Possibly going to Vegas sometime during June for 5 days with some friends. Hopefully going to watch some of the WSOP just for a little bit.

But mainly just wondering how much would one need to bring in order to have a good time? Say you werent really intending on gambling much or playing much poker. How much are drinks typically? Can you still get free drinks if youre not playing anything. Can you play micro slots or something just to get free drinks? What else is there to do in vegas other than gamble, shows, pools. Just wondering some examples, maybe some ideas on stretching money out. Also, with all this, would 1k be sufficient?

Drinks are expensive as **** unless ur playing games...if anything just act like ur playing a slot or something if you want a drink...then they are free. Go walk around in shops and stuff at like Caesars if you want to kill time...otherwise you kinda mentioned the main stuff to do...gamble, swim, shows, etc. 5 days that's 200/day. If ur just buying food and not gambling, 1k might be alright. All depends on what ur doing. Meals usually cost 10-20 bucks or more...so that's 60-75 right there. If you can spend <120 bucks elsewhere, then by all means it's fine.

Yeah honestly even the value meals are inflated a good bit at fast food joints. Beers are 5-10 bucks a pop depending on casino or club. Cover charges are 20-50 bucks a head for clubs if you guys go out. you will get by on 1k but you'll not have a whole lot of fun unless you're a guy who LOVES watching other people do stuff.

Save up an extra 500 and it will change things pretty dramatically (again assuming limited gambling)

for the most part, you'll have to play/gamble in order to score free drinks.

If you want to score drinks, I suggest playing 2/4 limit. If you're ok, then at worst you should tread water most of the time, yet have plenty of opportunities to drink.

IF you're just looking to get hammered, hit O'Sheas and buy a bottle of Jack for $50. Includes free mixers of your choice for the whole bottle. Voila.... now you're ****faced and don't have to spend $50 in a slot to get $10 worth of beer.

No offense to the above posters, but there's some bad advice in this thread. Vegas is VERY cheap if you know how to work the system.

1) Penny slots. Put a couple bucks in the penny slot and hit the button every once in a while. Get free drinks. In the bigger/nicer casinos, waitresses generally don't come around too often at the penny slots. In a place like O'Sheas or Wild Bills, you will get excellent service at the penny slots (assuming you tip at least a buck).

2) Video blackjack at the bar. Walk up to the casino bar, put $20 in the machine and order a free drink. Play a few hands of $.25 video blackjack and cashout.

3) Watch your buddies gamble. If your buddy is playing poker or blackjack or whatever, you can watch and drink for free. Technically, you can't order drinks if you're not playing, but 9/10 waitresses don't care as long as you're tipping them. This works better in poker rooms than in the pit (poker waitresses never care because there isn't a pit boss standing there watching them), and it will work better if your buddy is betting $50/hand instead of $10/hand. But if you get a waitress who won't serve you, just move to a different section of the casino.

4) O'Sheas has beerpong. And it's free. Just order a cheap pitcher of whatever and voila, entertainment. And there's always 20-something girls there if you're willing to hit on girls around their guy friends.

Nothing is free because you have to tip, but you don't have to pay $8 for a drink if you don't want to. There are plenty of ways to get free drinks that don't involve losing more than maybe a dollar gambling. And if you're going to be in the same place for a while, throw the waitress an extra couple bucks on the first drink to get faster service the rest of the way.

5) All the dive casinos have very cheap food. There's fast food joints on the strip. The nicer casinos have food courts that aren't exactly cheap ($7 for a turkey sandwich or whatever) but won't break the bank.

So true. While you can get hammered in Vegas for practically nothing, you can't really DO anything. Strip clubs and night clubs have $20+ cover. Lounges/bars in casinos have $10+ cover, etc. You can get by on a very limited budget, but I don't know how much fun you will actually have.

hey can anyone tell me how i can start a thread? idk why but i cant figure out how to start one. thanks =]

If you really want to drink for free and don't mind a scummy casino poker experience then go to the El Cortez downtown. They have a poker game where you can buy-in for two rolls of quarters (that's right quarter play). I think it's something like 1-3 spread pre-flop, flop, and turn; 1-6 spread on the river with a single $1 blind.

The casino is run down and there are only two tables, but the drinks are free and the players are all bums and crackhead bums. Last time I was in Vegas I played in this game and it was a sight to behold. I think since I've been there the room has gone to non-smoking, but when I was there the floorman played in the game. Of course both the floor and the dealer were smoking at the table along with everyone else in the game. Also, if you go be prepared for some evil looks if you bet $6 on the river.

Hookers and Blow are pretty expensive here, if your not into that stuff then your trip will be cheap cause you shouldn't be coming here in the first place!

Eh..I'm going for 5 days to just play poker. No shows or anything. Bringing about 5K.

Search for cheapovegas

They have links to cheap everything and reviews.

Also people watching can be really cheap.

Was in Vegas by myself for two days (waiting to meet up with friends) and it was incredibly cheap. Stayed at the El Cortez one night. Saw the Mac King show with a free ticket and a drink purchase. Played some penny/nickel slots and cheap blackjack. Sightsaw and people-watched Signed up for the Riviera card and got a cheap buffet. Took advantage of every free coupon and player's club offer. Cheapovegassed the HELL out of it.

But you are going with friends, and they aren't going to put up with this low-rent crap. It will almost definitely be a problem if your friends are planning on a clubbing/gambling/dining crazy money-blowing time, and you keep pointing out that the Casino Royale Denny's has a midnight Moons Overy My Hammy special. Any idea what the general group plan is? Will there be a car in your group, to do some off-Strip sight-seeing?

