14 thoughts on “Five Hundy by Midnight 170: Las Vegas Gets Social”

1. Stayed at the LV Hilton the last time we were in Vegas; booked the Classic (i.e. “cheap”) room, but the $20 trick at check-in got us upgraded to one of their newly-renovated rooms. It was quite nice — 21st floor with great view, 42″ plasma TV (which got very little use), marble floor, big tub, comfy bed, and a climate-control method that had been engineered within the decade. A Mon – Thurs stay set us back $49.99/night with the caveat of joining their slot club.

   BHBH

2. The drunk dialing is one of the best things about FHBM. It’s real, of the moment, regular fun and it gets you excited about going. Some of the other LV podcast have are delivered entirely by drunken people, which can be a little too much ( partly because they are just staying in their room drunk ).

   Keep the drunk dialing. Also about casino web sites, Harrah’s web sites are some of the worst while MGM Grand properties have been redesigning pretty cool, award winning sites. The one web site that really gets me though is Wynn Las Vegas ( “Hi, I’m Steve Wynn …. “). It sucks because you can’t skip through the intro and have to listen to it all over again each time.

3. Raw Talent LIve at Sahara sounds awesome! I’ve seen a trailer for it!

4. YEesh, taht guy hoo calleed about the drunk diaals needs to pulll whatevver is logged up his buttt out an lightn up.

   Durnk dials are funn. Noot as much funn as drukcn posts tho.

   I likeed teh waay yoo respondd tooo. gOod job

5. Protip to the guy complaining about drunk dials and non-Vegas gambling info: there’s a magical set of buttons near the bottom of your MP3 player that let’s you skip stuff you think is a waste of your time.
   I know that those buttons are there, because I used them to skip the second half of your phone call.
   I cracked up when I heard Tim introduce the very next phone call as a non-Vegas gambling call :-). Well played.

   Also, in response to your “insert boob joke here” regarding the Hooters deal falling through:
   – They just couldn’t settle on a firm agreement.
   – The buyers canceled due to a sagging market.

   My final comment is that Harrah’s websites have very buggy validation scripts. When I recently reserved a room at the Flamingo it took 5 times of getting all the way through to the “Confirm” button with the system making me start all over again. (This was in Firefox and IE). Frustrating!

6. Yep — drunk dialing rules — you catch a cool vegasy vibe from listening to them when you’re stuck at your desk working with the podcast on in the background.

   Long live the art of the Drunk Dial !! ( No, I’m not drunk. )

   John

7. The caller who took you to task needs to understand that although a call or two may pertain to a location other than Las Vegas that it does in fact benefit a Vegas podcast. The Vegasy (sp?) community that follows along with the podcasts can appreciate things such as a comparison of other locations. Perhaps they appreciate how much better Vegas is versus another location. Maybe they can seek out someplace to hang out when on a trip, outside of Vegas, that can give them a small bit of that Vegas experience. These short breakaways from Vegas discussions may also lend us some insight as to what has left Vegas, e.g. slot machines that are cast off to other gambling locals, or something that may be currently in a trial run elsewhere that is coming to Vegas.

   Keep up the good work.

   Steve D.
   New Hampshire

8. To the guy in Hawaii about joining a Players Club, I would suggest the Wynn Red Club. When I firsted joined back when they opened, I got a room comp on my next stay couple of stays and I dont nearly play as much as a fraction of what you said. I still get offers for discounted rooms and free play without hardly playing there. At very least as a new player, they will be pretty generous to you with the comps especially with a new tower opening soon, ie they need players to fill it. Remember to charge everything on your hotel bill including shopping and any other amenities because that also counts in your rating.

   Also, I love the drunk dials. Keep them coming.

9. The new guy from Hawaii needs to consider staying with downtown properties (“California”?) if he wants rated play that’ll get him RFB comps otherwise I’d suggest starting to view this as more of a medium-long term investment where you accumulate play over several visits at a single property. Or he’d better start playing at the very least $50/hand for 2 hours/day if he’s playing blackjack at 4 star resorts like Mandalay or Mirage. The higher end strip locations don’t pay much attention to anything but black chip players.

   If you’re a blackjack player, a general benchmark to know how much comp value you’ve accumulated on your player’s card is to simply take your average bet/hour and multiply that by the number of hours you played. For example, if you played $50/hand for 2 hours, you probably accumulated around $100 of comps. Good enough for a dinner & drinks. On the next day, play two more hours then ask registration to see if a host can comp your stay for you. Your comps are for the most part computed based on your length of play and average bet.

