Back in the Saddle at Chandelier | Cosmo, December 2nd - 8th

Well, if there’s a gambling reality that was reiterated to me this trip, it’s that video poker, or more specifically, UX and DSTP (triple double, no less) can be very streaky. Things seemed to be going great the first 48 hours or so, with a nice $1,000 hit and a good number of smaller hits along the way, but toward the middle few days of my trip, the realities of volatile video poker caught up with me, as quads became few and far between, and multipliers just weren’t hitting as often at the right time. I also mixed in a fair amount of slot and keno play, but just couldn’t get anything going with those this trip. Ultimately, I’m going to have to file this trip in the losing column, but that last session I had on Tuesday morning with the back-to-back multiplied quads reminded me of why, despite the volatility, I love DSTP, and I can’t wait to give it a shot again next time! Ironically, the last session where I hit those back to back quads was at the far right SuperStar at Chandelier north…a favorite machine for many of us!

All good streaks must eventually come to an end, and such is the case for my streak of hand pays in each of my previous 5 visits. It was a nice run, but at my level of play hand pays can be few and far between, so the fact that I managed to score a handy in my previous 5 trips was pretty improbable. I certainly wouldn’t have been opposed to extending the streak this trip, but I guess I’ll just have to shoot for starting a new streak next time.

Gambling details aside, and despite the overall loss, this was another wonderful trip to Cosmo. First of all, it was great to meet @Anna T. and her other half (good luck with your shoe, by the way!), and to see @TriggerMN again and spend an NFL Sunday afternoon with him at the Sports Bar enjoying VP and drinks. Such a major part of my visits to Cosmo has always been bartop VP at Chandelier and the Sports Bar, and since bars were unfortunately still closed when I last visited in September, I definitely made up for lost time this trip. Although the shift and bar assignments for just about every bartender at Cosmo have been in a constant state of flux since bars reopened, I was happy to be able to visit with Greg and barback Ed who were covering Chandelier south dayside a few days, Sone who was covering the Sports Bar dayside, and I also ran into Grant who, unfortunately, still hasn’t made it back to Chandelier and is still stationed at Vesper. Lots of new faces behind the bar at Chandelier, but I’d like to give a shout out in particular to barback Bobby who was working Chandelier south for 5 nights during my visit. Yet another friendly, funny, and attentive member of Cosmo’s bar crew to add to my list of favorites!

There have been a few questions about the reservation system at Chandelier, so I’ll share as much as I can. When I first arrived on Wednesday evening around 10:00 PM, I asked the Chandelier hostess if reservations were necessary even if I wanted to sit at the bar (there were a couple of seats open at that time). I was told yes, so I booked a reservation on my phone, checked in with a hostess, and was immediately allowed to proceed to the bar. On Wednesday night, as was the case throughout my trip, once you’re allowed into Chandelier, you get your pick of any available bartop on either the north or south bar…it’s not as if you’re assigned a specific seat by the hostess, which is good since many of us seek out the SuperStar machines. In any event, when I wanted to play at Chandelier again on Thursday morning, I again asked the hostess if a reservation was needed to play at the bar, however this time I was told that I could go right in without a reservation as long as I was going to sit at the bar. The “no reservation for bartop seating” scenario ended up being the norm for the rest of my trip, as I didn’t once have to book a reservation at Chandelier other than the initial reservation on Wednesday night. Also, if you need to get up and leave your bar seat for a few minutes, you don’t need to wait in the hostess line on your way back in. Just bypass the line (on the curved ramp leading up to Chandelier), walk up the two steps to the hostess stand, give them a nod, and you should be good to go. If you’re a frequent visitor, it won’t take long before they remember you

Chandelier wasn’t particularly busy during my visit. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, there were a few periods of time where I was the only player at the south bar, so you can imagine that overall it wasn’t too busy. That said, if you’re planning on going during a busier time (such as around the NYE period), it might be wise to book a reservation well ahead of time. Note that you can’t really specify a bartop seat when making a reservation, but at least with a reservation, you can get into the lounge seating and presumably “vulture” for bartop seats to open up. Even if you note “bartop seating” in the notes section of your reservation, I don’t think there’s any guarantee that you’ll get a bartop seat at your assigned time. If you show up at your assigned time and all of the bartop seats are already taken, I think the only option would be to hang around in the lounge and wait for a seat to open. I believe the hostess mentioned that Chandelier 1 is currently limited to 27 guests total, although I’m not sure if that’s lounge seating only, or if that number includes all open bartop positions as well. Either way, Chandelier certainly isn’t nearly as crowded as many of us remember it, and one nice thing is that guests can’t walk up to the bar to order a drink. They have to be seated at either an open bartop position or in the lounge. There were a few times that guests entered Chandelier and walked right up to the bar to order. Each time, whichever bartender happened to be working told them that they had to be either seated at the bar or in the lounge to order. In normal times, I really enjoy the hustle and bustle at Chandelier on a busy night, but given the current situation, it’s nice to have that extra space when playing at a bartop.

For the first time ever, I tried the bartop in HL this trip. I had always been a little timid, given that my level of play likely wouldn’t keep me in very long. I was a little more comfortable doing it since Greg, who I know from Chandelier, happened to be bartending HL on Monday morning. I had some point play to convert, so taking a cue from @GlenCoco, I thought I might as well take a shot at some single hand dollar DSTP. As expected, my point play didn’t last very long, but it was nice to check out another bar, and the Veuve (or any drink, for that matter) on demand with no drink tickets is definitely a perk!

I know I’ve said this before, but I continue to be amazed at the level of service that Cosmo…a luxury property on the strip…provides for even modest level players. As a perfect example, I touched base with my host on Friday about possibly reserving a seat at the Sports Bar for Sunday morning, as they tend to fill up very early and very quickly on NFL Sundays. She reached out to the sports book bar and lounge manager, and when I showed up on Sunday morning I met manager Tanya (who was absolutely wonderful and couldn’t have been friendlier), and she already had a seat saved for me.

Along the same lines, Cosmo hosted an invitation-only slot tournament this past weekend for those who had earned 1 million plus Identity points over the last year, so we’re talking about players who have literally played millions through the machines over the course of a year. Even with all of that going on, and with some of the invitees undoubtedly still hanging around for an extra day or two, my host was still able to meet for lunch on Monday and treated me to an awesome meal with all the trimmings at China Poblano. Again, for someone with my level of play, I wouldn’t expect anything like this at all, but as many of us already know, Cosmo seems to do things a little differently.

That pretty much wraps up my post-trip thoughts for now, but if anything else comes to mind I’ll add on later. Again, thanks to everyone for following along, and if you have any additional questions, just ask!

I don’t know when I’ll be booking my next trip, although I’ve never been in Vegas during March Madness, so if that ends up happening in mid-March as currently scheduled, it might be an interesting time to return. We’ll see what kind of offers come through following this trip, and hopefully I’ll be able to book something sooner rather than later

 

Sheesh...I really did a number on that machine last week! I can only hope that it will be up and running again by the time fellow VFers invade Cosmo in a couple of weeks!

Speaking of bartops, this afternoon I put together diagrams of the Sports Bar and Chandelier bartop layouts and have posted them in a separate thread on the Identity sub-forum.