Plan My Downtown Trip With Me! Oct 5-9

I've enjoyed reading everyone's trip reports and observations, and this will be my first real trip staying downtown. I've been to Vegas 8-10 times, only coming downtown once. I haven't been out at all in a year or so, and felt like doing something different, and I also will also be travelling solo to Vegas for only the second time.

I will be staying Downtown Sun-Thurs Oct 5-9(Sunday GN, Mon-Thurs The D), and then comped at PH on the Strip Th-Sun.

I'm 34/m and have usually come out with girlfriends or friends, and although they are used to me disappearing to play a lot of poker, the amount of freedom on this trip is almost overwhelming ;-) I like to drink, talk to random people, and enjoy good bars/lounges (can be dive, high-end, love them both) more than clubs, typically. I love live music.

Goals/Plans for Downtown:
1.) Play ~20 Hours Poker at GN and maybe a little at Binions/Plaza(E-Table) if fun. A lot of this will be played late Saturday night when I get in through to check-in Sunday (don't ask ;-) , kinda last minute) I'm "slumming" it here a little (GN only has 1-2NL from my understanding), but I haven't gotten to play live in a while, so I'm excited!
2.) Check out GN Pool on Monday between checking out of GN and into D, maybe rent a lounge chair at the Hideout.
3.) Establish significant play at whatever hotel(s) I enjoy the vibe at for future trips, maybe backend comps on my stay. From research, I'm liking the feel of The D and MSS. (Seriously, they need to change that name. I just reread that sentence.) I typically play $.25-$1.00 VP, $25-$100 BJ, and some craps sprinkled in. I'm planning on gambling a lot of hours this trip.
4.) Consider upgrading to the D big suite rooms (currently in premium corner king, but the suites look really cool)
5.) Hang out at the Boar's Head bar for MNF and sportsbetting/VP/drunkeness
6.) Check out Downtown Grand on Tuesday and max out their new player bonus thing (I think 5K pts first day), and to get on the radar for future....and to see if I like it, apparently it's cool but a ghost town. May check out the Plaza and 4 Queens as well.
7.) Have a good dinner or two at Hugo's (may be the least appealing if solo, sounds like a cool date/group thing, with the whole salad prep and rose, etc. stuff), top of Binions, Triple George, Adiamos, Chart House, or Vic and Anthony's. I'm a meat and seafood guy. Have a casual dinner or two at 777, the MSS buffet, do the GG Shrimp Cocktail (obvs), Pizza Rock, missing any other good standbys? Actually heard the D Grill was solid as well.
8.) Get a 3-4 day membership at 24 hour fitness. I manage a couple of personal training departments and have a bad tendency to get REALLY lazy on these trips when my hotel/casino doesn't have a gym (and the D doesn't). I'm pledging to be better this time.
9.) Hit up some cool bars. I've been told Gold Diggers is actually pretty fun and cheesy, Hogs and Heifers (although I hate Coyote Ugly, I'm thinking this is more pleasantly seedy, and I like country), the Griffin...any other good places to chill, get drunk, and listen to music? Any place for good bourbon/scotch?
10.) Check out El Cortez just for fun, and Insert Coins(another one that is probably better in a group).
11.) Walk around drunkenly, hopped up on $2 Vodka(ish)-Redbull(ish)s and 64oz collector footballs/windmills/elvis statues full of sugarliquor and just people watch and relax as much as humanly possible because I have been working WAY too much lately.

So what am I missing? What would you add to this trip, considering it's my first real stay downtown? Many singles downtown? I've been down twice briefly before, both times staying at the GN, and I just don't like the vibe of that casino for some reason. I'm sure it's the nicest, but it's still not THAT nice, and it seems to lack the charm of some of the smaller properties. I'm sort of stuck there for a poker option until I'm on the strip though.

I promise to trip report in exchange for all of the secret information you provide.

 

On your way to El Cortez stop in and have a drink at Commonwealth. They have live music but I haven't heard it yet.

http://commonwealthlv.com/

http://commonwealthlv.com/events/

edit to add: Commonwealth is on the right side of the street just before you get to EC. Welcome to VMB!

