Tags: March Madness / Gambling / Bets / Sports Books / Survival Strategies / → All Tags
Betting on March Madness: Vegas Secrets to Bracketology
Buckle up, sports bettors—save for Super Bowl Sunday, there’s no better time to hit Las Vegas sports books than the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament, which starts with a play-in game on March 16.
This ritual, known as March Madness, plays out over the course of three weeks every spring, and pits the 65 best teams in the country against each other for a shot at the national title.
The 2010 national championship game is April 5, but the best part of the tournament is the first full weekend—March 18-21. Sports fans like this weekend because 48 of the tournament’s 64 games take place over four days, providing virtually non-stop tailgate-like excitement in the books. Bettors like these matchups because, inevitably, oddsmakers undervalue certain teams, providing ample opportunities to strike it rich.
We won’t waste this space to tell you where to watch the games (after all, we’ve already rated the best sports books in town). We will, however, provide you with five important pointers on how to get the most out of your March Madness experience, and how to ensure that the ritual doesn’t leave you, well, mad.
Tags: Room Rates / Hotels / Westin Casuarina / → All Tags
The Westin Casuarina Has Weekends for $99 a Night (and Change)
In our never-ending quest to find cheap rooms on the weekends in Vegas, we've come across a new low rate at the Westin Casuarina Hotel, Casino and Spa located across from Bally's on Flamingo.
What we like about the hotel is that all of the guest rooms are non-smoking and the casino is far less hectic than any of the other Strip casinos. We actually spent an entire night playing blackjack here because we liked our quiet but full table and our dealer/philosophy teacher. (Don't worry, we got wasted as well.)
We're also digging the hotel's excellent weekend rate of $99 a night.
Tags: Deals / Pools / Garden of the Gods / Caesars Palace / Packages / → All Tags
'Garden of the Gods' Package Includes Pool Credit and Sunscreen But No Gossy Gear
Only four more days until Caesars Palace Garden of the Gods opens for the Summer 2010 season. For those of you who have been GTL-ing like good boys and girls you should take advantage of the hotel's special Garden of the Gods pool package which includes a three-day, two-night stay along with a $25 pool credit (for food, drinks, merch and cabana rentals) and a pool bag stocked with a towel, a water bottle, sunscreen, lip balm and our fave, a Caesars Palace visor. Goss fans will have to find their own ways to incorporate Matt Goss poolside.*
The package says room rates start at $110 a night but as with everything in Vegas, weekends are way more expensive, about $360 a night. We were able to find a midweek rate of $130 a night in April but finding the $110 rate is going to be a bit of a struggle. On the bright side, it looks like Memorial Weekend is not yet sold-out so book now.
Use code PKGCGOG when booking and use the Garden of the Gods website as plugging the code into the main site does not work.
*And now, we promise to take a good, long break from Matt Goss.
Tags: Snapshot / Free Vegas / Bellagio / Gardens / → All Tags
Do Not Attempt The Bellagio's Spring Display On A Hangover
Walking through the Bellagio this weekend we were stunned to see the new display in the conservatory. We thought the Chinese New Year display was awesome but this one – where do we start? The oversized trowel? The giant daffodils? The supersized ant?
There are apparently some 100 year old potted olive trees in there, but we can’t begin to see for all the muck. And though we appreciate that all the green stuff is probably going to flower into something cool, but even then, we predict that we’ll be too taken aback by the giant purple toadstools to appreciate it. Come come guys – let’s have some delicacy in the next one please. This is something like a bad cartoon come to life.
If you want to see it, it’s on display till May 9. Take sunglasses. And don't try it on a hangover.
Tags: Matt Goss Monday / VegasChatter Reviews / Video / Matt Goss / Caesars Palace / Sexy Men / Music / → All Tags
Matt Goss Has Landed At Caesars Palace
As you’ll see from the photo gallery, we like to call this “The Start of the Orgy”
It’s all over! Matt Goss has launched at Caesars, and now that our stalking waiting is over, we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves. Treat this review as step one in our Weaning Yourself Off Goss twelve step program.
(First, though, we’d like to remind you that on Thursday, we told you that we had a feeling that the luscious Mel B (swoon) would be joining the G-man on stage but the boring Leona Lewis wouldn’t. We were right on both counts. Just sayin’.)
Tags: Tweet of the Weekend / Twitter / The Palms / Jersey Shore / Celebs in Vegas / Pauly D / → All Tags
Tweet of the Weekend: When Pauly D Met Holly M
Many people got trashed in Vegas this weekend, and lots of them told the world about it. So, every Monday we’re bringing you our favourite tweet of the weekend. And don’t forget to follow us at @vegaschatter.
Normally we’d rather quote from normal folk than slebs for our tweet of the weekend, but today we thought we’d use Pauly D (@DJPaulyD) from Jersey Shore – partly because he’s half normal folk, half sleb, but mainly because he summed up Vegas in one word:
Yesiiiiiirrrr!!!!!
