Tunica hotel on short notice?

MCS · #1 10-02-2005, 11:50 PM

Hi. I and five friends are making our first trip to Tunica this weekend and have no hotel yet.

We want to spend most of our time at the Horseshoe, which is sold out. Is there any reasonable option for hotels other than Gold Strike? Like a Motel 6 down the road?

(Yes, we should have called ahead and gotten the poker rate. We are idiots. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

Thank you for the help.

d10 · #2 10-03-2005, 12:03 AM

There are a few nearby hotels. There's a Holiday Inn Express right up the street from the HS/GS that I stayed at once, it was like $100 for a decent room. You can find better deals in Memphis, there are a ton of hotels around the airport which is like a 30 minute drive to the casinos. I paid $55 once for a room at the Baymont Inn near the airport, which wasn't as nice as the Holiday Inn room but it wasn't dirty or anything.

MicroBob · #3 10-03-2005, 12:19 AM

did you nix the gold strike because the rate was too high?

did you see if the poker room-rate was still available at gold strike (probably not likely on an upcoming weekend...but you never know).

the rooms at the Gold Strike are pretty nice.
Gold Strike has about a zillion rooms so I doubt they would be sold-out completely (just the poker-rooms' allotment perhaps).

There's the Holiday Inn that's there.
I think a couple others but I can't recall (because I don't notice them).

If you are driving then you can hit any of the hotels on Goodman Road in Horn Lake/Olive Branch Mississippi. It's Exit 289 off I-55 (make sure you don't end up 10 miles east of I-55 or anything like that) and ther are a bunch of hotels there.

My recommendation is the Gold Strike hotel though if the price is reasonable.

$99/night at Gold Strike (or whatever their weekend rate is for non poker-room players) right next door to Horseshoe is going to be more convenient and worth it compared with hiking around from Southhaven and paying $60/night.

If you are looking for ultra-cheap you may even want to try the bally's hotel/casino. It's reasonably close to Horseshoe (although not walking....you'll need the shuttle if you don't have a car).
I suspect that the rooms there are pretty gosh-darned cheap (and probably not that great either).

The Grand casino has two hotels and a reasonable poker-room too.

d10 · #4 10-03-2005, 01:58 AM

I stayed at the GS once on a weekend without the poker room rate and it was like $170. Very nice room, but since I spent almost all of my time in the casino, it wasn't really worth it.

MCS · #5 10-03-2005, 03:06 AM

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did you see if the poker room-rate was still available at gold strike (probably not likely on an upcoming weekend...but you never know).

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No, but I think it is so likely that we will want to spend all the time at HS that it may not be worth it.

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The Grand casino has two hotels and a reasonable poker-room too.

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How far is the Grand from HS/GS? Is it like on the same block?

d10 · #6 10-03-2005, 03:31 AM

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How far is the Grand from HS/GS? Is it like on the same block?

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If you have a car it's a quick drive, but you wouldn't want to walk. It doesn't look far cause the land around there is empty and flat but it's probably 4-5 miles away.

magoo · #7 10-03-2005, 06:15 AM

Any special poker events this weekend?

MicroBob · #8 10-03-2005, 06:18 AM

There's probably some sort of shuttle that runs also though.
Don't think it's 24-hours but not sure.

Obviously you can ask about this if you call to make reservations (just say you might want to play some at other casinos....will a shuttle take you??)

It's about a 5-minute drive. Which doesn't sound like much but there is no freaking way you would want to make that walk from Grand to Horseshoe.
Bally's casino/hotel is a bit closer to Horseshoe but that's also a walk you wouldn't want to make.

The Sheraton hotel/casino is right next door to Horseshoe also (the 3 of them, Shoe, Gold Strike, and Sheraton, are all next to each other).
Sheraton has no poker-room but that doesnt matter since you only want to play at horseshoe anyway.
Might be worth checking the Sheraton to see if they have rooms available.
No idea what their rate would be.

Had no idea that a Gold Strike room ran for so much on the weekends. That really is quite high.

I think the poker room-rate was $25 on weekdays and $35 on weekends for 5 hours of play.
But they aren't too strict about it (I got away with just 7 hours of play total for 2 nights... just 3.5 hours per day).

We still don't know if you have a car or not.

If you do have a car then you can stay in ANY of the 9 casinos that are in Tunica and you'll be fine.

Horsehoe, gold Strike and Sheraton are all right next to each other.
Bally's is about 3 minute drive away.
The Grand is about a 5 minute drive north of Horseshoe.

4 more casinos are about a 5 minute drive from the south (and again....no freaking way are you walking to the Horseshoe from these):
They are Fitzgeralds, Sams Town (good BBQ buffet), Hollywood, and Tunica Hotel/Casino and Resorts or something like that (formerly Harrah's).

All of them have hotels and I'm guessing also have shuttles.

since all 9 casinos have their own hotels there really aren't many other hotels down there (except for the Holiday Inn Express that I've seen).and none of those hotels would be walking distance to Horseshoe anyway. They would all be shuttle or driving.

Not sure if your chances would be better at Tunica Hotel-Resorts or not.
Harrah's had to close that property when they acquired the Horseshoe (laws about number of casinos you are allowed to own in one area). re-opened under new ownership.
maybe their hotel-rooms will be cheaper to try to generate business.

Anyway, you may want to check out Sheraton (immediately next door) and then look into Grand, Fitz, Sams, etc.

MicroBob · #9 10-03-2005, 06:30 AM

This weekend??
Yup

Horseshoe recently announced an Autumn Classic Poker Tournament (probably trying to get some of the customers who had been planning on going the WSOP-circuit Biloxi event that was cancelled).

(I'm guessing these all start at 12p but don't see it listed)
Wed, Oct 5 - Sats begin
Thu, Oct 6 - 300+40 NLHE
Fri, Oct 7 - 300+40 Limit HE
Sat, Oct 8 - 1000+60 NLHE
Sun Oct 9 - 500+50 NLHE
Mon, Oct 10 - 200+30 NLHE with re-buys

All events are two days (except for the monday re-buy one).
They'll also be running various satellites throughout the week I would suspect.

Top 2 finishers in each event return Tues, Oct 11 for freeroll tourney. Winner of freeroll wins $10k entry to WSOP-circuit Louisville event Oct 30.

Also - $200 buy-in 2nd chance tourney on Oct 8 and 9 at 5pm.

$65 with re-buys tourney on Oct 10 at 7pm.

Also - $500 cash give-away (all through October) for quad-hand-of-the-day (has to be quad A's to win on Saturday...etc etc).

I suspect it could get QUITE busy there (which could also mean long wait-lists for the cash-games).

RunDownHouse · #10 10-03-2005, 08:07 AM

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It's about a 5-minute drive. Which doesn't sound like much but there is no freaking way you would want to make that walk from Grand to Horseshoe.

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No matter how good of an idea you think it is, it is also not a good idea to plan on just hitchhiking instead of walking. Trust me on this one.