7 thoughts on “Five Hundy by Midnight 179: Listener Call Catch-up Part I”

1. Michele, I applaud your nerd skillz! Michael Dorn is indeed the fellow who played Worf. An addition: Zachary Quinto (who sat 2 tables from us at Quark’s) is currently on the show “Heroes. I believe he plays the character Sylar.
   Another gem on our trip was getting to meet Robert “Holographic Doctor” Picardo from Star Trek, and his sidekick Garret “Ensign Kim” Wang at their charity auction dinner. From the Star Trek memorabilia, to the Elvis Impersonator, it was a fantastic nerd-fest.

2. Wow, no wonder your husband drinks 😀

3. The commentary about 40/40 club is utterly hilarious, having stayed at the Palazzo for a couple stays now.

   The problem that exists at 40/40 is precisely the problem that exists with basically everything else in the shops & restaurants wing. Whoever designed the Palazzo needs to go back to architecture school because the property has no concept of pedestrian traffic flow. No one at all goes to the shops, restaurants… or 40/40. It’s like the frickin’ desert of Entertainment. You can see tumbleweeds made of hair extensions up there.

   There’s only one reason in my mind to go up to the shops level there and that’s for “Woo”, an absolutely wonderful yet largely ignored Chinese restaurant (from local Vegas “Mayflower Cuisiner” fame) that puts the other two Chinese cuisine-oriented Palazzo restaurants – Mainland & Zine – to shame. Emeril’s “Table 10” has good service but is pricey and has nowhere near the same richness & savor of his restaurants in New Orleans.

   And if any of you go to that travesty Sushi Samba, eat their 3 day old bait on rice and pay their Brooklyn bridge prices – you need a god damned lobotomy. Take my advice and walk across to Okada at Wynn or take a taxi to Nobu or maybe even Yellowtail.

4. That last comment was by no means and endorsement of Okada@Wynn. It’s overpriced and some of their Japanese dishes – like their soba or their mushroom & shirataki – are pretty lousy, but at least the fish is for the most part fresh and you’ll get one of the best sake selections in Vegas there.

5. Okada has good sushi, but I’d agree it’s overpriced. I feel like I can get stuff just as good back home for a fraction of what they charge.

   It’s a fun restaurant, especially if you get a seat by the lagoon, but if you eat there I’d go with the robotayaki grill items instead of the sushi.

6. hey, for Nancy who couldn’t find too many pai gow tables (that’s tiles for you pai gow poker bigots):

   Paris has a single table and the lowest limit on the strip at $15 during the slow times.

   Mandalay Bay has 1 table in the Crystal room (the old high limit area). Usually $25 or more.

   MGM Grand has 1-2 tables open. $25 or more.

   Bellagio has a table or two. Might find it at $25 but usually higher.

   Caesars Palace has at least 1 table (maybe 2), $25 or more.

   Mirage has a table, $25 or more.

   TI has 1-2 tables, usually $25.

   Venetian has 1 table, $25.
   Palazzo has 1 table, sometimes $25 but seen it at $100, not sure if that was to make it higher limit than Venetian.

   Wynn has 1 table. $25 or more.

   off strip:
   Rio has 1 table (used to have 2), $25.

   Palace Station has 1 table, $10 at times and bumps up to $25 evenings.

   Can’t remember all the tables that didn’t have quarters (Venetian, Palazzo, and Wynn only use half dollars for $25 players wanting a 4% commission; I think Mirage, Bellagio, and Caesars does as well).

   For those that care, pai gow probably has a fairly low variance so it’s great for bankroll preservation (vs pai gow poker where you can get beat more often on banker ties and various bonuses). Lots of decent resources out there to learn the game and practice (wizardofodds.com has a free java game with an adjusted strategy that’s lowers the vig, paigow.com has a strategy that supposedly lowers the vig even more, wikipedia has some links to other sites like dicedealer to explain how to deal the tiles for the common setups when players bank and setup tiles outside house way).

7. oops, it was Shannon from Seattle, so much for short term memory…

   where the hell can you find $5 pai gow tiles?