TR July 20-July 27 Barbary Coast, IP, Aladdin

I went out to Vegas Wednesday July 20th kind of spur of the moment. My return was planned for July 26th, but I extended it a day to go see Elton John perform at Caesar’s Coliseum.

My excuse was to meet a friend of mine who just got his first coaching job and was going to be in Vegas to scout players at the Nike, Reebok and Adidas basketball camps. Of course, he didn’t need my help so it was just an excuse to be there while he was, but any will do and this would be my excuse. He doesn’t gamble (imagine that?). He stayed off strip while I stayed on the strip and we met up for meals while he was there (he left Sunday, I didn’t leave until Wednesday).

Flights
Went out on America West non-stop redeye with no notice and had a row to myself ($147) and came back on half empty Southwest flight (using credits accumulated on Southwest). The flight out was perfect. Flight back I got stuck in Albuquerque on my way to El Paso with 4 hour delay due to maintenance problem on the connecting flight coming in from Oakland which ironically made an unplanned stop in Las Vegas to get it’s “ mechanical problem” fixed. The Flight attendants told me that some passengers just got off in Vegas and never got back on. I can understand that!!!!! For more reasons then one. So while I’m in Albuquerque my plane was in Vegas. It was roughly 4 hours late when all was said in done. So if you can believe it, America West defeats Southwest in my air travels this trip.

I took a cab to Barbary Coast. The shuttles were non-existent on arrival (10 p.m.) and a rental car was out of the question for what they were asking. I got a grumpy driver who complained most of the way about other drivers. As I see it, he was complaining mostly about other cabs but I kept my mouth shut.

Hotels
The first two nights I stayed at the Barbary Coast on a mailed offer, two nights free, dinner for two in the Victorian room and a free gift (BC tote bag). I was in room 218, which was hovering right over the pedestrian bridge from Bally’s to Barbary Coast with a tremendous view right down the strip. I could see all the way down to Mandalay Bay, what a view!

Friday and Saturday night I quickly arranged a weekend stay at the Imperial Palace at $69 a night on the casino rate. At check out I ended up paying $20 I think (poker comps from this trip and past combined to really pay off). I was on the 17th floor (room 1711), pool view, and non-renovated room, in fact I think it was a handicap room with all the room in it for a wheel chair to get around and the door on the bathroom was WIDE. I had asked for one of the renovated rooms and they wanted to charge me $20 a night. First off, I’m not in the room that much. Secondly I’ve had them before with no extra charge and third, they didn’t have one that was ready for me to move into right away. So forget about it, I took one of the ugly old rooms. I’ve stayed there a lot, it doesn’t bother me, but I just can’t get into their old color scheme. No big deal. The room was fine.

The last night there I enjoyed watching the thunderstorm on the balcony (major plus of IP is the small balcony you can step out onto) as the lightning was crackling out by Henderson, quite a show put on my mother nature and the thundershowers.

I checked out of the IP around 2 p.m. on Sunday, look out front and there are no cabs and a long cab line, so I rolled my two bags down their walkway and out onto the strip. Well once you are there it’s not that far to Flamingo to look for a cab, then onto Barbary Coast, next thing you know I’m up over the walkway and I said to hell with it, and rolled them all the way to Aladdin. There, no cab fare, a little walk in 104-degree heat with suitcases, and no big deal. I thought I fared fine until the check-in clerk looked at me, disappeared and went and got a bottle of water for me. I laughed and said “that bad, huh?”. And told her about my journey and she was nice. I figured I must’ve looked the part of a tourist who was seeing a Mirage or something.

So checked me into a terrific room for Sunday and Monday. I stayed at the Aladdin on a mailed offer. $49 a night for two nights, $50 in match play or slot/machine play money. I was given room 3105, strip view looking up towards NYNY on the 31st floor of the south tower. You could also see the Bellagio off to the right and about ¾ of the Bellagio Lake somewhat craning your neck to the right. I got tired of the music there put out by the lounge band. It was ok at first, just pretty repetitive.

It’s checkout time, I almost didn’t do it (but heard your voices in my head saying always check with the casino about your play), so I went into the Hosts Lounge and asked if they could review my play and they took one of the two nights off my bill.

This was my first comped room night reviewed by a host who looked at my action (I’ve used the mailed offers before). I had my rooms covered before at IP by poker comps but this was quite exciting and even a little disconcerting. Did I gamble THAT much? Or are they just generous at the Aladdin? Either way it was a nice surprise on check out, like hitting a mini jackpot. And Thanks to the folks on the message boards, I bothered to ask

I ended up staying an extra night on Tuesday night to go see Elton John and went without a hotel. I called Southwest Airlines and re-booked the first flight out of Vegas Wednesday morning (just one of those things that can happen in Vegas, after I hit 4 oak at Caesar’s went and bought an EJ ticket).

