What's the appeal?

Besides being right on the strip, I thought this place was pretty dumpy and had a very odd vibe with the beer pong and punching machine. Admittedly, I did stop in for a slice of pizza one night, but I'm still puzzled at what the heck I saw when I was there. It's like.. if the guys on the show/movie Jackass started a casino, O'Sheas is what it would ultimately become.

Quote: desertair

Besides being right on the strip, I thought this place was pretty dumpy and had a very odd vibe with the beer pong and punching machine.

It fits a market niche. O'Shea's was opened 22 years ago in place of a parking garage. The section is too small to hold much else. It gives the ultra low roller a place on the strip while still being connected to the outside air (unlike Casino Royale). The casino will be torn down when Project Linq is built (although the name will be preserved in a section of Flamingo.

Some people enjoy a nice dump

I loved the old boardwalk before MGM tore it down. What a great dump!

Drunken unruly frat-rats need a place where they can feel comfortable. Beer Pong brings in over a million dollars a year.
I'm unfamiliar with a show entitled Jackass but from the title is seems it would indeed be relevant to O'sheas.

You can ask any taxidriver in town to take you to O'Sxxx's (excrement). They will know what you mean. They won't laugh at the name. They know what its like and they know what the rowdy drunken customers are like.

Low stakes poker tables that sit halfway on the sidewalk outside?

Quote: rxwine

Some people enjoy a nice dump

It's called "slumming."

BTW what is Beer Pong? It sounds like an unssuccessful late 70s videogame.

Beer Pong - Get a long folding table. Arrange plastic cups on each end in a triangle formation similar to bowling. Place a few oz of beer in each one. Teams of 2 stand on opposite ends of the table and try bouncing a ping pong ball into the cup. If it goes in, the non throwing team drinks it. The winner is the one who nails all the cups, with the losers finishing the drinks left on the winners side. Repeat until blind drunk.

We have Beer Pong. Mexico has Soccer.

Quote: Face

Beer Pong -

Thanks.

People actually play this, or are you pulling my leg? :)

Quote: Nareed

Thanks.

People actually play this, or are you pulling my leg? :)

I'd not kid you, my friend. Very popular amongst the college crowd, often bars have tourneys with prize pools in the hundreds of dollars. Guys in frat houses even make "custom tables" with home made graphics that would make a craps table seem pale in comparison. For the young guys (17-25ish) it is HUGE. And then you grow up ;)

Quote: Face

Beer Pong - Get a long folding table.

12 year olds can drink now? Why would
anybody over 12 play this, its disgusting.

Quote: Face

I'd not kid you, my friend. Very popular amongst the college crowd, often bars have tourneys with prize pools in the hundreds of dollars.

No, seriously: are you kidding me? ;)

I'd just a soon believe 22 grown men in short pants would chase a round ball they can't seem to touch with their hands or kick into a net.

My same thought first time I saw a soccer game.

Quote: buzzpaff

My same thought first time I saw a soccer game.

It seems you didn't get the memo. :)

Quote: EvenBob

12 year olds can drink now? Why would
anybody over 12 play this, its disgusting.

Because not everyone looks through grown up eyes.

Quote: Nareed

No, seriously: are you kidding me? ;)

Not in the least. At the time I grew out of it (early 2000's, shortly after college) it was huge. Still is, I reckon. Back then I recall weekly tourneys at the local college bar with prize pools in excess of $1,000, winner got like $700 or something like that and $700 to a 2000-era college student is like $18k to a normal person.

Most here can remember playing drinking games; DUI, Presidents and a*holes, over/under, whatever. Beer Pong gave a physical element to the game, one that anyone with a working arm could play. And it did have some "excitement" to it; sometimes the ball will spin rapidly around the rim and in a close game, it was kind of like a shot at the buzzer in a Final Four game (I'm guessing). Or seeing it bounce between all the glasses repeatedly; is it going in?! OMG only 2 left! WAAH!!

If you were a drunken 20 year old, watching a ball bounce among cups that half the party had their grubby fingers in was exctasy. It was exciting. It far eclipsed these "losers" that just sat there and drank. "I sank 4 in a row! BOOYAH!!"

LOL talking about this 10 years removed is quite hilarious, and I can see why if you've never done it you don't get it. It IS totally stupid. Would it ever pop off at a WovCon? Not in a million years. It's not civilized, it's not adult, it's not for enjoying an adult beverage at the end of a hard day. It's for being young and getting torqued. It's one of those things that are just purely juvenile, perfectly immature. It was beautiful. At 30yrs old, it's uncouth. At 50, it's nearly pathetic. But at 20...it was heaven on Earth ;)

Quote: Nareed

No, seriously: are you kidding me? ;)

I'd just a soon believe 22 grown men in short pants would chase a round ball they can't seem to touch with their hands or kick into a net.

