Where to Stay, Play and Eat in Vegas

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aolguin3

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I will be staying at Paris in the next 2 weeks for wsop. Can anyone provide more information and reviews about this hotel?
 
Shells

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I will be staying at Paris in the next 2 weeks for WSOP. Can anyone provide more information and reviews about this hotel?

We had not stayed there yet, but we had tickets to a show and visited the casino a couple times. My husband and I both agreed, we will be staying there at least once. I LOVED the atmostphere...rather classy, in my opinion. Definitely made me feel like I was away from home. It was pretty early in the day when we popped in and hardly a soul in the casino, which was a perfect time to spend some money at the card tables and learn a couple new games. Met some really great people..patrons and employees. Sometimes if you look up Trip Advisor, you will get a pretty good variety of opinions, which may give you a good idea.
 
Debi

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Yea same here - have not stayed there yet but intend to. It is a great location and looks nice - atmosphere is fun and busy.
 
Poker Orifice

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Has anyone stayed at Gold Coast? (or Palms)
 
Carl Trooper

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I liked the luxor alot, the slots were paying out for me, the large ceiling was great!!!!


I always wanted to stay there. I think it's one of the coolest hotel/casinos in Vegas from what I've walked into. Really into the mummy theme
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Flamingo

I have stayed here 3 times. The location is great, the price is usually right. The hotel is quite old, but they have refurbished it enough times that it is still nice enough.

Their pool is pretty good with slides and quite the "party" atmosphere. The downside to the pool is that they open it to the public (public has to pay) so it can get pretty crowded.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Caesar's Palace

Location cannot be beat. However, I think the price is a bit steep usually- they are trying to price themselves with the Bellagio, The Venetian, The Wynn and Caesar's is just not as nice as those places. Lots of food and shop options. Awesome pool set up.... I can't even remember how many pools they have....like 4?


I generally do not gamble at Caesar's because their tables are usually on the expensive side compared to neighboring properties.


I do not like the Caesar's poker room for several reasons:

the juice is high

the staff will not facilitate a chop, or even pause the clock or quit dealing while the remaining tourney players discuss a chop

if you manage to agree to a chop under these conditions, you have to "trust" the strangers you're chopping with because Caesar's will not adjust the payouts.

the chip denominations are confusing and look too much like eachother

the chips are also old and crappy

the ambiance (of the poker room) is like a high school cafeteria
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Harrah's

I've stayed here once. price point is OK and location is great. Shuttle service to the Rio is a nice thing during WSOP.

I find that their casino/table games are generally priced too high compared to neighboring properties, so I rarely gamble there. They also have unfavorable rules whenever they can get away with it. (poor bonus payouts on Pai Gow, blackjack pays 6:5).
 
Jacki Burkhart

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LINQ

I have stayed here three times when it was the Imperial Palace and once when it was The Quad.

Location is good. Price is usually good. The Las Vegas Monorail stops here. Pool is nothing special. They usually have cheaper table games with OK rules.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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MGM

I have stayed here twice. I thought the room was nice. The place is amazingly big with 2 starbucks and lots of places to eat. For some reason I cannot remember their pool.

I like the MGM poker room well enough. They run decent daily tourneys on the cheaper side that don't have the worst structure. Tourney staff is knowledgeable and effective though sometimes a little bit tenacious.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Monte Carlo

I think the Monte carlo is one of the biggest values that is frequently forgotten about. Location is good, right next to Aria and across the street from MGM. Their price is usually pretty good compared to their neighbors.

Their pool is great with a lazy river, wave pool etc.

They have ok food options inside (sbarro, subway, starbucks, mcdonalds) but they are really close to a million food options at MGM and New York New York.

They usually have some of the cheapest table games. I was just there in May 2015 and they had $5 Pai Gow and $5 Blackjack when all the other properties on the strip only had $15 blackjack and $25 Pai Gow.

There is a free monorail that goes from Bellagio to Monte Carlo and Aria.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Planet Hollywood

(formerly the Aladdin?)

atmosphere is nice, has a "younger" feel to it but not over the top.

Location is pretty good. price is a little bit steep but still cheaper than Bellagio, Caesar's.

Magic Mile shops give you a million options.

I like the restaurants; the Mac n Cheese at planet Dailies café is amazing. in fact, I think that is the best 24 hour food on that end of the strip.

