Right, planning a bachelor party. Intending on spending one night (say 8pm till the early hours) downtown, casino hopping. What would you budget if you was intending on playing table minimums & tipping a couple of bucks a drink. Want to have a lively night so need to keep them cocktail waitresses coming! I was thinking $300 total bank roll would more than cover it (assuming I don't hit a monumental cold streak)? Sound sensible?
I'd say that's pushing it, assuming you can find table minimums of $5. Why not bring a little more and just be safe? You don't have to spend the extra that you bring, but I'd rather have it on hand rather than having to hit an ATM and taking on a big fee.
$300? That'll probably work if you're playing $5 blackjack, flat-betting with decent basic-strategy. And, given the hours that you're going to be there, you can rule out playing at the Golden Nugget. I would suggest $500, and play the $5 & $10 two-deck blackjack at the Boyd properties (MSS will be the most fun, and they have good micro-brews, comped at the tables). Oh, and be sure to bring your group through the Golden Gate! Take over the crap table at the El Cortez! You'll feel like you've stepped back in time. Go into the Plaza and liven that place up with some 'group-energy'. (they have a very-good two-deck shoe there...at either $10 or $25 min, depending on the time).
Ok guys Cheers for the heads up. 500 Bucks sounds like the play then! I thought the plaza was supposed to be like a scene from 28 days later!
Downtown? $300 should be fine if you are OK with flat betting the table minimum. Your bucks will go even further if you casino hop frequently. You could budget a $50 buy in at each casino and then make it a goal to acquire a drink at each spot before moving on and you'd have a decent chance of going all night. Win some, lose some, get drunk. You'd have to get wiped out at roughly 6 spots in a row to go broke. The Craps Wikipedia article has some good info on cost per hour for that game. They make their assumption based on 102 throws of the dice per hour. Using that, the article calculates that a $5 line bet (as could be found downtown) would cost you about $2.14 per hour. In theory, a $300 bankroll should outlast you. I'm too reckless to stick to table min line bets but during my bachelor party we rolled with one of my buddies who has an extreme aversion to gambling risk. He stuck with $5 line bets no odds and lasted for hours and hours on much less than $300.
Did my bach party in July and did a night downtown and $300 is pretty solid. We did $500 to be safe and even with my losses and tips I still came back with $340. Had a few wins that got me up early. Did the roulette and craps tables and it goes a long way. Being I don't gamble much did the safe betting on craps and a ton of the 4 number box thing on roulette with 4 of the bucks and the other dollar randomly on 1 number.
I think if you look for the 5$ tables and pretty much stick to that with the occ 10 bet 300 is plenty.
I mean I won't be doing anything flashy....just passline and 2x odds at craps and 5 buck lackjack. Until the degenerate in me kicks in after 8 or so jack and cokes anyway!
go to mermaids. play the cheap slots. tip the cocktail waitress as you drink Rum and coke (or something similar). see how quickly they keep coming back with more drinks. cheapest and quickest service downtown. and when the deep fried twinkies sound appealing then you know its time to move on.
I would go with $600, which is what I usually carry around anyway. Do NOT miss Golden Gate!!! And what would a bachelor party be without at least an hour at Glitter Gulch?
Been seeing a lot of praise for the Golden Gate dealer girls. I think I might need to sell some internal organs to fund this trip!