Vegas Rookie Mistakes

Vegas is an acquired skill..there's so much to it.

Side Note: One of the joys of this board is to relive my early LakeTahoe days, I love those posts! Whenever someone talks about sometthing that happened in the 90s, I smile inside, I may have been your dealer. Despite the fact that I was on the floor pretty early, I turned 21 the first night I took the table, I really didn't start gambling for a while. employees were discouraged in our casino. We were required to go somewhere else and I didn't have a car at the time. I wasn't raised on gambling and had no clue. So when I finally got to Vegas, I had to learn just like everyone else.

My best early Vegas mistakes

• Not understanding how bartop comps work, walking up, ordering a drink, and paying for it, then deciding later to start playing quarter bartop machines.
• Not understanding Vegas heat. It was 106 outside, stifling, and I decided to order a huge alcoholic drink and walk to Bellagio from Caesars.
• Playing the field in craps
• Playing the Iron Cross in craps
• Trying to use those "bathroom rotary phones"
• Lack of sunscreen
• Not bringing enough ones, asking the poor cocktail waitress to break a 20 early in her shift.
• Not understanding how expensive room service actually was until I got the bill.

And later on, in recent times

• Not knowing about Happy hours
• Buying anything from the pseudo-dispensary on Fremont Street.
• Not all Groupon experiences are created equal.
• When asked what you do for a living saying, "I am in a field of work that involves math" at a blackjack table. FTR, I was being card-attentive, not card-counting.
• Not checking the pay tables on video poker or slots.
• Assuming all craps dealers/blackjack dealers will make correct payouts. Don't make mistakes and the pit boss is paying attention. Things have changed a lot since the 90s, I don't remember this many mistakes.
• Paying extra for souvenir mugs that later have to be carried home and collect dust in the cabinet.
• Forgetting important toiletries and paying $20 to uber to Walgreens and get them. I'll never forget that $25 tube of toothpaste.
• Speaking of toiletries, constantly messing up at TSA in the early days and having my bag pulled. Or forgetting that pesky bottled water.
• Uber/Lyft Pool rides - and the exciting people that joined me.

 

Not bringing enough sunscreen and not bringing enough gambling money.

 

My 1st Vegas rookie mistake was booking a room at Whiskey Petes/Buffalo Bill thinking it was the main Vegas strip. In my defense it was my first time going LOL.

 

Saying "hit me" at the blackjack table. I'm sure I made other rookie goofs, but that's the one I remember.

 

using the shuttle, airport to hotel and back.

 

Another shuttle mistake here..Was going to the Gold Coast and ended up being the last stop after the Strip hotels..Maybe 45+ minutes later,I had to pee so bad,I barely made it to a restroom in the GC..Luckily I knew where the closest one was or it would have been really embarrassing...

 

If you wouldn't mind explaining the Groupon part, you may save someone (me) from making a rookie mistake on my next trip.

 

First trip, making the mistake of stopping when the timeshare hawks called us over. Was just trying to be polite. The politeness didn’t last long, as they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Had to walk away. Learned though, and tune them out now.

 

I just remembered another one... one of the first times I played Tiles, another player banked. Etiquette states that I should have either banked with him, or sat the hand out. I didn't know any better so I bet against him. I lost and had to pay him. He was being a jerk in general anyway, so that made the loss even worse.

 

1. Bringing $600 in cash for a 3 day trip, and then trying $10 craps for the first time ever. I was at the ATM on day 2 and was gun shy the rest of the trip.
2. Starting to drink too early. I have no problem drinking every night of a week-long trip, but now I make a rule of no drinks before 3pm, and drink a water for every 3rd drink.
3. Not spending money on things that mitigate wasting valuable Vegas time. As someone who obsesses over personal finance and utility, this was the toughest thing for me to overcome. Admittedly, this is much easier now than my first trip 9 years ago since my income is higher. Things I've spent a good amount of money on for convenience includes:
> Spending $30/person in the line for the Bacchanal Buffet to skip the line of 1+ hour
> Spending $20 on an Uber to avoid walking 30+ minutes to another casino
> Get the flight that fits your schedule, don't schedule yourself around the flights. Having to wake up at 5am for a flight home is not worth the hassle and stress to save $100
4. Not knowing which bars have and comp the best drinks.
5. This one is maybe unique to me - but don't buy show tickets ahead of time. My desire to see a show is highly dependent on how my day has gone, how tired I am, how drunk I am, how the gambling has gone, etc. Especially when I'm with the wife, we maybe went to only about half the shows we had tickets for.
6. Not doing downtown. To me, this is what "Vegas" truly is (and literally is). I've slowly migrated more and more of my stays and plays downtown, and get great return offers for seemingly minimal play.

 

I might add a general caveat of not being so {whatever} about chasing coupons and trivial promotions. We had one person in our party the first time who insisted on doing all of those "free keno crayon" and such promotions. Those "fun books" (do they still even do these anywhere?) usually had 1-2 meaningful items and the rest which were really not worth the effort.

I just remembered what was probably my worst mistake of all time. Getting sucked into one of those "gambling spree" promotions at Vegas World where they give you so much an hour over three hours. Total waste of time and everything they promised was misrepresented.

Another big mistake, bringing a pre-school age child thinking she will LOVE Circus Circus. The one trip with my daughter and my ex was the only Las Vegas trip I did not enjoy.

 

Hitting the max bet button on a $1 video poker machine. Thought it a standard $ 5.00 bet, turns out to a $100.00 bet. Didn't even break even, lost it all on one hand.

 

A general caution to avoid getting into the trap where you feel that you need to "chase" your losses with yet more losses! It took me a number of losing sessions to realize that chasing losses is not fun, and if I'm losing more than I'm comfortable losing, stop and do something else for a while.

 

@dmr - I use to combine chasing losses with double shots of Jack Daniels. The cocktail waitresses would wince when they saw me slam that. Bad times!

 

On my first three trips I refused to get a players card thinking I didn't want to be tracked. I didn't realize that I could get offers, I learned my lesson.
Also my brother and I bought a package deal from a travel agent thinking it was a better deal. Good but we could have done better. Our first trip was staying at Excaliber - that was the once in a lifetime trip cause we never wanted to go back.

 

Going with 4 other couples. This was pre cell phone times and it took us 2 hrs just to get out the front door and out on the Strip.

 

There's an art and a science to dealing with groups of maybe 8-12 or so in Las Vegas, and doing a semi-regular extended-family-and-friends thing over the years I can offer some hints.

Have a tentative plan, but be flexible and go with the flow. Appoint a "social director" to at least remember the plan and be able to recite it.

As a corollary to the above, if you do not have a tentative plan, you will spend more time deciding on what to do than doing it. When a decision seems to have been reached, somebody will certainly pipe up "or else we could ..." and the process repeats!

You don't all have to be doing the same thing all the time!

Keep in touch, keep your phone with you and on. Answer calls and texts, but remember that even the loudest cell phone ring may not be heard in a busy casino or lounge. Have each others' room numbers just in case.

Don't OD! Allow for some down time and some "me" time!

 

That's some good advice. My days of goin' to Vegas with the gang are over though. Been there, done that. Now, I limit it to 3 couples tops. Mostly I go with just the wife and meet my brother from San Diego and his wife.

 

My wife and I figured this out early on in our group vacation experiences, whether we're going with friends or family.

Now we're basically just like, "We're doing this today. Come with us or don't."