Poker room is fine, the juice is pretty high on the daily (year round) tourneys but it's becoming standard.

I agree with Dakota about their "Phamous" poker series it is really great. Well run, good structures etc.

Average prices on table games. ($10-15 blackjack)

Their pool is severely lacking. it just sucks. I've been to numerous apartment complexes with better pools.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Stratoshphere

Price great. location terrible.

cheap gambling with favorable rules. (one of the last places I am aware of that offers $5 blackjack with 3:2 instead of 6:5)

lots of food options and "cheap" shopping. think tacky vegas clothes that are made for 22 year olds but only "mature" women are buying them...
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Tropicana

I've never stayed here, but I've heard they have a nice pool.

I do, however, gamble here all the time because they have $5 Pai Gow and $5 black jack that pays 3:2 (becoming a rare thing in Vegas).

I think their pit dealers and pit staff are very friendly and you get excellent drink service. I also think it has one of the best atmospheres among the "old" casinos with vaulted ceilings and natural light.
 
Poker Orifice

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I thought I did a fair bit of research before heading to Vegas this year for my first time playing the WSOP (I asked questions of a few forums, did lots of reading, etc.) but it really took going there & checking things out firsthand to really know what I 'wished I'd done' lol.

I won a pkg. with 7 nights at The Palazzo. The room was great (took a friend) - 2 beds, a sunken livingroom with couch coffee table, small eating table & a desk area with fax. It wasn't the nicest casino/resort I've stayed in, but it was good (RiverRock in Vancouver was the nicest but the room there was an upgrade & paid for by Gavin Smith). Lots of room, decent view (37th floor), couple tv's, large bathroom (showerhead could've been a bit more powerful), elec. blinds made the room so dark in the daytime that I found myself sleeping in much later than usual (an obvious plus if you're up real late, running deep in tournaments). A safe in the closet (to store my huge stacks of cash I'd won... jk), very quiet (good insulation/sound-proofing).

Didn't like the mini-fridge due to it being electronically activated when anything inside was moved. I'd hoped I would be able to store a few things in there (ie. milk, juice, yoghurt, cottage cheese, sandwich stuff, etc.) but there was zero space for any of that. I had read that this might be the case & tried to make do by purchasing a styrofoam cooler & had hopes for using the hotel ice machine. Ice buckets were soooo small that they were useless for transporting ice. Went to use plastic bags but then every single time I went for ice, it seemed to have just been emptied by someone else (if that's possible? ... idk.. maybe. Most did seem to be walking around with a drink in their hand at all hours of the day (shades of Julian on Trailer Park Boys).
That quickly became a no go.

Other cheap food options weren't really happening either. To get to the food court in the Palazzo /Venetian you have to walk to the very far corner of the place (it's a bit of a hike) where you'll find places like Subway, Johnny Rockets, etc.,... burgers for like $16, fries for $5 (theeee smallest little greasy bit of stringy sweet potatoe fries for $5 I've ever seen,.. reg. fries were better). I had a credit for $200 on my room that apparently was good for room service, food on premises, entertainment in house or off the grounds. None of this was made clear to me though & it wasn't until the day before I left, that one of the folks at the desk straightened this out for me (not the fault of the hotel... this was from the folks I won the trip from). I wished I'd used it for room service 'breakfast' before heading out to play &/or watch the pokerzz. Instead I ended up using it for a dinner at the steakhouse (Morel's French Steakhouse & Bistro) by the concierge desk/front entrance. (this was a mistake).