 

check out Mermaids... and they're overly attentive cocktail servers.... must be seen/experienced to be believed.

while at the GG, look for a blackjack dealer/dancer with red tints in her hair. we call her Big Red. She can be a bit rough at first,
but is actually a lot of fun.

it's too bad you missed The 'Shoe in its heyday. was THE PLACE to gamble when Benny and then Jack ran it.
now it's just a shell no thanks to Becky( i've met her and had her deal BJ to me) and her @$$ hat husband, but i digress.

enjoy

 

I tried to play at the plaza E tables but they only seemed to be in actigon during an extremely low stakes tourney. Binions poker room never seems to have anyone under the age of 75 playing. We walked by a couple of times and kept on waking after seeing the room of old timer rocks. You'll be able to get a game of 1/2 at the nugget and this will probably be your best bet. I'm a downtown guy but poker is definitely better on the strip. Don't worry though, everything else is better downtown.

 

joshrocker, as a card carrying member of AARP, what'cha got agains us old timers? Never mind. I get it. BUT, as a 1/2 player what I find difficult to swallow is the no maximum buy-in at the GN. Big, BIG stack came into my table the last trip. My measly $300 buy-in just could not match a few guys who plopped a roll with thousands of dollars on the table. Actually, I found their morning/afternoon games pretty soft and even had some of the young sunglassed guys in hoodies playing.

 

Ha! Trust me I'll be there soon enough myself. As a current 30 something there is nothing more boring then sitting down at a table full of rocks where everyone folds, folds, folds waiting for the nuts. Not to mention that it's pretty hard to make money at table full of rocks.

I've heard of stories where guys sit down with 50K plus stacks and play table bully at the golden nugget. It makes no sense to me. I really like when they cap buy ins and I'm not sure why the nugget feels the need to buck the trend there (I realize that's how games used to be played but......). Like I said earlier, I love downtown and it will more than likely continue to be my home base but when I'm looking to play poker then I head to the strip.

 

Thanks for the suggestion of Commonwealth, had totally missed that, but looks like a place I'd really like. I also then found Atomic Liquors as a result, which also looks cool.

I was worried about Binions, but thought the games might be better in the evening. Looks like GN it is...I assume they don't really get 2/5 off the ground there much?

The uncapped buy-in doesn't really make a difference, unless you reach the point where you get a deeper stack than you feel comfortable, and then I'd understand leaving/sitting out a while and coming back later with a shorter stack. The effective stack is still yours ($300), so it's irrelevant what he has on top. Raises are probably bigger as a result, which is a good thing and makes good games. Your profit is going to go up if you play decently, but your variance will too. I've never understood the fear of big stacks...it's not a tournament situation, if he calls off light because it's "only $75 more", that's awesome, adjust and punish those errors.

From what I've seen in my experience though, a lot of people buying in deep are the tightest at the table.

Lol, total tangent there, probably better for another thread. Thanks a ton for the ideas thus far!

 

Dont miss checking out the Container Park

 

Grab a slice a slice of pizza across the street at Pizza Rock when you are at the DTG.

Do a downtown casino crawl. 20 bucks in a bartop video poker unit and a drink at each downtown property. even if you get killed still a lot of fun for 252 bucks, 294 if you visit Mermaids and La Bayou

 

Will do on container...I'm not much of a shopper though, still a good time?

Pizza Rock definitely now on the list. And that is an excellent idea on the crawl! I think I'm going to degen the idea up a little more, and play until I hit a 4OAK at each property(maybe also setting a $200 loss limit on each at $.25/JOB or something). This will be a good way to check out some of the casinos I probably wouldn't hit otherwise....so we've got:

MSS
California
Freemont
4 Queens
Plaza
Las Vegas Club
Golden Nugget
The D
Downtown Grand
Binions
Golden Gate
El Cortez
Mermaids
La Bayou

That's it right? Kind of excited to try this...expect a drunk angry post at 4:00AM after I go 2/14 or something.

 

Don't forget to head to the 2nd floor of 'theD' when you you hit that 'just-drunk-enough-to-be-silly-and-laugh-at-anything-remotely-amusing' stage, and play Sigma Derby!

 

And while your there grab a seat at the Vue bar upstairs, on the end that the CW get there orders from. The view is amazing. Lol

 

Be sure to check out the Golden Gate at night. The female dealers and dancers are awesome. Great music and good vibe. Dupars is great for late night food.

If you want a great steak check out Triple George, across the street from DTG and next to Pizza Rock.