When I was in Vegas, I did a quick walk through Circus Circus and Slots of Fun. They had a VERY large area for beer pong... GAMING SPACE nonetheless. Obviously it does something to make money for the casino

Quote: Face

Most here can remember playing drinking games;

Thing is, the drinking games we played
didn't involve plunking an object into the
beer that had just been handled by a
guy who just got done adjusting his balls
in the bathroom and didn't wash his hands
afterwards. Ya know?

Quote: Face

Most here can remember playing drinking games;

I never did. I got drunk twice. The last time I was 18, and I do mean it was the last time as there won't ever be another. Aside from those two times, I've never drunk just to drink.

Quote:

If you were a drunken 20 year old, watching a ball bounce among cups that half the party had their grubby fingers in was exctasy. It was exciting. It far eclipsed these "losers" that just sat there and drank. "I sank 4 in a row! BOOYAH!!"

I can understand drunk people doing something stupid like that. I don't see how someone sober gets to think "hey, neat game!" when seeing that.

Read any college chat board and O'Sheas is at the top of the list for recommendations when visiting Vegas. Of course many of the same forums advise staying at IP as well.

Quote: EvenBob

Thing is, the drinking games we played
didn't involve plunking an object into the
beer that had just been handled by a
guy who just got done adjusting his balls
in the bathroom and didn't wash his hands
afterwards. Ya know?

Ha! Very true. It's weird; you could ping a shot off the rim and have it land in an ashtray, or even the spitoon-type receptacle for the tobacco chewing baseball players, and the only gripe was that whatever stuck to it "wasn't fair" as it altered the weight and bounce of the ball. There would be literally no word on the sanitation of said ball, it would just require a wiping on one's shirt or jeans to visibly remove the bias to the satisfaction of the non-throwing team.

I can't make this stuff up. Tiltpoul's offering pretty much sums it up. It's absolutely crazy. The fact that GAMING SPACE has been used to hold these events, that goes to show the power of this simple game. That a college bar, famous for $0.25 draught and shots on the cheap (college kids, after all) could get hundreds of dollars out of these same kids just by sheer numbers, it's kind of remarkable.

@Nareed, a non-drinker such as you, or an ex-drinker such as myself, would see it as so much idiocy. Surely no one has ever been driven to drink just from seeing this game. It doesn't have THAT much pull. But for anyone already looking to get smashed, you play it just once, and by the end of the night you'll know everything about 2 bounce, consolidation, defense house rules, the whole lot. It's very addictive, and just plain fun ;)

President/A$$---- played 3handed is a very good strategy game. the rules we used 3handed were if you throw a pair matching a single card or a pair it would clear to you or if you threw trips matching a single card it would clear to you. so say you had to lead with the 3c and had no other 3s in your hand and the next player threw a 5, then it was likely he had a pair of 4s in his hand and trip 5s before he threw that 5 or just that 5 and if you dont have anymore 3's in your hand the 3rd player has the rest. youre better off just holding onto a pair waiting to see if the person before you throws a single card of that same rank or that same pair and then you skip the other two players and clear it to yourself. and lets say you had a 4 in your hand too, that means the 3rd player probably has the last 4 so youd hold onto your 4 until he played his 4 so you can then play your 4 and skip the second player.

Beer Pong is HUGE!

My brother-in-law is in his 40's and plays competitively. He's earned a couple trips to Vegas to play in the national finals.

Quote: Boz

Read any college chat board and O'Sheas is at the top of the list for recommendations when visiting Vegas.

That's partly because O'Shea's is the Vegas home of Beer Pong. Plus, the vibe there does remind people of a frat house. If it had a hotel, the collage boards would say to stay there too.

Quote: Boz

Of course many of the same forums advise staying at IP as well.

Compared to the average college dorm, the IP earns it's "Palace" name. And the price is right. Plus, it's right next door to O'Shea's.

Quote: rudeboyoi

President/A$$---- played 3handed is a very good strategy game. the rules we used 3handed were if you throw a pair matching a single card or a pair it would clear to you or if you threw trips matching a single card it would clear to you. so say you had to lead with the 3c and had no other 3s in your hand and the next player threw a 5, then it was likely he had a pair of 4s in his hand and trip 5s before he threw that 5 or just that 5 and if you dont have anymore 3's in your hand the 3rd player has the rest. youre better off just holding onto a pair waiting to see if the person before you throws a single card of that same rank or that same pair and then you skip the other two players and clear it to yourself. and lets say you had a 4 in your hand too, that means the 3rd player probably has the last 4 so youd hold onto your 4 until he played his 4 so you can then play your 4 and skip the second player.

When I was in high school, we used to play this game on long bus rides... however, there was no drinking involved and we called the game President/Intern (alas, I was in high school during the Clinton administration).