LV in Thanksgiving?

Hey, I recently started to learn how to count (yea, one of those "21" recruits), and so far I've been pretty lucky. Anyway, I think that I'll be heading over to LV for Thanksgiving with some family. I was wondering if/how this holiday affects the tables and what casinos I should be heading over too. Yes, I'll be getting at least that month's subscription to CBJN, but since I am new I was wondering where I could have for some of the easier places for a red chip player. Also, how much of a difference in rules should I be expecting, since the subscription comes at the beginning of the month and Thanksgiving is near the end. Thanks for the help.

When I use to go to Vegas, I almost always went during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. It was slower and alot easier to get onto the red chip tables. Conditions stayed pretty much the same as CBJN reported.

During quiet times in LV+

it's quite possible for your play to come under more scrutiny if you linger too long than would be the case during busier periods. So particualarly if you find yourself doing well, think about watching your time and moving around.

I've heard that New Years Eve is a mad house, though.

I wouldn't know if LV is the same way, but in AC, was invited to Trump Marina's New Years Eve VIP party a few years back, it was wall to wall high rollers.
On the main floor 50% of the tables were reserved, the other tables were $50 min and all full. I never saw so many players buying in at 5 digits before. You would have thought the yellows were potatoe chips there was so much action on the tables. Went to play craps...not a single player with less then 50k in front of them.
Do they raise the mins in LV the same way on New Years Eve?
BJC

Yeah, but I don't think it was horrendous. My friend was playing $25 tables (which was a lot of money for us at the time) on his parents' dime. Apparently there's a huge fireworks show outside, they close the Strip, and everyone just pours out onto the streets.

I've never witnessed it myself. I didn't have the money when I had the inclination, and now I don't have the inclination.

Vegas Virgin Venues

CBJN for Las Vegas casinos is very reliable. The Vegas stores do not frequently alter their table conditions, but when they do it is unpredictable.

Your only problem will be finding low stakes tables with good conditions. Such is EXTREMELY rare - with many properties offering good fair to good conditions for Green / Black bettors only. Blackjack has lottsa' low roller action BUT they are so paranoid that spreading minimally with weak card counting will get you 86'd. Binions offers a good Single Decker but will not even tolerate spreading from $5 to $10 ! Basically, all of downtown is off-limits.

Overall, conditions have radically deteriorated in recent years.

Expect little to no comps at your stakes.

Where do you expect to bed down ?

Where is your "home base" casino ?

Looks like we're going to Vegas for the at least the first part of the Thanksgiving week. Haven't picked a specific hotel but most probably will be Paris or something in that central location on the Strip. Since I lost my comp status at Bally's....only because I stopped playing actively 15 years ago and have just started back....I'm not getting fantastic offers but have gotten a couple of $69.95/night, or thereabouts, for a standard room at a number of places.

I don't expect tables will change much since our visit a couple of weeks ago though there might be more red tables, or at least more seats, just because it is a slow week. Would agree that comps at red tables are slim to none. Most pit bosses pay little to no attention to play on those tables unless somebody starts betting big. I was also told by a pit boss in New York New York they don't really track your play and comps until your average bet is $15 and even that's not going to get you much more than a free buffet. NYNY is part of the Players Club string and I'd expect they follow a consistent criteria at their casinos. Of course I consider playing for comps to be somewhat foolish and I've seen way too many folks "pay" $200 for the $11.95 buffet but that's a subject for a separate thread.

As for New Years.....never again! Got invited to Bally's for New Years in 1994. What a zoo! Ex and I, at least by some definition, were fairly heavy bettors for the time. During the summer of that year we'd had an incredible visit where we just hit everything and left Bally's with what today would probably be $70,000 in cash. They were very anxious to have us come back and they treated us OK. Truth was that we were peanuts compared to the typical crowd at New Years. Table limits were high but the tables were crowded as were the restaurants, shows, etc. All in all not a pleasant or fun time. We didn't play much actually and it turned out to be one of our last visits as the marriage went on the rocks shortly after that visit.

Info?

If anyone would like to PM me any good info about the casinos in the south strip for red chippies particularly for Trop, Mandalay Bay, or Luxor, that would be just grand. Thanks in advance

watch out

Luxor is paranoid about counters and if they take a dislike to you will share the information with NYNY which is a bummer because the latter joint has better playing conditions.

Back from Vegas after what I guess was a good visit as we put more money back in the bank than we took out. All in all wife and I probably won $600, about half of that was blackjack. I played green tables the first night and had a good run that put me up a few hundred and kind of stayed at that level throughout the rest of the visit with choppy play at red and green tables for the next couple of days. Stayed at Paris at a very reasonable rate. We were there from Sunday (23 Nov) through Wednesday morning (26 Nov). While there were still enough people there I've never seen the casinos that quiet. Played up and down the Strip but mostly at Paris, Ballys, and MGM. Pit bosses and dealers we talked to are concerned about the downturn in the economy and they're already cutting back the number of tables and pits open. (Vegas has the highest number of house foreclosures per capita in the US.) Red tables at the main casinos start at $10 though most are $15. The only $5 tables I saw were at Bill's and the Trop but were all 6/5 tables, many using the auto-shufflers.