tunica trip

[jonoo]

Hey I making my first trip to tunica this weekend and I have a few questions that I couldnt find the answers for anywhere. Is it possible to call ahead and get your name put on the wait list at the gold strike on a fri night? and also if anyone is from the north FL area (im coming from tallahassee) what is the best/fastest route? and should I be worried about closed highways from the hurricane? thanks

[Big Business]

I stayed at the Gold Strike last time I was there and the list situation is tricky on Friday Nights because it is busy. It isn't really incredibly busy, but they are very unorganized down there.

Actually, now that I think about it they were pretty rude. They will want to throw you into any game that has a seat....."I want 3-6 Hold Em':....oh, heres a 1-5 Stud game...stuff like that.

Be patient and be flexible to avoid waiting, then again you could always go over to the Shoe and see what they have going on since it's walking distance. I tried that, but didn't have much help over there either.

[jonoo]

yeah id like to go to the shoe but my prob is that I am staying in a poker rate room and I will be getting in at 8-9ish fri night so i need to get a seat asap to play my needed hours. hopefully they will be flexible about it. thanks for the info

[steamboatin]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah id like to go to the shoe but my prob is that I am staying in a poker rate room and I will be getting in at 8-9ish fri night so i need to get a seat asap to play my needed hours. hopefully they will be flexible about it. thanks for the info

[/ QUOTE ]

split your hours up. Play three or four hours, go to the shoe. Get up Saturday AM play a few more. Go take a nap. go to the shoe, comeback and play three or four hours at the gold Strike. Finish it out Sunday AM.

[Jeebus]

the Gold Strike is real nice about forgetting to check out while eating/going to the room and taking a nap/getting hammered for free at the bar. Just remember to check out at some reasonable point. Also if you call in for your spot be sure to tell them you are there when you get to the room.

[jonoo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
yeah id like to go to the shoe but my prob is that I am staying in a poker rate room and I will be getting in at 8-9ish fri night so i need to get a seat asap to play my needed hours. hopefully they will be flexible about it. thanks for the info

[/ QUOTE ]
split your hours up. Play three or four hours, go to the shoe. Get up Saturday AM play a few more. Go take a nap. go to the shoe, comeback and play three or four hours at the gold Strike. Finish it out Sunday AM.

[/ QUOTE ]
does this mean that they do a 5hr/day avg and not 5 actual hours each day? I was thinking if i didnt get 5 hours in on fri I would be paying full price. am i wrong?

[jonoo]

[ QUOTE ]
getting hammered for free at the bar.

[/ QUOTE ]
Is this easy to do? I knew you got free drinks while at the table but i didnt think you could hang out by the bar and drink for free. this is going to be my first trip to a real casino so i dont know all about how to take full advantage of the comps.

[MicroBob]

you are wrong.

if you are playing for 3 days you can just sit around and do nothing for the first two days and then play a 15-hour marathon on your last day if you want.

I did the poker-room rate there just one time. for two days I played about 6.5 hours (and didn't realize until it was too late that playing in one of their tournaments that they run ALL the freaking time does NOT count for hours played on the room-rate).
I think it was partly because I was a bit confused about whether the tourney counted or not. But I got ZERO hassle for my 2 nights there even though I wasn't even close to getting in the full 10 hours.


I wouldn't recommend that though because I think I got lucky.
But I think if you give 4 to 4.5 hours a day you will be fine.


After that you can stay at the Gold Strike room if you like the games...or you can check out the horseshoe or other rooms.


as far as how best to get there. Holy crap that's a long freaking trip.


My parents live in Destin, FL and I live in Memphis so I make a semi-similar trip fairly frequently.

I don't know how the interstates are looking down there but you certainly don't want to cut all the way across I-10 and then all the way up I-55.


One way: Get to Birmingham. And then cut over on 78.
It's a bit tricky getting out of Birmingham on that road but not too bad...and once you get a few miles out it's pretty smooth sailing up to Tupelo, Miss and almost all the way into Memphis.
I haven't looked for the best way to get to Tunica/Robinsonville from that road though....I'm obviously cutting all the way through to Memphis when I do that.

(if you are looking on a map on the internet....you are actually going to Robinsonville, Mississippi in Tunica County.....the town of Tunica is actually about 15-20 minutes south of the casinos so don't go there).


