[Grant]

Trip Report for 2/17 – 2/21

The flight from Orlando to Las Vegas was on Southwest and was pretty uneventful; the only bad thing was in the Orlando airport I realized my laptop did not have a wireless card but an infrared card. Not to get to tech related, but that would leave me without Internet access the whole trip.

Day 1

Arrive in Las Vegas on time and head right to get a shuttle to the Sahara; it would be my first time at the Sahara. The rooms were paid for by the business convention I was attending. Check in was fast and up to the 7th floor, beautiful view of the parking lot and other tower. Room was standard, nothing to write home about. We had a buddy fly in to surprise my brother, so I acted like the housekeeping was bringing up an ironing board. He was surprised and we knew it was going to be a blast.

I had just gotten out of the shower and my brother and friend had to shower and change. I decide to see what the Sahara casino has to offer. Did a quick tour and noticed that a lot of $5 blackjack was available, head over to see the poker room and it had a good crowd. (Was registering for their 7pm tourney). Nice selection of slots, video poker selection wasn’t great, and casino was spread out pretty nice. Played a few hands of blackjack and roulette while waiting for the others.

We decide we are going to use the monorail most of the week for transportation. I actually had ordered two 3-day tickets online but of course I forgot them on my desk. We weren’t able to purchase 3-day tickets so we just bought two 10 ride passes. Our first monorail experience was good, pretty fast, tram was at our location, and monorail station was very close to the Sahara casino. We jump on the monorail and decide we should head to mid strip. I wanted to play poker, but we all had an itch for Pai Gow. The best place to play Pai Gow in Vegas is easily the Barbary Coast. Low minimums, great drink service, and great foot traffic to keep your eyes busy. We get off the monorail at the IP and walk to the Barbary. Find an immediate seat at the Pai Gow table and begin about a 3-hour session. I am pretty sure I ended up a little, but also drank at least 10-13 Red Bull and Vodkas (We later found it that it wasn’t Red Bull, but an actually energy drink called Pure). At this point I have a nice buzz and decide it is time to play some poker, I have played at the IP and know they get a decent group of drinkers, which makes the game fun. Head over and buy in at the 2/4 limit, lately I have been more of a tournament player, but this trip I was going to concentrate on limit. 4/8 is usually my limit game of choice, but 2/4 is the perfect mix with alcohol. It was a nice fun table, and I was pretty much holding my own for a while. After about 3 hours my one friend really wants to leave, I say the famous line “just one more hand” and of course I am dealt pocket aces. The hold up and I take down a nice pot to put me ahead for the session. I cash out, and poker room manager says my comps will be on the card tomorrow (I never used them). Head over to the Casino Royale, and noticed that the beloved quarter roulette is gone. The quarter roulette table is still there but the limits are now $4 with $1 chips. We get hot on the table for about an hour or two and I am up $200 on the night. It is getting late, my brother has already headed back to the Sahara and we decide to head back. We start walking but after realizing how cold it is, and how far it is, we catch a quick cab and get back to the Sahara. I am thinking it is like maybe 3 am and I need to get to sleep to be at the conference at 8 am, however we decide to play a little bar top blackjack. After about 20 minutes I see one of my associates walk bye, I am think to my self “Wow, what is he doing up so late”, I then look at my watch and see it is 7:45 am! I head up to the room, quick shower, change, and back to the conference at about 8:15 am. Remember I haven’t slept and had been drinking pretty heavily earlier. Luckily, I slowed the drinking down at the IP and Royale. Meet with the guys I need to talk till about 10:00 am, and head to the Sahara buffet. The breakfast was average, but at that point, I really didn’t care. Back up the room for some much needed rest!

Day Two

Wake up about 4pm I think, and take a shower. We decide to check out the Wynn. I haven’t spent much time at this part of the strip so we decide to walk it. In the next few years this area is going to be totally different. I took a bunch of pictures that I will be posting in the next few days. Arrive at the Wynn, wow was this place nice. We are all starving so we hit the coffee shop, I can’t remember the name, order the $10 dollar sandwiches but they were totally worth. Very tasty, very meaty, and great quality and service. After lunch I want to play some poker at the Wynn. It is packed at that time, put our name on the 4/8 list, while my brother says he is going to get a haircut. After about 30 minutes my brother comes back and says they are charging $85 for a haircut, he passed, and we decided not to wait any longer.

Head across the street to the Stardust, I had to spend some time in this place before it is gone. Quickly grab a seat at the 3/6 game, which happened to be the only game going. The table was a good amount of locals and Stardust regulars. I was getting hands but was getting destroyed on river and turn cards, only lasted about an hour and my buy in was gone. My brother is playing roulette so I hope on the 50-play penny video poker. That is easily one of the most fun machines to play. I mixed playing 50, 25, and single hands, luckily I was picking the right times to play the 50s and 25s. Turn a $20 into about $85. Take that over to the roulette table to meet my bro, and lose the $85 plus more in about 10 minutes. Decide to head over and enjoy the world famous Stardust sports book. It is not the nicest place or the nicest clientele, but it is the Mecca for sports bettors.

After leaving the Stardust we are starving, can’t decide on either the Circus Circus or Riveria prime rib specials. Pass on both of those and decide to use my 2 for 1 Sahara buffet coupon from the ACG. Big mistake, the food and selection were horrible. The only thing decent was the salad.

