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Delano + family + Vegas = weird (but ok) 8/5-8/8

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Craps all day, Aug 11, 2020.

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  1. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

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    Location:
    Ventura, Ca
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    My Trip Report

    Intro:
    After canceling our family trip to Zion this summer, we decided to join several other friends and their families at the Delano for 3 nights on 8/5-8/8.

    It has been a real struggle to put together family vacations this summer, so it's mostly been visiting out of town friends with an upper Kern River shitshow (103F) trip the week prior to this Vegas trip. Even though we knew Vegas would be weird and different, it was worth having a nice hotel room with A/C for a few nights before the hate mission of "home schooling" reared its ugly head again in a few weeks.

    My usual 2-3 times/year guy's trip stomping grounds are The D, El Cortez, Monte Carlo (before they killed it with Park MGM), and Mandalay Bay, and this was my first Delano experience and I was excited to try this all-suite hotel. My non gambling, Vegas despising, budget minded CPA wife and our 2 boys (8 and 11) were with me. The general plan was to tire the boys out at the pool, arcades and shops all day and then meet up with my buddies in the evenings after the kids were in for the night.

    We were offered a high floor room strip view and it did not disappoint! The oversized tub was a real hit for the boys and I loved the fact that I could role in at the wee hours of the night and just crash on the couch in the separate entrance room without disturbing anyone.

    The good:
    My family had an enjoyable trip, despite so many restaurants being closed and having to wear masks while basking outside at the pool. We visited GameWorks at the Town Square on the south strip ($20 to play for 3 hours on Wednesdays), E-sports arena at Luxor, and the dungeon arcade at Excalibur. Kids had a blast at all locations.

    House of Blues restaurant at Mandalay Bay was one of the few dinner options available on Wednesday night and we all enjoyed our dinner. Service was solid and our waitress actually showed up each time I was ready for another drink, unlike the casino floor.

    Ri-Ra Irish Pub located between Mandalay and Luxor in the shopping mall was fantastic! The food, atmosphere (live band), Guinness on tap, and service were top notch. We actually felt free again for the first time in 5 months. I highly recommend this location and can't wait to sample their ridiculous scotch/whiskey selection on my next guys trip. And get this, nestled amongst the rather boring runofthemill strip mall this place had actual Irish folks working there. They were pleasant, cordial, funny and I could almost understand every 3 words they were pitching through their masks and accents!

    Summer in Vegas is scorchingly hot and dry, and my nose is typically toast by the second day. However, wearing a mask full-time improves your sinuses since you're breathing in your own recycled air all day. Who knew!

    I'm almost exclusively a craps, slots, and bar-top VP guy, but I discovered how much fun 3-play DDB poker (with multipliers) can be. Nearly all of my decent hits were on this machine and I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm going to start migrating more to video poker and I'm going to focus on improving my EV and paying attention to paytables a whole lot more.
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    I have dabbled in just about every type of slot available over the past 20 years but have never sat down to a Planet Moolah machine. After reading various VMB posts hyping up the mythical unicow, I finally sat down on what I assumed was just another money grabbing, highly volatile slot machine. Well guess what....within the first 10 minutes of playing my first Planet Moolah machine I hit the damn UNICOW!!! I expected a much bigger win after 200 free games but I was pretty fired up to say the least. I bounced the moment my free games were expired.

    20200805_210718.jpg

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    The bad:
    Right now Vegas is just plain weird. As all of you have been preaching, the Strip is dead and downtown (at least on Friday night) was extremely crowded. There doesn't appear to be a happy medium anywhere. My buddy and I only went downtown to use our FP Friday night and in hindsight I wish we hadn't. Going through Freemont street was a slow, arduous trek with multiple check points and it was absolutely packed. It was the only time on the trip where I felt I actually needed a mask.

    Having to wear a mask all freaking day sucks (although I totally understand the mandate, especially considering Nevada's current trajectory). My ears were killing me after a few hours and I never fully got use to wearing one even after day 3.

