I personally always like to see how various casinos handle comps, upgrades, etc, so I figured I’d share my Hard Rock experience.

Thursday night we checked in. We had arranged for a casino rate based on my very limited past play. I think I saved about $10 off the website rate for Thursday, and about $60 off the web rate for Friday. We were at $59 and $159, respectively. Not great, but we could live with it.

Before heading to see Zwan (I was covering Billy Corgan’s new band for my job), we decided to check in. Whenever I check into a Vegas hotel, I place a $20 bill next to my credit card and say something to the effect of “Anything you can do to help us get a nice room would be appreciated.” That usually gets me a high floor, renovated room, maybe even large corner room. Never a suite.

This time around, I did the same, and got a top-floor, strip-view, deluxe room. Very nice basic room. But the woman at the desk told me to come back the next evening when she got on duty at 9:00 and see if any suites were available. More on that later.

Thursday’s show was great.

My original plan had been to get up Friday and get on line for Rodeo and Xmas chips. When the Xmas release date was changed, and I saw the designs on the rodeo chips, I quickly re-thought that. Getting up in time for an 8:00 number would mean crashing early on my b’day or staying up all night. Early didn’t seem worth it, and I decided that if I stayed up gambling all night I would be either broke, extremely drunk, or both. Broke would mean no chips anyway, and drinking from midnight to 8:00 AM before seeing all you kind folks probably would have been the kind of error in judgment I’ve been trying to curtail. Decision made – no chips for me.

Gambled from about 1:00 until about 5:00 AM anyway, low stakes. Lost.

Friday was dinner at Nobu. Great meal. Went with the cheap ($80/person) tasting menu. Far more traditional than I remember the NYC tasting menu. Nonetheless, a fantastic meal. It ran about 2 hours, and on the way to the room, we stopped at the desk. We were amazed to have the clerk upgrade us to a suite for the last night. Also on the top floor. Also a strip view. Very nice suite.

A few friends dropped by, and we partied all night. One friend was already up $1700 earlier play at another casino, and try as I may, I couldn’t drag her away from the Hard Rock tables. Since she never uses a player's card, she bought in with my wife’s. I gambled on and off with her, but never at her stakes. She eventually left to have sex with the singer from Puddle Of Mudd, and a bunch of us drank and hung out until around 8:00 AM. At that point, we were toying with the idea of checking out, rather than sleep for only 3 or 4 hours. First, however, I went to see a host about my “wife”’s play. It seems my friend had averaged $100/hand for 4 hours. The host offered to comp us Friday, or comp us a third night instead (hoping to get their cash back). She wasn’t happy about leaving us in the suite, but I said if we had to move, we’d just check out and take the Friday comp. She decided to leave us in the suite.

Saturday was pretty mellow. Just video poker, etc. Nonetheless, between the upgrade and the comp we didn’t earn, it wasn’t a bad deal for us.