You can play $1 blackjack at the sahara if you're broke.

if you're not gambling much i think $200/day is fine
def play penny slots,$1=100 spins and drink for $1/$2 tip per drink
i think you can get away with $20/day for food
havnt been for while so not sure how up to date my info is but chinese place in mgm food court by mc.d's was really filling and <$10
lotsa 2-4-1 buffet coupons out there so go halves with your mates
also tricks like picking up free studio 54 passes which gets you in for $10 before 11pm...go in,get stamp,leave and return later when its busy
i even think you can go to the good clubs as well....assuming $20 for food and $20 cover for club that leaves $160,say 16 drinks
hav fun

Hotel - ideally you will be comped. Second choice would be to freeload on the second bed or the couch of a friends room (or maybe a locals 2+2ers house) . Finally if you need to book yourself just look on expedia.com for when you want to go. Sun-Thurs is always cheaper than weekends - for example Plaza in downtown which is an ok hotel (very basic) is $25 per night from June 6-10.

Food - on strip you can get $2 hotdogs in casino Royale. You can eat in the Harrahs buffet for $10 ($2 coupon from Tix4Tonight and $8 entry fee). Every Chinese fast food place in those food courts will let you taste 2 or 3 items if you want completely free food. Also Bills has cheap midnight to 5am Steak and Egg specials for $6. You can buy cheap sandwiches/rolls/drinks in the CVS and Wallgreens stores on the strip.

Attractions - loads of free stuff to see - lions in MGM, fountains outside Bellagio, Volcano outside Mirage, Pirate Ship show outside TI, canal inside Venetian, animated Roman displays inside Ceasers shopping mall, 30 min free circus acts in Circus Circus, Freemont street experiance downtown. Also great people watching late at night and free bands at Harrahs outside area (jst outside the poker room).

Cheap poker at Bills or Osheas ($1-$5 spread is effectively a $1 game). Get free beer by putting $1 in 1c slot machine and waiting for coscktail waitress - try ordering 2 beers (1 for you friend in restroom) and tipping $1 (sometimes this works). Or dont tip (she will prob not serve you again!). Pretty mean tho.

Cheap craps - change up $20 and put $1 at a time on hard 8. Then order free beers off cocktail waitress at table. Of course you prob will lose the $20 eventually. You can do this on ANY table even if the min bet is $100 - they still accept $1 bets on the hard-way numbers!!

Cheap blackjack - prob downtown they still have $3 blackjack - not sure of this.

You can easily survive on $40 per day or less if you can get a room comped. Also why not play poker at somwehere like Osheas and try to make a profit on your stay. Its very hard to lose money there!!

LOL!

Hey guys awesome responses, thanks for the input. I will take all of this into consideration.

You can sit in a sports book and they will serve you too. If you tip, they dont ask you to show a betting slip. I have 10 friends that do this for 4 days of the opening weekend of NCAA hoop tourney.

One tip for cheaper good food: I often miss dinner because I am too busy gambling. I wake up hungry in the late morning and if you get to a buffet at 10:45, you pay for breakfast. I HATE breakfast, but it is often $5 cheaper than lunch. So wait for 15 minutes and get the fresh lunch stuff for breakfast prices.

Chipotle across from the mirage FTW. Get a big fat burrito for breakfast and it will last you for hours.

BTW I've been called out by douche bartenders for the video poker bar tip. Bastard thought I cashed out too quick after getting my beer, I guess.

+1

+1

OP, you don't need to gamble in order to get drinks; you need to look like you're gambling. You can order a drink or two for the price of one spin of the nickel slots (beware "penny" slots as many will force you to play all 9 lines, thus turning penny slots into dime slots; often nickel slots are more reliable for getting the least action per spin).

Find ****ty buffets at ****ty hotels, and gorge yourself at a ****ty buffet for a late lunch. Eat another smaller, but calorie-filled meal late at night (e.g. fast food) and you'll do fine on two meals a day for <$20/day.

If you want to live like a true degen, this is a great guide to bumming match play coupons and the like. Not sure how much still applies (it was written in the 1990's) but it'll give you the general idea of how to be as big of a cheapskate in Vegas as possible. (Plus, Dog-ass Johnny is hilarious.)

Is that fun? Well, that's subjective. But it's certainly cheap.

Plenty to do if you don't want to spend money. Walk the strip, people watch, coupon whore, seek out freerolls.
Plenty to eat if you don't want to spend much: fatburger, chipotle, subways, earl, etc.
Plenty to drink if you don't want to spend much: buck beer and margaritas at casino royale, nickle slot whoring as mentioned, 2 or 3 buck beers at O'Sheas and Bills.

But 5 days of this could get old fast. . .

Alot depends on the expectations of you & your friends. If they want to "do vegas", you are looking at either being alone or dragging the group down. If they are guys like the cheapovegas guys, you will end up making your own fun.

Baja Fresh in Excalibur was great for me in regards to food. Their nachos / whatever have 2000 - 3000 calories.

I ate once a day while i was there, but that was more due to typical degen forgetting about food than trying to stretch the budget.

If you can find someone willing, eating brunch and dinner and sharing one of those meals with a mate would do you fine, unless you're into health or quality food :P.

Baja Fresh in Excalibur was great for me in regards to food. Their nachos / whatever have 2000 - 3000 calories.

I ate once a day while i was there, but that was more due to typical degen forgetting about food than trying to stretch the budget.

If you can find someone willing, eating brunch and dinner and sharing one of those meals with a mate would do you fine, unless you're into health or quality food :P.

It's just like going to any city. You can throw $100s at strippers or you can eat out of a trash can. It's as cheap as you want it to be.

I find the penny slots to be extremely boring and I lose lots of money because I don't really understand how they work. I would usually blow through a bit of money before I got my first drink. If you are even halfway competent at poker, just sit at the lowest limit game running. Should be like 2/4 or something, and since it is limit, there will only be like 20 hands an hour. Just be a nit and get drinks.