I ate and played at places along the strip on my way back towards Aladdin where I had left my bags at the Bell Desk after the concert and Second City show. I hit Flamingo, Barbary Coast, Bally’s and Paris and wound up at the Aladdin poker room until time to get a cab to the airport around 5 a.m.

Meals
Ate a lot of comped meals at the Barbary Coast. Easy to get a table comp there. So I ate at the Victorian room a lot. Best meal was probably and omelet I got there, but I didn’t like the sausage served. I ate one meal at the Imperial Palace (late night at the teahouse, $5.25 prime rib sandwich, good as always). I also ate at the Aladdin buffet and I now understand all the talk about it, it was good. I ate once at ESPNZone on the $20 voucher discussed on this board a lot (thanks). It was good (had buffalo wings and a death by chocolate brownie). I had a very good hamburger (comped) at the Flamingo’s coffee shop. Bacon Cheeseburger came with a ton of bacon, it was very good! I ate at the Cypress Market Place at Caesar’s just prior to entering the Caesar’s Forum shops. It is a food court where they give you a card to order on which you hand to the vendor and you pay a cashier after all your selections. I enjoyed the pizza once and the pastrami sandwich the second time I did this. Be good for a quick meal with folks who want something different and in a hurry at fast food (plus $1) prices. Used comps both times. I can’t remember any other meals offhand.

Gambling
I gambled on the strip only this time, as rental cars were outrageous during this trip. Basketball players and teams were everywhere so I’m guessing supply and demand did me in price wise. I was quoted $64 a day to get a car at Dollar for instance. I spent $1000 on the trip, most of it on gambling since the rooms and meals were mostly taken care of (minus Aladdin buffet ($25) and IP teahouse $7).

I digress. I played quite a bit of Pai Gow, which I’m just learning, live poker, slots (almost exclusively Triple Double Diamond with Cheese or penny video slots like Men in Black) and a lot of VP. I gambled at Caesar’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace, Aladdin, Barbary Coast, Bellagio, NYNY, Monte Carlo and Paris.

I can’t complain about VP 4oaks on this trip. I had always played DDB in the past, but played a lot more Double Bonus and Bonus poker this trip and it seemed to help. The quads don’t pay as well but it seemed like I sure as heck hit a lot more of them. I guess my question to myself was: would I of hit all those quads playing DDB? Because if I would’ve hit them, it would of been nice as they pay so much more. I never did hit aces and I never hit the still elusive Royal. But, I’ve never had so many 4 of kinds. Two days on the trip I hit for multiple 4 of a kind, which didn’t seem really lead to overall profit but it kept me going longer. I had 4 to the royal a countless times and still don’t have a Royal. The last day alone I had five 4 of a kinds but it was one of those days (one on a 2 cent machine while waiting things out at Paris, ouch). And another on a $1 machine, and a nickel machine, you get the picture.

My gambling began right when I got off the plane; I put $5 in a VP machine and on the 2nd or 3rd play got 4 3’s for $100. Nice start. Cashed that out and hit the 25-cent Wheel of Fortune machines. I then hit Deuces Wild and on my 2nd hand I hit five of a kind. So I messed around there long enough (girl next to me hit 1000 quarters on the spin) where I figured I better go get my bag before someone else does, not that they’d want anything in it. I left up about $95.

I also had those sessions where you’d lose $80 in 20 minutes, just not too often luckily. So there was quite a counterbalance going on. I also had some long winning sessions where either I’d get a lot of play before losing a $20, or even come out a little ahead. I like to play, so I tend to run my winnings back through machines. I need to reconsider this system (what system?).

Early in the trip, I won $155 on the new Men in Black machine at IP. It was a fun machine with two interesting bonus rounds and this machine kept giving me bonus rounds every 10 spins or so which made it fun. The players around me didn’t seem to be enjoying it as much as I did. I’d get another bonus round and one in particular would sigh. Sorry, it’s my little lucky run of the day!

One evening, I went on a little run of the strip I think Sunday night, playing $20 here and there (NYNY), Monte Carlo, and Bellagio dropping $80 on the course of the journey on slots and Video Poker. I was hoping to hit and run, but didn’t hit anything, it was all run, just not fast enough. In fact, the $80 went awfully fast. Luckily the next stop was Caesar’s, which turned the whole night around.

I had my best luck that night on my favorite slot machine (wish I didn’t have a favorite but I do). I really like these Triple Double Diamond with Cheese machines and particularly the machines at Caesar’s. I hit for $256 and $123 almost back to back quickly getting back what I had lost on my west strip run. I got Triple Diamond, Double Diamond 7 I think for one hit, and the other was a bonus round. I hit for $700 that night total and took $400 of that home to the hotel that night for tidy little profit I’d later lose at Aladdin. The hits and streaks putting it back were all mixed in but it was good for several hours of play. My comps went from $32 at Caesar’s to $114 on the trip!