   This rule’s a guideline mind you. While most casinos don’t take win/loss into consideration, I’ve seen a couple that do. Also the rampant offers coming out of Vegas over the past 6 months makes this guideline seem conservative. Since the beginning of the year, there has been some drastic comps being offered out outside of the normal scale – probably due to the economic downturn and the lack of travellers to Vegas. The Hard Rock was offering a full 3-nights to anyone that had at least 2 hours/day of play time at $50/hand. Part of this was of course because the pool was closed but it was still a good deal, even though they have some of the worst blackjack tables in Vegas.

   And despite, Tim’s comments, the Venetian is actually quite liberal with their comps relative to some of the other 4.5 star & higher properties. And lord knows they should – with the addition of the Palazzo, they’ve got the most rooms in Vegas. They’ve had more promos than any other program I’m in. Michelle would have liked the last one I received: $250 shopping spree at the Venetian Canals and 2 or 3 nights stay.

   To Terry re: Wynn Red Club: That’s deceiving because that offer from the Red Club was exclusively when they opened. They bought player lists from the Venetian, the Palms, and a few other independent hotels to get people familiar with playing on their property. Not having any clientele for your casino other than the whales your host brought will often instigate mass invitations like this. They’ve broadcast this offer (3 nights + $300 casino match play) a couple more times to people with comps at other casinos. Personally, I keep getting these things and I’ve never stepped a foot into their casino.

   Here’s a couple hints if you’re really hungry to play for comps:
   1) PREPARE FOR THE NEW PROPERTIES
   Get rated at 2 or 3 independent casinos. Palms, Hard Rock, Venetian, Green Valley, South Point all come to mind. Concentrate your play on those only. (Note: If you’re going to take a long time to accumulate comps, be aware that certain casinos like Hard Rock ‘reset’ everyone at the end of the year and you have to ‘start all over again’ if you’re not a very well known quantity. Well known means that a host will take your credit without asking for your ID.) Now when some of the new properties open up, they’ll buy the lists from the independents and you’ll be set up for some instant comps with little to no commitment of play.

   2) REGISTER FOR CASINO CREDIT
   Basically, a good way to signal to the casino what level of play you intend to gamble at is by applying for credit. Mind you that you don’t actually have to gamble that amount of money – you can request markers of any size – but besides not having to bring a ton of cash with you on your trip, it’s a good way for you get the casino to put two-and-two together: “I’m a serious player and I have money to gamble. Here’s my player’s card, and here’s my signed marker.”

10. Oh my god, i just saw a bacon-scented, bacon-print tuxedo. EW!!! http://www.mcphee.com/resources/april/items/bacontux.html

11. It’s pretty easy to get room offers from Casino Royale. Hardly a glamorous hotel, but a great location and you have to start somewhere…

    You should get on the mailing list for 2 or 3 nights comp every month once you earn $10 in cashback on your players card in a trip. If you’re a paytable obsessive like me, the best game there is 8/5 Bonus Poker (99.2% payback).

    During triple points hours this should be about $2,000 in total action, which is in the region of 2-4 hours playing 25c video poker depending on how fast you play and how many drinkies you had.

12. The drunk dial calls are freakin’ hilarious! Keep ’em!

13. AWESOME. O’Shea’s DID put your story up on their website about the jacking off old man. Kick ass. I think that will be my new fav joint… oh wait it already is. Has to be when you have 3-leaf clovers tatooed on your foot. rock on.

    “I once heard some guy wacking off in a stall in the O’Shea’s mens room. After leaving, I watched the door. Five minutes later, an old man walked out and rejoined his wife at the slot machines. Proof that O’Shea’s is the most exciting joint on the Strip.” – Five H. – Roseville, MN

14. COMMENT AND QUESTION

    I had a hip cat kind of Vegas weekend a few weeks ago.

    I had a nice stay downtown at the El Cortez… in a “vintage” room of the hotel for the smokers. I Thought it would be a shit hole… but it was nice and remodeled… about a “C+” I would say.

    I bought some handmade cigars at a place up the street from the hotel. Saw the “Rat Pack is Back” at the Plaza. Fun, Good times if you dig that music! Had dinner at the “Bootlegger”, an Italian joint the boys use to hag out at. The meal was over all a “B”.

    I’m still doing some research on the web, but do you know of any other kind of old vintage Vegas type of places to stay at or drink, eat and see a show. I want to experience the Vegas of the 50’s and 60’s as much as I can baby

    I just found your podcast show….it’s oh so wonderful.

    Thanks