Play a little poker at the Sahara after dinner before deciding what to do for the evening. My brother decides to sleep because we have a presentation for business tomorrow, I decide to go out with my buddy but wasn’t going to drink. We get dressed and had some free passes for Tangerine at the TI. It is nice club with an outdoor patio and Wednesday night is their crowded night. Seemed like a big local crowd, but the place was packed. Stayed there from about 1 am – 4 am, and headed back to the Sahara. I head straight to room for some sleep.

Day 3

Up early (8am) for a shower and shave. Head to the conference, couple small meetings here and there and then we had our presentation after lunch. Presentation went well, and after it we decided to hit some roulette. I obviously was still ice cold from the Stardust, and can’t get anything going. Decide to take a break from gambling and hit the Sahara hot tub. The hot tub and pool area was very nice. After that we had dinner and drinks at the conference and decided to hit a couple clubs that night.

We had a few friends also flying in from Orlando on Thursday night, so we told them we would meet with them. We get dressed and head over to the Palms. I tried to get a seat at the poker table but the wait was a little too long. We didn’t gamble long before we went upstairs to the Ghost Bar. If you are not familiar the Ghost Bar, it is on like the 50th floor of the Palms Casino with an outdoor deck overlooking Las Vegas and strip, very cool view. However it was freezing cold with the wind up there so you couldn’t stay out there long. After a drink, we decide to head to the Venetian. Walked around the casino and decided to use our VIP passes for Tao. Of course the “VIP” passes we had were not official VIP and they wanted us to wait in the long line. We passed and decided to check out the Tao lounge that is actually connected to the club. Tao is a very nice setup, rose petals everywhere, high quality furniture, etc.. Nice place. Only stayed a little until we got a call from our friends who said they were at the Wynn club, Tryst.

We cab it to the Wynn (yes, it was that cold), and get to Tryst. Tryst had a $30.00 cover, but was also an amazing club. Big open dance floor, outdoor patio over looking the waterfall, nice spread out setting, and a bunch of bars. Tryst was probably my favorite club in Vegas. Great crowd, great music, great setup, and just a lot of fun. Stay till it starts to empty out around 4:30 am.

Head back to the Sahara and decide to hit the roulette table. Bad idea, after a bunch of drinks and really late at night. Play for almost two hours, being down $200 at one time, and then getting it back to about down $50. Head to sleep…

Day 4

Up around noon, hit the café in the Sahara and hit the hot tub for about an hour or so. Shower and change and head to the conference for a little, it is the last day and just pretty much saying goodbyes to everyone. After that it is time for a poker session at the Sahara 2/4. Catch some decent cards, and don’t overplay high cards and leave the session a winner. Head to the room and change.

We decide to check out downtown, I wanted to play in the EOG free roll poker tournament at 7pm and also play at Binions. Get downtown and head straight to the Golden Gate for two shrimp cocktails and a hotdog. The hotdog was decent but these were the worst shrimp cocktails I have had at the GG. My friend hasn’t been to Vegas before was looking forward to the cocktail but only ate two bites. I shake off the bad food, and decide to head to Mermaids for a frozen drink. Every time I am downtown I go to Mermaids, for some reason their frozen drinks taste the best. Walk into a couple little stores and then head to the Nugget at around 6:45 pm. The poker room is pretty dead, so I am assume the tournament was cancelled, I am bummed and decide to head to Binions. (I should have tried to ask, the tournament was in a different room.)

Put my name on the 2/4, 3/6, and 4/8 waiting lists. The place was pretty crowded. Finally a seat on the 2/4 opens. A couple local rocks, but overall it was a great group of people. Dealers kept the game moving fast and didn’t have any problems during my session. I was playing strong at first but then when more beginners started to play and catch some crazy cards, I loosened up started to basically give away my chips. I was up for about 2.5 hours and then lost my complete buy-in in around 30 minutes. I had a great time and would recommend anyone to play at Binions. It is also nice playing at Binions and looking at the wall of World Champions. Oh yeah, Binion’s know has the rapid roulette, my brother and friend both liked it and they gave us free shirts.

We decide to try the Tony Roma’s steak and lobster special for $10.99. I wasn’t expecting the greatest for $10.99 but steak was horrible. Very fatty, small, and not too tasty. When Binion’s use to have the $8.99 steak and lobster, it would blow this one away. After dinner we decided to head back to the Sahara and plan for the night. Stop by the big gift store at the corner across from the Sahara for some gifts. Complete garbage, don’t waste your time.

I couldn’t believe it was our last night, and I wanted to still get more poker in. We all decided let’s head back to mid strip and we will decide from there. Take the monorail to Ballly’s. Wow is the monorail far from the Strip. It is way in the back of Bally’s. We exit Bally’s and walk across to Barbary, as we were crossing we noticed the Westin now has quarter roulette, we debated, but decided to pass it up. Get in the Barbary and it is slammed packed, I am really starting to like the Barbary more and more. Find a seat at the Pai Gow table and get a nice almost 2-hour session and only down a little. Another guy from the conference has some passes for Drais so we decide to check it out. It is a pretty cool club that is under the Casino Floor. It has a lot of tables and not much dance area, but overall was a pretty interesting club. Stay there till about 5 am and we all decide to head back to the Sahara.

Last Day

I thought about getting an early morning poker session in, but passed. My brother and I went to be while our friend decided to pull an all nighter. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:30 pm, so he just stayed up all night and we left to the airport around 11:00. Airport was packed, especially for a Saturday!

Flight back was long, especially with the layover in New Mexico. Was glad to get back, hope you enjoyed!