Another way to go would be to hike over to Mobile, Ala on I-10....then take whatever that road is up to Hattiesburg, Miss and through there all the way up to Jackson, Miss.
I think it's US-49.
Again...getting there through Mobile is a bit of a pain. And it's not totally smooth sailing all the way (bit of construction and slow-going at times)...but I believe it looks good from Hattiesburg to Jackson.
And then I-55 all the way up to Route 304 (or whatever it is).
However, I have no idea how the roads are from Mobile to Hattiesburg since the hurricane.

I've done it this way a couple of times and know that it's not as good for getting to Memphis (thus I now only make the trip to the pan-handle via Birmingham).
it might not be a half-bad way for getting to Tunica though.
Because the route I usually take from Birmingham is not going to take you directly to Tunica and I'm sure there's some extra time involved.


As I mentioned...I don't think that you should just take I-10 all the way over to New Orleans and then head-up I-55. Would be less direct even IF the roads were okay...which they aren't.


This should at least get you started and give you some ideas.
But be prepared for a helluva long drive that I know I sure wouldn't want to try.
trying to get to Destin is enough of a pain in the ass.

[MicroBob]

drinking isn't a 'comp' per-se in Tunica.

Just order a drink at the bar or at the table...and tip the waitress or bartender a dollar.

If you are at the bar I think you are kind of supposed to be playing video-poker while you're sitting there. But they don't really care and this might not even be correct.


When I was a dealer at a non-poker casino down there (Bally's) there would sometimes be 10 or 15 of us after work who would all get together and go to the Horseshoe bar (or sometimes Fitzgerald's because they have Guiness) and just sit there and drink for hours and hours and hardly ever play.

i would tip the guy a little bit more if you are just sitting there though.

[Jeebus]

like MicroBob said, you are supposed to be playing video poker. Put a dollar in and push a button every now and then if they look at you funny. I had just busted my buddy out in one ofthe NL games and told him I would get him hammered. I did and only had to pay for the 4 shots of crown we took (as opposed to the 16-20 others and as many beers) since it was top shelf. You are only allowed to have one drink at a time though and they are supposed to wait between serving you which sucked. Tip the bartender good and you get around that. Tip the cocktail waitresses good and you can get the top shelf for free and delivered to the table. I vaguely remember one night when they went and got an extra bottle of Jager for me after the first waitress had said there was no more available. Then I drank it and proceeded to drunktastically drop about 1/2 my winnings for the day. Then the kid that took them made fun of me the next day and I took it back plus interest. Fun Times

[MicroBob]

Also - as has been mentioned in previous threads....the buffet at the Horseshoe is really good (probably the best in Tunica).

If you play in the Horseshoe room for just a coupleof hours you can go to the desk and ask for a buffet comp (they'll even comp you for 2) and they'll just give it to you (you need to go sign-up for a players-card first I think).

This is VERY different than most places where you will NOT get a free buffet just for playing for a couple of hours....but at the Horseshoe it's common...and I think they'll do it for you at the Gold Strike if you ask the right person (but I prefer the Horseshoe buffet anyway).


I doubt you'll be able to score a steak-dinner comp unless you are playing $100+/hand blackjack or something.

But it's worth it to eat at the Steak-house at the Horseshoe...and the Gold Strike's Steakhouse is just as good.
Be sure to make reservations earlier in the day though or else you'll be waiting a long time to get a table (especially on the weekends).
Obviously you'll be paying $25-$30 or so for a steak and more for wine....but it really is pretty damn good.

GF and i finally tried to the Horseshoe steak-house for the first time just last night and we both agreed that we liked the food and the atmosphere a lot (but we also liked the Gold Strike steak-house a lot as well).


I was going to post a brief report elsewhere...but here is as good a place as any.
GF was bored when we went to the poker-room for a little while (we hadn't done that before...always was BJ or roulette, and she pretty much just enjoys talking to others and/or watching me play).
I had AA cracked by 43s....I turned a full-house with AJ and split the pot....AK hits K-high but loses to K2 2-pair (same girl who cracked my AA...which was on the very next hand actually).

Amazing part was that the Horseshoe and Gold Strike hotels were BOTH sold-out on a Monday. It was a spur-of-the-moment 'lets get out of town' trip because she had a couple days off...so I didn't call in advance. It's a Monday for crying-out-loud.
We went outside and I looked up at the 90-zillion stories at the gold strike and asked her "how the hell is this place sold-out??"

Next time we'll know in advance to call...because we went from place to place for about an hour (waiting in line and parking and what-not) before finally something.

[jonoo]

thanks alot for all the info it was very helpful! hopefully it will work out well and I can make some money. thanks again