker here before I started drinking, and was glad to see that they had a 1-2 no limit game running. However, there was a waiting list so rather than wait around I decided to just get my chip from here and it was somewhere I would have played in if I didn’t want to make it to the rest of downtown in one afternoon.

The other casinos would not just sell me a dollar chip at the cage so I had to play at a table to get one.

Four Queens- Chicago Brewing Co. looked nice, but I didn’t go in and other than that, I just wanted to get a chip and move on. I had to sit at a $5 BJ table and played a few hands, won $10 and left.

Binion’s- They have a William Hill Sportsbook, and since the over/under of the Thursday night NFL game was a half point lower there, I placed my bet there on the over $44 to win $40. I made sure to ask when the sportsbook closed and they said 9pm which seemed stupid because the game wouldn’t even be over yet let alone late baseball games. If you are a fan of free bet blackjack, they had the best rules I have seen for the game at this point. Mirage has 3:2 payouts but $10 minimum bet and continuous shuffle. Casino Royale has $5 minimum but only pays 6:5. At Binion’s, it was a $5 minimum, paid 3:2, and was a 6 deck shoe. They even let people at the table bet $3 a hand even though it was posted at $5. I could have sat there all day, but I stayed for an hour or so and had 2 Sam Adam’s to start drinking for the day since it was past noon. I cashed out up $15, got my chip, and then lost $20 on the Family Guy slot.

Another goal of this trip was to play coin operated slots for the first time, as I have never even seen anything without a TITO in person before.

Mermaids- Tiny place and reminded me more of an arcade than a casino. I decided to play a 25 cent Wheel of Fortune slot, so I put a $20 in and after hitting nothing with about $4 left, I hit double bar-double diamond-double diamond for 200 quarters. I hit the cashout button right after and it was so cool to see literally 200+ quarters being spit out of the machine. I filled up the tiny plastic bucket they had there almost to the top and decided just to cash them in rather than playing anymore. The novelty of the idea seemed fun, but I did not just want to sit there all day so I just took my 8 or 10 oz. plastic cup of miller lite they gave me and moved on.

La Bayou- Same thing as mermaids, they had girls passing out beads in front but I walked in for a minute then left.

Golden Gate- I lost about $25 on the Cheers slot, grabbed my chip, and then left. I don’t remember anything from here, so I can’t say it is good or bad.

Las Vegas Club- When I walked in, I was enticed by a sign that said “world’s most liberal blackjack,” and it was a $5 table, so I decided to play after they wouldn’t sell me a chip at the cage. If I remember correctly, 6 cards without busting and you win, double at any time any amount of cards, resplits, surrender, but downside was BJ paid even money. The alternate BJ rules never affected me, but I was upset at myself for being conservative and flat betting because I won the first 6 hands in a row. Oh well, I made $40 in like 15 minutes and then tried the 50 cent wheel of fortune slot. I hit a spin right away for 50 credits, so made another $22 on that.

Plaza- I signed up for a card here since they tier matched my Caesar’s Platinum card for a Queen card. I did bad on their free slot tourney, then lost just under $50 on a 1 cent 150 credit quick hits machine. All I managed was 5 quick hits once and the homeless looking lady next to me managed to get the free games bonus playing 1 cent 1 line somehow.

I now am within reach of my plan to watch the opening NFL game at MSS. Just a stop at the California then I can relax and not move around all day.

California- I had an urge to play craps there but the only table that was open was full. I walked by it a few times, but never a spot open so I decided to play Texas Holdem Bonus. I planned to play a few hands and get my dollar chip, but to my surprise they had dollar coins; Never seen that before at a table game. I won almost every hand I played and won $70. I noticed there was a Main Street Station Coin mixed in with mine so I kept one of each when I went to the cage and got a chip as well.

Main Street Station- I finally arrived at my last downtown casino. I posted a thread about what to do downtown and it was almost unanimous that this was where I should go. I planned on trying all of their microbrews, gambling, and watching the Broncos and Ravens game. When I got there, I was starving. It was 2:40 pm and their happy hour menu started at 3, so I got a players card and they gave me a free deck of cards. I went to the Boar’s Head Bar and found it suitable to watch the game and ordered a 777 Marker Pale Ale. It tasted alright, but not any better than Sierra Nevada in my opinion. I played some 25 cent Double Double Bonus poker at the bar while drinking the beer and made $10 before getting lunch at the 777 restaurant. Wow, looks amazing inside. The whole setup is great and the prices are just right. Their rotational beer was their IPA, which I was hoping it would be after seeing the menu. The IPA tasted much better than the Pale Ale to me, and I would have drunk them for the rest of the day, but they only serve them in the restaurant. Not sure the reason why, but I would have preferred to have been able to have them while gambling and at the Boar’s Head Bar. I ordered the chicken wings with Cajun BBQ sauce and they were probably the most delicious thing I ate in Vegas all week.