    With the lack of patrons and greatly reduced players on the tables (craps = 6 max), table minimums are way up everywhere. Mandalay Bay craps minimums were $25 every time I stopped in, and Luxor/Excalibur were $15. My buddies and I are mostly 3-point molly with 3x odds guys on a $5-$10 table, so it was a painful reminder of what the current bottom line in Vegas is.

    Drink service sucked, everywhere. Several Mandalay employees I spoke with said there's much fewer waitresses on the casino floor because of the smaller crowds and also to maximize tips for those who were working. The other servers are able to continue to collect unemployment while the casinos thread a thin line. I totally get it, but this gambling drinker went thirsty too many times.

    The ugly:
    The following discussion is merely an observation from a fairly level headed, grizzled craps veteran of 22 years. You don't have to take it for face value but it's something to chew on:

    It's the pit critters job to check the dice when they go off the table, looking for loaded or tampered dice that a cheating player might try to insert into a game to benefit the shooter.

    The guys and I played craps at 7 different Strip and downtown casinos over the course of 3-6 nights (some friends stayed M-Su, M-R, etc) with an average of 15-18 total hours of individual crap session time. NOT ONE ROLL LASTED LONGER THAN 15 MINUTES. If you didn't clearly read that please go back and read it again. In addition, I only remember the dice going off the table 5 times during the entire trip. Hell, I've seen a single shooter do this in 15 minutes. All 5 times the pit critter didn't inspect the dice and I believe 2 of the 5 times the shooter requested "same dice". When does a pit critter not check the dice after going out? Hmmmm, got me thinking...

    If you play craps you will understand this next observation. You know when you throw the dice and at the very last microsecond one of the dice almost seems to unconventionally plop over to a side it doesn't seem to want to naturally go? This happened 6-8 times (I lost count)….every time resulting in a 7-out!

    I've had several long discussions with my fellow degens since we've been back in town and we all have our suspicions. I'm fully aware that a poor run of variance is the likely culprit for such poor luck on all the craps tables last week, but feel free to stop and think about how the roles could so easily be reversed for casinos trying to make ends meet during these tough times. It's something I've never thought of but perhaps the house is looking for an edge. Food for thought I suppose.

    The higher table minimums, coupled with the aforementioned terrible craps luck really hurt the bankroll. Even with my decent slot/VP hits shown above I had to visit the guaranteed machine by the second night. I was able to purchase a buzz on 2 of the nights either via grossly over tipping the nurse to ensure a mere 20 minute lapse in drinks, or going to the gift shop to load up. So after self indulging it basically went something like this:
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    The end:
    I'm glad we went and overall had a good time despite the restrictions, weirdness and tough table luck/conditions during the evenings. If you're a gambler and can be tolerant of their mandates and lack of services, you can still eek out a pretty darn good time in Vegas.

    Can't flipping wait for 2020 to be over with and fingers crossed our playground will have some semblance of normalcy in 2021!
     
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  2. wagon b0y

    wagon b0y High-Roller

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    Congrats on the royal for never playing video poker. People go years without hitting one.

    Also sucks that craps wasn't good to you. Especially with the higher minimuns. I highly doubt the casino would fix the die. They have too much to lose. They are going to make money on craps in the long run with the house edge. I think you are only remembering the bad 7outs , kinda like in blackjack when you remember all the times the dealer pulls a 21 out of no where, but you forgot all the times you have 15 or16 and hit and get a 5.
     
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  3. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

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    As mentioned above I do enjoy Bartop VP, especially at the Vue bar. Hit a royal there last year. However, this was my first go at a multi-line with multipliers and really enjoyed the added excitement. I found my new "slot" machine favorite.
     
  4. smerrian

    smerrian View from Bally's

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    Thanks for the trip report. That pic is too funny. Something similar happened to me once only it was a yogurt in the kitchen and it missed me, thankfully. I dropped it, it hit the floor directly flat, and it shot straight up all over the ceiling. Unbelievable! I had to stand on a ladder to clean it up.

    Better watch that vp. At 10 units per hand a bad run will eat right through your br. Wifey won't be happy with how she views gambling.