Seeing as it was about the picture above, we can’t disagree with that. He already was given the key to the Playboy Club on Friday night. Guess we’ll be seeing him back soon, then.
Tags: Pools / Mandarin Oriental / Weekends / → All Tags
Mandarin Oriental's Upscale Pool Scene Will Open on Monday (Don't Expect Stripper Poles)
Pool season is almost upon us. Just a few more days to go kids! While everyone is GTLing like crazy for next weekend's pool debuts, upscale folks can kick it at the Mandarin Oriental pool which officially opens on Monday.
The luxury hotel tweeted about the opening today even dropping a Tweetphoto teaser.
As expected, there are no stripper poles at this pool scene but there will be butlers catering to folks in the cabanas. The pool looks rather tiny and we also think this might be CGI so we'll have to update you on the real thing next week.
If you're interested in staying at the MO, do it as the hotel is having a rather good deal right now. Room rates at the hotel start at $335 a night and that includes a complimentary night stay so essentially, $167 a night plus taxes. You can put your savings toward spa treatments or the valet parking charge.
Tags: St. Patrick's Day / Cocktails / Drinking / Palazzo / → All Tags
The Italians Like to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day Too
With St. Patrick's Day falling on a Wednesday this year (lame!), folks will probably be donning their green garb along with "Kiss Me I'm Irish" pins, plastic green bowler hats, green beads, shamrock stickers and the like this weekend in order to celebrate.
Expected places for drunken Erin Go Bragh revelry? Any Irish pub on the Strip which can be found in nearly every casino on the Strip. And don't even get us started on O'Sheas.
Want to celebrate the luck o' the Irish with a little more class? Hit up the Fusion Mixology Bar at The Palazzo. The bar, always up for creating festive cocktails, has now created the Height of Folly ($10), a frothy drink served with Irish whiskey, Irish cream and some syrup.
Tags: Snapshot / Freaky Friday / Criss Angel / Believe / Magic Shows / Celebs in Vegas / → All Tags
Venus Williams Makes A Rookie Vegas Mistake: Giving Criss Angel A Chance
Criss Angel has a fan. For real. And not only is she female, but she aint bad looking, and she's pretty important, too. For real.
Venus Williams was in town this week, and, like many other tourists, decided to see a show. Would it be a magic show or a Cirque show? Or maybe a blend of both? Thus it was that she ended up spending Wednesday night watching Believe.
Not only that, but at the end of the show, she was dragged invited backstage to have her picture taken with the looker that is Criss Angel. The mouth may be smiling, folks, but the eyes are screaming “help me”.
Next time, Venus, call us. We'll be happy to suggest alternative entertainment. Like spending the evening as a nightclub toilet attendant could be a start.
Of course, we might take this all back if the soon-to-be-implemented changes make Believe any more bearable. But we're almost certain we won't.
[Photo: Las Vegas Now/Tom Rutan]
Tags: Matt Goss / Openings / Caesars Palace / Shows / Music / → All Tags
Can One Song Be Worth $15? Matt Goss Hopes You Think So
Please don't disappoint us. Please don't disappoint us. Please don't disappoint us.
This is a very disappointing week for the good guys. First O'Sheas lets us down and now we’re afeared that Matt Goss is about to do the same.
Remember way back when in January, when the Caesars gig was first announced? We were told it was going to be a bigger version than the Palms show: a bigger venue, 15 minutes longer, and four extra songs. That was one of the explanations given when the luscious Johnny Kats quizzed Team Goss on why the show tickets were leaping up from $25 to $40.
Tags: Nightclubs / Celebs in Vegas / Jersery Shore / Jet / Eve / Pure / Palms / Tao / → All Tags
Matt Goss Aint Your Only Option Tonight
The calm before the storm at Jet tonight
Tonight’s a busy night in Vegas clubworld, and to mark it, they’re having another Kardashian-Jersey Shore standoff. Robert Kardashian is celebrating his birthday at Jet, and Pauly D is DJing at Ghostbar at the Palms. The RK hotness or the fist-pumping hot mess – the choice is yours.
If you want to stay clear, Soulja Boy is at Eve tonight (overload – he was at Jet only in January), Travis Barker is at Pure (should be interesting) and Jerome Bettis (oh-kay) is having his 38th birthday party at Tao.
Seem to remember there’s something going on at Caesars tonight as well, but it just slipped our minds.
Tags: Social Media / Foursquare / Miracle Mile / Planet Hollywood / → All Tags
Vegas Already Hearts Foursquare
Over at HotelChatter, we're already obsessing over hotels that have begun offering rewards and incentives for guests via the newest little darling of the social media world, Foursquare. (For a little tutorial on Foursquare, go here.
But we've already noticed a huge presence in Las Vegas. Case in point? The Miracle Mile shops have started advertising their Foursquare promotions on their mega video screens. From this Flickr photo from the Foursquare co-founder, it says that Miracle Mile will give any "mayors" on Foursquare, will have their photo and their text shown live on the screen.