Morel's Steakhouse -
When we got there the place seemed almost empty... maybe a dozen people eating there (less than the number of staff running around). Neither my friend or myself drink alcohol & when we asked for water, we were given a half-dozen choices. "Umm... what do you call 'just water',.. like you know.. 'water-water' "
Waitress brought us two small glasses (maybe 6oz.) poured room temperature water from a carafe to the very brim, then asking if we'd like ice with that. (huh?).
After living on $20 hamburgers & handfuls of power bars & granola bars out of my knapsack all week, I figured a nice steak would be cool. I decided to order the Filet & my friend went for the ribs. When I ordered up the Filet, the waitress asked me, "Would you like anything else with that?" I said no, figuring I didn't really want an appetizer or salad and figured on keeping some change for a room service breakfast. She looked at me with a puzzled expression, "You're just going to eat a piece of meat? Nothing else? Are you sure you wouldn't like some vegetables with that?"
I'm thinking "w-a-a-a-a-t?" as I glance back at the menu & see 'creamed corn $8' 'carrots $9', 'yukon baked potatoe $10' (that had me thinkin', "Huh? I'm pretty sure they don't freak'n grow potatoes up in the Yukon but then again how many folks who come in here even know where the Yukon is?"). Out of curiousity (& not one to want to look like too much of a moron by 'only going to eat a piece of meat' for dinner) I order this Yukon potatoe & for $10 I'm dying to see what it will be made of (does it come with a nugget from that show 'Yukon Gold').
The steak was not good. It was dry & very little flavour (med. rare? I don't think so). I've had far better steaks out in the backyard or when camping & even from small greasey spoon restaurants. It sucked! (potatoe wasn't good either). My friend's ribs were just as bad & his greek salad wasn't as good as the new McDonald's salad menu (not by a longshot).
No drinks, no Apps., no salads, and even no veggies & still the bill (with tip) came to $160.

The hotel was also too far away from the RIO. (a cheap cab ride away though & was able to take a free bus from the hotel for the first couple days ... as part of the pkg.). I did enjoy chatting up the cab drivers which I found more interesting then the strip. (most were foreigners with interesting life stories).


As far as 'where to play'. I wished I had discovered earlier on where I preferred to play the most & if I had the chance to do this over I would've done it much differently.
I would prefer to play in the Daily Deepstack tourney at the RIO. It's a $235 buyin (same as ARIA) and has a large number of entrants (1,300+) with 1st place paying out ~$40k. They do run til' the wee hours of the morning though... just in time to make breakfast at McDonald's ;) (unless you place top3, then you can go to Morel's for a terrible steak)

I checked out PlanetHollywood (just didn't fit my schedule), Venetian (only because I was staying in Palazzo & didn't end up playing there at all), & the ARIA where I thought I was going to play in the 1pm $235.
I got there early (suggestion by the tourney floor mgr. when I was there the night before) but waited in wrong line as I didn't have a card for there (didn't realize I needed one.. duh). Then got sent back to the end of the line I'd just waited through (although a couple others who did the same thing as myself, got to go right back to the front of the line?? I think I got the wrong desk personnel). By the time I get to the front & finish paying my $235, she tells me I will now be an alternate. I ask "what does that mean?" She replies, "Didn't you just hear what I told those folks a couple spots ahead of you in the line?" I reply "No." She hands me a slip of paper with the number '35' on it & tells me "Hand it to the tournament guy over there (pointing to a large group of people forming),.. he'll tell you what it means." "Next!"

Tournament director informs us that he will tell us what is happening but not until after he starts the tournament (in another 10mins.). I wait for it to start. He then tells us that a bunch of their dealers didn't come in to work so we'll have to wait until some of them show up or until someone gets KO'd. He promised that if were in the first 40 alternates that we would get to play and we'd still probably have a good 20bb's to play with then.
"20bb's?!?!"
"it might be alot sooner so I recommend you stick around. First is going to payout over $10,000 tonight. It's going to be worth waiting for!"
So I wait.... & I wait. Then I hear about the RIO Daily Deepstack from a couple of guys from London area and that was enough for me... 'fk it, I'm outta here.'

Next time it'll be as close to RIO as possible. A mini-fridge for sure! Trips to grocery store for sure! (not just walgreens... although they did have good prices on the granola bars... not so great on the powerbars). Maybe even a coffee maker/pot in the room? That'd be cool!
The place I was staying at, to grab a morning coffee meant heading down the elevator, then 'merging' in with the mass flow of people traffic, cutting off on the ramp to the coffee lineup. Picking up a regular coffee for ~$5 and a peanut butter & jam sandwich for $4.99
 
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Jacki Burkhart

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Eat at Firefly on Paradise Road! http://www.fireflylv.com/

it is off strip and easily the best (moderately priced) restaurant in Vegas. The locals know about it, so you'll need reservations or be prepared to wait 20-40 mins on a Fri/Sat night.