    And, I agree. Dice in LV are on the level. The casino has too much to lose and they can adjust their budget to how much they will win on the tables given the house edge in a fair game; they don't need to risk crooked dice. You hit the inevitable bad streak.
     
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  5. LB9

    LB9 PH Blackjack Degen

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    Thanks for the report and the unvarnished view. While there appears to be a lot of restrictions and other less than ideal things, the one thing that’s most disappointing, and which I’m seeing on quite a few reports, is shitty drink service.

    Is this everywhere on the strip? I don’t play downtown so if this indeed manifesting at all sorts at strip properties I may need to re-evaluate some things.

    Thanks again!
     
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  6. Necrochaos

    Necrochaos VIP Whale

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    @Craps all day - Good report! Glad you got to play some VP and find some food while you were there.

    As a $5 player, hearing that even Excalibur was $15 is really painful. I know that I'm going to have to play $10 tables, as that will mostly be the norm. But $15? I did that once and lost $150 in a matter of 10 minutes.

    I'm surprised that the pit crew/dealers weren't extremely helpful as without the players they aren't needed. This is the time to show great customer service and make sure those customers come back. So many casinos on the strip and downtown that if I don't like craps at X, I'll walk a few minutes to Y and play there.

    I'm feeling more and more that we might hit up more locals casinos for this trip. We might get treated better.

    Hope things go better for you next time.
     
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  7. vsop

    vsop VIP Whale

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    Thanks for the good info in your TR....I have to agree with the others that the casinos don't need to bend the rules to gain an edge...I sense the lack of normal protocol to inspect the dice that go off the table, may be a result of C19...no one wants to handle/fondle anything that numerous other people have touched..
     
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  8. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

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    Could not agree more with this statement, so true. 10 unit 3-play when cold is a biatchhh!

    Yep, don't they want us to get plastered and spend more money? I certainly did....but I did it spending even more money either at the gift shop or spotting the nurse $5-10 each time.

    Ha ha, yep, the MB $25 table ate me alive in a matter of minutes. Bought in for $400 on one of my sessions and I think that lasted about 18 minutes only playing the point and 2 numbers. It could always go the other way though....although that rarely seems to happen.
     
  9. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Nice report but...you aren't seriously hinting, implying that the house is using loaded dice, are you??
     
  10. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

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    5 guys, 7 casinos, 15-18 hours session times each, not one roll over 15 minutes, ZERO dice inspections when a die left the table, unusual # of times a die flipped over last second = 99.9% likely just a run of bad variance for our entire group.

    My diatribe was merely to present something that I've never even considered but worth mentioning, especially when 4 of the 5 seasoned players I went with entertained the same sentiments after getting home from our trip.
     
  11. Chuck2009x

    Chuck2009x VIP Whale

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    Nice TR.

    As for the dice:

    It's just like in the picture.

    In the physical world, given enough time, anything that CAN happen eventually WILL happen. And usually at a craps table.
     
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  12. pressitagain

    pressitagain VIP Whale

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    Thanks for the TR. It’s too bad about the craps...
     
  13. Here2Learn

    Here2Learn High-Roller

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    Man this sounds depressing as I'm mostly craps. What were the downtown minimums like?
     
  14. Necrochaos

    Necrochaos VIP Whale

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    Mostly $10. Sounds like some mornings you might find $5 at 4 Queens. The Cal and Binions tables don't open until close to noon (from what I've heard).

    I'll be there in 2 weeks and will be hunting downtown for some $5 craps early mornings.

    Also heard that South Point still have $5 craps. I'll also be checking some locals places to see what I find.
     
  15. Here2Learn

    Here2Learn High-Roller

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    Yea I heard Sahara and Southpoint for 5 dollar games. I'll be there in a little over a week so I'll be looking for cheap tables as well
     
  16. Craps all day

    Craps all day Low-Roller

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    The D, Golden Gate, and El Cortez were $15 minimums on the Friday night (8/7) that we were there.
     
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  17. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Nice report! Congrats on the Royal and the dealt Aces!
     
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