My last afternoon in LV I hit 4 of a kind on a 25-cent Triple play machine at Caesar’s (4 3’s) for 400 quarters on DB. I was dealt 2 3’s, and hit 4 3’s on the second line. I used that money to buy a last minute ticket to Elton John. They had said there were sold out of the $100 tickets earlier in the day, but I went back and they had released some handicap seats which were in a separate box (quite nice though way up there in the nosebleeds).

I played tons of Pai Gow, particularly early in the trip. Easy meal comps can be earned at Barbary Coast. I got hot the first day playing $5 hands. The last night at BC I started betting more and had a bad spell losing three hands in a row for about $100. I lost my discipline I guess betting the minimum limit and blame everyone else who was betting much heavier (lol) so I started to bet more, amazingly as the drinks mounted and it wasn’t a good outcome (damn good drink service though).

By the way, the drink service was good at Caesar’s, IP and Barbary Coast, weak at Aladdin, Flamingo, NYNY and most of the other strip properties I visited.

My best moment I guess, well two of them were at Aladdin where I found the slot machines (my favorite Triple Double with cheese machines) particularly tight. I did find one VP machine that gave me 4 or 5 4oak’s to keep me going it seemed. I quickly lost the $50 they gave me to play with on one of the “with cheese”. You have to pick one machine with a red sticker on it saying this machine accepts free slot play. Most of the machines seemed to have that. Upon reflection, I wish I’d of gone for $1 Video poker with my free play but once I saw that “with cheese” machine, the deciding was over.

But I had a good moment in the Aladdin poker room right after I had hit 4 queens on a dollar VP machine my last night there (I put in a $20, and hit 4 queens almost immediately followed by a full house and cashed out $155). So I bought into a $2-$4 poker game at roughly 3 a.m. and I was dealt pocket 3’s. The flop came 3, 8, and 9. I was raised, re-raised and it was capped before the turn. The Turn was a 10. Lots of betting action again had me worried that someone else had made a set but I stayed in and the river came, it was another 3. YES. I now had 4 3’s. Anyway I take this large pot down and at Aladdin they have jackpots for such hands and I won an additional $50 for the 4 3’s. It’s a progressive pot that grows and then is lowered once it’s hit. They told me it was $233 for quad 3’s earlier in the night but I’d take this and smile! I ended up leaving that table at 4:40 a.m. up $100 and got my bags and headed to the airport to come back Wed. morning.

Shows
The last night, I went and saw Elton John and it was a good show. Elton was peppy and dropped 3 F bombs during his chit chat with the audience. (I’m not easily offended so it didn’t faze me). I was in the second mezzanine in a real comfy seat in a box. Just sat back and enjoyed the music. It’s amazing how many hits this man has. My favorite song was probably Daniel, which he explains a little before performing. The video is powerful in my opinion. A close second was Philadelphia Freedom, Rocketman, I’m still Standing. Well, let’s just say I liked it all. When he takes it up a notch it’s fun with Pinball Wizard, The Bitch is Back and I’m still Standing and Saturday Night. I was too high up to see the Videos real well but I had seen the show before and enjoyed it again as it was very much worth sticking around for and spending my $100 victory on triple play on EJ…The show was pretty much a sellout and a rowdier audience then the last time I came which was nice. It was nice to see folks up and dancing and enjoying themselves.

An hour afterwards I went and used some of my comp money from Caesar’s to see Second City Scriptless and I enjoyed the show. It was different and I’d go see their regular show now based on this performance. I’ve seen 2nd City at the ½ price places at the ticket outlets and think that’d be a good price to pay if you enjoy skit comedy.

Other stuff
One day I went around with my friend and watched some basketball, which gave me a chance to see Henderson and parts of Vegas out past Craig road as the games were scattered at high school gyms all over Las Vegas. That made for a nice day outside of the casinos. While on the north side of town, we were hit by a Vegas/desert thunderstorm, which was refreshing and cooled things off quite a bit. I had a good time catching up with my friend and it was a nice break from my usual Vegas Trip, which doesn’t leave the strip area (unless you count going to the Orleans or Palms leaving the strip).

So overall, it was quite a week. I was only a 25-cent Royal away from coming home with some of their money and considering I paid so little for rooms (under $100 for six nights hotel) I think it was a fun trip. I played A LOT. I don’t want to sound like I came out a winner, far from it, but had enough big hits and “jackpots” or winning sessions where it was a very entertaining trip. I probably need to reflect a little on how to preserve the wins, I had a lot of them this trip and still came home much lighter in the wallet. One night I lost $120 playing poker at IP on a $60 buy in, got up to $120 and then sat there as I slowly lost it all with a fun group of people. Don’t know why I stayed so long, but we had fun. It kind of turned into a home game I guess and I didn’t want to break up the table. Silly I know. One evening I won $400, most of the others I lost at least $100 and my first night at Aladdin, I dropped $400 but it took a long time and was actually a fun night. I pretty much dropped the winnings from the night before at Caesar’s.

Anyway, I’ll end this here, thanks for reading, I enjoy everyone else’s trip reports so keep them coming! I enjoy them all!

Posted by NMchop on LVTalk.com