So I got a promo invite from The Palms and took them up on the gracious offer of two nights stay and a $300 food comp. Nice! My own reason for the trip was to see a music artist I admire named Gino Vannelli who had hits in the 80s. Gino's show at the LV Hilton was just spectacular for the great music. A full house was most appreciative as was I.
The Palms is a very fully appointed casino / hotel with everything and more you might expect of a LV major. There are lots of great restaurants, a 24/7 Cafe, a food court and room service, a very expensive spa with full service and Brenden Movie multiplex with great screens and sound. They feature the worlds' only Playboy club in the second of three towers, a "Lounge" where music/comedy acts play and a Ballroom where 20 Playboy Bunnies where on Schmooze Patrol for a Poker Tournament the weekend I was there. In the Palms Place, tower 3 of 3, there is a super stylish upscale restaurant called Simon that is surrounded by the most beautiful pool area, an indoor and outdoor fireplace, Yoshi-san in charge of the sushi bar, though we ordered from the meat/fish/pasta menu. Its a great place to take a date, not too crowded or loud. Highly recommend Simon.
My room was small but very nice, did have a safe, a great bed and bathroom on the upside, no refrigerator on the down side. Like I expect water and electricity to be included, in 2008 I expect free Internet service, Palms is $15 a day internet service. I know I can go to Rio or Wynn or Palazzo to get free Wifi, but on my room desk is so much more convenient. The Palms has an in-house psychic, right next to the gift shop. As I never did that before, I went ahead and took a reading which was really fun and telling.
An upside to staying in a hotel with 2 or 3 "nightclub discos" is the constant flow of hotties presenting cleavage of the best boob jobs in town that they want to be inspected. The downside is that even on my 25th floor room, the discos produce an inescapable pounding thump of thousands of watts of sub-woofer bass that makes sleep difficult, all night long.
The Palms is owned by the Maloof brothers who also own the NBA's Sacramento Kings. For that reason, NBA betting was previously banned from their sports book. It seems the NBA and Nevada gaming commission made peace and NOW you can bet on NBA games there. Lots of signage in the Palms promoted this new fact. I was considering a small NBA bet and noticed a little promo card at the betting counter "Bet $25 or more - Get a Free Palms NBA Hat". So sure, I 'll do that as a logo hat was $36 in the gift shop. They offered Rockets Minus 6 at L.A. Clippers, so I made that bet for $25 and they immediately game me a very nice black cap with red Palms logo and a red Basketball. As I know the Clippers have not yet won a game and really stink in the 4th quarter, that turned out to be a good bet as the Rockets won by 9. Got paid and got a free hat. Cool.
So how was the Craps gaming? Good! On Fri/Sat nights they had 5 full tables of lively play, a mostly younger crowd that seemed spillover from the discos. On Sat. night the overhead music getting all the people in long lines to get into the discos was really loud. Too loud to have a nice Craps game which is highly verbal. I did pretty well with small wins four times, one big win and two small losses, in that order. Sometimes I will make a small side bet on Hard Eight, its a sentimental favorite. This weekend Hard Eights were in the house. I hit Hard Eight for $10 which pays $90, parlay that to a $100 bet and then hit Hard Eight again which pays $900, so a $990 payout on a $10 bet. AND - put the Dealers on my bet for $5 which paid them $45. I hit this Hard Eight parlay twice and was mad at myself for not betting another that came in.
Craps Players! For all the time over this weekend I was at the Craps table, there was only one person making bets for the dealers - Me! Youze gotta take care of the Dealers better or in this case, at all. I will make $5/$10 bets often for the Dealers, it promotes good service for me and if there is a mistake or a controversy, the Dealers are way more likely to be on my side than not, if they know I am tipping them. Its in your own interest to tip the dealers people. And it carries over, they WILL remember your tips the next time at the table. Cash Talks, No Tips Walk.
So I left the Palms with a pocketful of cash more that I came in with, which is always a good thing. I had a great weekend of shows, movies, dinners and gaming that didn't cost me anything. How cool is that? I will definitely go to The Palms again.
