High Limit - Top Shelf drinks

I rarely drink anything other than water while playing but my brother jokingly said to the cw he wanted some JW Blue when I was playing bac at MGM. The cw asked if that would be one or two drinks. He wasnt playing but just hanging out with me and 2 min later she brought 2 glasses. I tipped her $25 for the 2 drinks and a water. I personally didn't care for it but my brother drank both glasses and was pretty stoked about having it for free. I didn't notice the cw ask anyone for approval but I was rated $325 a hand for that session.

 

Yep. That's the thing. Being in the HL room means nothing. You can't get anything different from what you can get at the main casino floor UNLESS the pit boss signs off on it. The bartender isn't going to pour from $$$ bottles and hand it over to the CW just because the CW says it's for a high limit player or a whale. There's paper work involved whether you see it or not.

 

Jilly, call ahead and tell your host. They can and will order bottles and stock them in the bar on request, but you need to give them about a week notice. They've ordered bottles for me before that they normally don't stock.

 

This is an interesting thread because my host asked me if I wanted any drinks in the suite. Anybody ever ask for Cristal?

 

I always say the mark of a good host is knowing what their players drink. My host at Aria, last trip she had bottles of Lagavulin & Maker's Mark waiting on the bar in our suite when we got there, didn't even have to ask.

My host at Palazzo, remembered I asked the server at lunch what Islays they had and later at the tables clued me in that they had the Lagavulin 21, then later at dinner pointed out the Laphroaig '90 on the menu at Carnevino.

 

What about wine in the high limit rooms. Is there something better than the house Cabernet Sauvignon or similar, without specifying that you are after a glass of the 2004 Chateau...?

 

Most of the HL rooms at the high-end places will have extensive collections of wine & spirits available - like I said earlier, in many cases if you ask for something & they don't have it right there but have it anywhere on the premises, they will get it for you - and as Shifter said, if you want something to definitely be there, you can always call ahead and ask them to stock it, too.

But back to your original question - unless you have a host or other pit critter who either knows your tastes or sees what you're ordering and they decide to say "you know, we have...", it's up to you to ask for what you want. Of course, how expensive they're willing to go or how willing they are to bend over to fill a special request is [like most things in Vegas] ultimately dependent upon how much you're throwing down.

Personally, in 20+ years as far as I can remember I have never been told no [unless it was a "we don't have that" no on a rare Scotch] or been asked to pay for [or, as far as I know, had billed against my comps] a drink I ordered in HL - but I am usually only ordering one glass of Scotch at a time, albeit often admittedly expensive Scotch, but that's still not in the same league as someone requesting they open or bring to the table a whole bottle of very expensive wine or champagne or Louis XIII that costs thousands of dollars or more - I have a feeling if you do that, even if you're a whale, they would bill that against your comps nowadays.

Bottom line: order what you want - worst they'll do is say no or ask you to pay for it [be it in cash or comps]. But you need to be realistic with your requests in relation to your bankroll - if you're in HL grinding at $100/hand, don't expect them to bring out the Double Magnum of Cristal for you - generally, as long as your requests are in reason, they will usually do their best to bring you what you ask for.

 

Thanks Jilly. I'm a cheap date and will usually just go for a Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray Ten if I am on the G&Ts. I suppose I was wondering if there was a 'house wine +' offered in the HL rooms, without getting someone to track down a glass of a specific wine.

I could just ask what wines they have at the HL bar.

 

with wine because there's so many thousands of different types and styles and brands, it's all about who and what you know. for known players they will open great stuff, but by default you're not going to get much. but even for known players, it helps if you know what you want. if you say "what do you have?" you'll get some house stuff unless they really know you well and know what you like. if you say, "do you have Silver Oak or Caymus?" that will give you a much better chance of getting what you want.

 

When I'm playing HL, which is definitely not all the time and when it is, it's $100 a hand, I'll usually ask about a type...for example, what kind of single malt do you have? In the HL room you're much more likely to get an answer than on the floor, where the standard response from a CW is 'what kind do you want?'

Having a relationship with one or two specific CWs never hurts, either. If you play the same property a lot and you tip well, they'll often remember. Just don't expect them to know the difference between high end scotches on the floor.

 

I think it would be awesome to go to the HL room and order Colt 45.

"In a paper bag, please".

 

Actually, they probably wouldn't bat an eyelash - it's all about filling the gambler's wants & needs. There's plenty of players in HL who routinely ask for cheap or "lowbrow" things they like - I've seen guys asking for specific cheap stuff that's their favorite, or eating hot dogs, ramen noodles, etc at the tables.

I think people sometimes get the impression that its like a "Grey Poupon" Commercial all the time in the HL rooms - but really, a lot of big players are hardscrabble guys from working-class backgrounds who earned the money to play in their the hard way and aren't stuffy or pretentious in the least. To put it in "Caddyshack" terms, the guys playing next to you in HL are just as [if not more] likely to be Al Czervik & Wang as they are to be Judge Smails & Dr. Beeper.

 

Its not that I think its stuffy or high brow in there.

I'm just tickled by the irony of ordering the cheapest, nastiest stuff you can think of in a room where you can get the fanciest stuff brought to you for free.

 

when they put bottles in your suite that comes off your comps, so be careful. not only that, they charge room service prices for those bottles. so you can get that bottle of Crystal, but then at the end you might be on the hook for some of your F&B for the trip. only if you can get something in the HL room on a pit comp is it really "free".

 

As I said in a previous post I don't drink much but what I do order is a can of Coke. Some places will balk at that and say they don't have it but a flash of the diamond card usually makes it happen.

I've never asked for Coke at any MGM properties as they usually can make a mojito unlike CET who, for whatever stupid reason, doesn't have mint.

I did ask for a milkshake once and got shutdown on that.

 

Old Milwaukee - in the can, shaken & warm!

 

The Beast!! My grandfather has been drinking for as long as I can remember.

 

There was an old guy, a trucking company owner if I remember correctly - real Robert Loggia type - who used to play blackjack all the time in the HL room at Trump Taj in AC who always used to drink Schaefer beer out of the can while playing - I didn't think they even made it anymore until the first time I saw him drinking it - he told me once they stocked it just for him. Haven't seen the guy for a couple of years, I guess he died.

 

Yes the host said he'd have room service bring Cristal up, but it would be included in our RFB from what I understood.

 

yes it's part of RFB, but RFB is never unlimited anymore, so if you go overboard you can end up with a nice bill at the end.