Buffets downtown are meh. Best of them are MSS and GN.

Have a great time. Hope you have fun.

 

I think your to-do list is very aggressive - i'll add a fewthings -
1) Def play BJ @ GG after 7PM - tip your dealer a couple times and you'll have a great time. If you play with 'big red' as she was called on here, just play solid BJ and be tasteful/respectful and she'll be your best friend.
2) Slotzilla
3) Binions has a nice daily 10 AM poker tourney. it's worth a look. They also have a good deep stack 2PM tourney which can last 5-7 hours. The 10 AM tourney usually wraps up by 2PM.

 

If you're near El Cortez, then container park is surely worth checking out. I did a quick walk-through, 10-15 minutes, cool to see.

Your VP crawl is going to turn in to a marathon if you plan on playing till you hit a 4OAK before moving. If you're going to put some serious money in this I would strike the places that don't have fullpay VP.

On the other hand, if you just want to check out all the casinos, maybe put in a twenty like ruralhipster mentioned. I've read threads on VP bartop crawls, some set stopping points if you’re up, say you put in 20 and get up to 35, stop if you fall back to 30, if you get to 45, stop if you fall back to 45..., If you lose the 20 right away, move on.

 

Pub crawl will be an adventure! Even not shopping is worth a stop at Container Park; IMHO.

Have a blast!

 

I'll just add (because you're right, probably better left for another thread) that most of the people playing at the lower limits don't have huge bankrolls. When you have a table bully with a deep stack you're effectively putting your stack at risk in every pot you play. I realize you're always sort of doing that but not really at a normal table. $300 buy ins can add up very quickly and I'd rather not flip coins for it constantly. Like you said, there might be money to be made there, but the variance will be high.

 

If you play the Saturday deep stack, be prepared for a lot longer than 5-7 hours. 1am was my bust out time and half the final table was still playing. Top 3 cut a deal at 2. Great format although I think they have made this a little faster now. They removed a couple of blind levels which causes pressure earlier.

 

If you like 80's and 90's rock go to the end of Fremont by GG and listen to Arena the bad that plays on that stage. Hogs and Heifers is nothing like Coyote Ugly gets really loud and the barmaids will give you hell if you don't tip. Other than that sounds like a great trip. I may copy some of your ideas when I go in November as I will be solo also. Just don't break out in handcuffs unless they have fur on them.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions...I'm taking everything in, and I really appreciate it. I'm actually pretty excited about the D as my base, I'm hoping I'll like it there(sigma derby and 2nd floor in general, loud music, and sexy terrible dancing). Probably won't do any tourneys, as I'll be hitting a shot or two at the Planet Hollywood's Phamous Main later that week.

Ok, I think I've created a combination, crawl/gamble event that I like....haven't put it in order yet by location, and I reserve the right to ignore the finishing condition for the casino if it outruns my drink ..(note: I play VP fast, even when drinking, unless I'm talking to someone. And some of these will be 3-5 play if good paytables)

MSS 4oOAK BP/JOB (likely Boars Head)
California 4OAK BP/JOB (Main St./Dave's/SF Pub or all 3 )
Freemont 4 OAK BP/JOB (Just find a good people watching/service spot?)
4 Queens 4 OAK Best Available (Probably Chicago Brew Co?)
Plaza 4OAK BP/JOB (Omaha Bar)
Las Vegas Club Double or Bust flat betting $25 BJ
Golden Nugget 4OAK BP or Double or Bust flat betting $25 BJ depending on mood
The D 4OAK BP/JOB (Vue Bar - may skip this one as it's my home)
Downtown Grand 4OAK BP (Furnace Bar - may play more in this casino as well if feeling it)
Binions Double or Bust flatting betting $25 BJ
Golden Gate Double or Bust flat betting $25 BJ
El Cortez 4OAK BP (Lobby Bar)
Mermaids Slots until 2-3 beers
La Bayou Slots until done with giant monstrosity drink

Eh? I kinda like it. And I'm totally getting stubborn if one of those 4OAKs take forever.

Josh, totally agree, and well put. Played for a living for a few years, and forget that the regular casino patron sometimes doesn't plan on rebuys, really think in terms of "bankroll", ev, etc. Given comfortable funds, I still want a table bully in my games though