It is like a $10-$15 cab ride from center strip and totally worth it.

amazing tapas and not too expensive. usually we'll go with a group of 4 and eat "family style" sharing everything and the bill will be $100 or less with tip and drinks and dessert.

the apple manchego salad is my favorite dish on the planet right now. I'm not kidding. it's like, really really really good and it's $6. I order 2 every time. :)

I hear the Sangria is wonderful, but I don't usually drink wine.

my other favorite dishes (I am vegetarian)
Manchego Mac N cheese
Grilled Brie and tomato soup

I've heard some complaints about the service, but I've eaten there 6+ times and never had any complaints. I've always had table service and I hear the bar service is not as good.
 

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Jacki Burkhart

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Food: Grand Lux Café

Note: There are actually 2 of these restaurants with the same name, one in the venetian and one in the palazzo which can be very confusing since they are adjoining hotels.

I know people hate the venetian....ok I get it and I understand why. This restaurant is actually owned by the cheesecake factory if that makes you feel any better.

their menu is massive and moderately priced. It has everything you could want and more, and everything I've tried there is delicious. you can get an amazingly large and filling salad for like $13.

you get bread and butter to start and they'll bring you oil and vinegar if you ask.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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Food: Royal india Bistro in the Rio

first off, I love Indian food. This indian food is pretty darned good. the price is a little bit high, and the service was slow (but friendly). but, it's in the Rio so it's a good choice if you are playing in the WSOP and you have a 90 minute dinner break. If you only have a 60 minute dinner break I think you'll be cutting it too close.

but the food is great.
 
laceypearls

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I'm planning a trip to Las Vegas and this thread is very informative I'm gonna have to review all this information again and bookmark it. Thanks everyone for you input
 
n8leagr8

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It's an old tactic. When you register for the room, you hand your drivers license and credit card together with a $20 bill folded in-between. Like a sandwich.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Some places discourage it outright. If you are thinking of doing it - there are actually web sites that track how successful (or not) the process works at various hotels.

Thought I might pass along a helpful tip for those booking hotels online (using discount sites such as hotels.com) and looking for an upgrade. Shop around, find the best deal for what you're looking for, and instead of booking directly with the resellers - CALL the hotel and book directly through them. Yes, it's an extra step, but it's totally, totally worth it for a number of reasons - and will most likely get you better treatment (or an upgrade) at no extra cost to you.

Almost any discount or special rate you see available online is available through the hotel. Call to book the room, tell them the rate you see and where you see it. Let them know that, though you found the promotion online, you want to book directly through them because you know that means they get the full cut. Wink with your voice. ;) You can ask right then if there is any possibility of an upgrade, and/or you can wait to ask when you check in.

The behind-the-scenes story on this is that third-party resellers help hotels fill their rooms, and in turn they get a cut of the booking price of the room. 20% is pretty standard. Because you booked directly through them, the hotel just made $20 - $100 more for the same room - putting you ahead of any other person that booked the room using another site. (That's usually about 40% - 50% of the bookings, more during the off season.) Hotels can always see how you made the reservation, and using this tactic alone has awarded me upgrades 9/10 times, half of those without asking. :eek:

If you're already booking through the hotel directly, or taking advantage of special player's discounts and whatnots, this might not be helpful to you. But if you're just looking for the best deal otherwise - shop online, book over the phone. :pcguru: :call:
 
alejandro huerta

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Regarding this issue is not really much that I have never traveled to Vegas, but I really would like to someday go to play poker because I facina this game. I also parese good alos the issue as players we've ever been and we know that casinos reach that kind of level play, thank you very much.
 
luiaguila

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paris hotel one of the best and not so economic but it's worth staying there , the casino is beautiful clear I was on vacation when I was young I could not even play in the casino
 
arahel_jazz

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Food: Blueberry Hill Family restaraunt... think it's on Flamingo about 3 miles east of the strip.

Most awesome breakfast in Vegas. The pancakes are incredible. Great value.
 
LeanAndMean

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No one has mentioned comps for poker players. I like to get free meals. Any of the poker rooms offer player comps?
 
Jacki Burkhart

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No one has mentioned comps for poker players. I like to get free meals. Any of the poker rooms offer player comps?

nearly every place will award you "points" on their players card when you play live. You can use that for food, merchandise, hotel etc. basically use it like cash within the casino. Some places also offer these points for tournaments, but that is less common.

Bellagio used to have an amazing food comp system when you bought into their $10,000 events you got a $200 food voucher to be used at any Bellagio restaurant. They have since stopped that awesome promotion. :-(
 
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