After eating, I sat down and played Pai Gow Poker while waiting for the game to start. I played break-even for almost 2 hours. I tried ordering the High Roller, but they were temporarily out so they brought me the royal red lager instead. I took one sip, but I just did not like the taste of it so went back to the Pale ale. When the game finally started after the lightning delay, I went back to the bar which I was surprised to be empty with the game on and $1.75 microbrews but the bartenders and few people there were friendly. I was starting to feel the effects of the beer at this point, and decided to play some more Video Poker. I only played for about 10 minutes or so before I held 2 7’s and got the other 2 for 250 credits and a $2 scratch card. Completely forgot about the scratch card, but the attendant was there giving one to the person next to me when I hit it so that was good timing. I did try the high roller gold as well, but wasn’t much of a fan. The IPA was my favorite of the ones I tried followed by the pale ale.

I won my over bet and decided to play craps at the end of the game. I was up almost $100 at one point but I pressed too much and left after losing $60. I had a great time at MSS an if I do go downtown again, I will definitely make sure to go back.

Freemont Street Experience- It was around 11pm when I walked through it on the way back to the bus, but I was hammered and just wanted to get back to the bus stop to head back to the strip. Everyone was just standing around with no regards to people trying to walk through. Must be even worse on the weekends as this was a Thursday night.

Lastly, I remembered about the loss rebate at the plaza so I decided to lose $1 there so my loss was $50 so I could get $25 the next day, but I somehow turned it into $7 in a penny monopoly spin machine so I would just settle for $20 slot play (never made it back downtown to claim it.)

I then went to Binion’s to cash in my football ticket, but the cashier said I needed to cash it in at the Plaza. Wonderful, I just left the Plaza to come here and have to walk all the way back, and then back past Binions again to catch the bus. Not sure why they never told me that when I placed my bet. There was about 60 people waiting for the bus, but surprisingly we all fit on the SDX.

Overall, I enjoyed my trip downtown, collect casino chips for my collection, drank all day, and came back with more than $100 extra dollars in my pocket than I went with. That’s a great day in my book.

I will ad a few pictures from my phone once I figure out how to do it.

 

Great report. Love getting peoples opinions of dt, especially first timers.

 

Thanks for the TR. I enjoyed reading it and glad you had a good time downtown. As far as poker downtown, I believe that the Golden Nugget has the best room for NL cash games and tournaments. I have played there several times and had a good time. Binions is probably 2nd best but its been awhile since I played there. Dewey sings the praises of the El Cortez poker room but I have never played there at all. You dont get nearly as many young loose aggressive players downtown like you see on the strip though. I find tons of grinders mixed in with tourists staying at the hotels. But its typically a pleasant experience.

 

I went to all of the poker rooms downtown. El Cortez and Binions did not have any no limit holdem tables when I was there. Plaza was closed until monday because they just installed electronic tables. I would have played at the Golden Nugget, but you can't beat the strip as far as poker availability and the mix of players is similar to what you described but the games are easy to win.

 

Thanks for sharing this very nice summary of downtown casinos.

I will make it there next time, I swear!!

 

How was your Flamingo room? Where was it located and were you troubled by construction noise?
Thanks for sharing....

 

i stayed in a go room the first few day and a fab room the last few days of my trip. I was not bothered at all by construction noise, but before midnight there was extremely loud noise coming from carlos and charlies my first night but i didnt notice it any other days, but i didnt get back to my room until later the other nights. They were both on the back side of the hotel facing the high roller wheel on the tower closest to Bill's/Gansvoort.

 

Thanks, that write up was really helpful as I'm about to stay downtown for the first time ever. In all my trips to Vegas I've spent like a total of 5 hours downtown and don't really remember any of it!

 

Lol, that was my reason for writing this as I didn't want to forget what I did there. I don't know if I would ever stay there over the strip, but the prices and limits are so low so it is good if you are on a budget.