This trip was planned for my wife and I’s 15th anniversary and my 40th birthday

Day 1: Traveled from Atlanta to Vegas on Delta FF. Everything very normal and got into Vegas around 9:30. Grabbed the bags and a cab and off to the Monte Carlo. This was the first time for my wife and I to stay here. We usually stay at Paris. I liked it well enough and my wife liked the pool much better. As another poster put in their report “It smells nice when you walk in”!

Played 2-4 Texas Holdem at MC and won a little. I like the room here. Easy to get in a game and the jackpot hands are a nice bonus. Over the course of 3 days of playing there, there were 3 quads and one straight flush just at my table. (Jackpots range from $20 to 500 for quads)

Ate at the Noodle place in MC for dinner and didn’t particulary care for it. Nothing terrible but just not great. Walked the strip and took in the Friday night sights.

Day 2: Texas Holdem, craps, and small denomination slots. Nothing great one way or the other.

Day 3: Texas Holdem, craps, and small denomination slots. (See day 2)
Spent the morning at the pool and then walked the strip with the wife. Ate at La Provencal in the Paris. Casual, but we both enjoyed our meal.

Day 4: Played a Texas Holdem tournament ($40 buy-in) at the Aladdin. 100 started and I finished 40th) Oh well, I had fun playing even though I got terrible cards. Went to the 1/2 price ticket place nearly the Harley store and got tickets for V at the Aladdin. Went back for more Holdem until my wife came to get me for the show. We went to the 6pm show. It was very entertaining and was a good value for 1/2 price. I would recommend it as a great secondary show. After the show, we ate at Le Provencal again since we liked it so well. Tonight we just did appetizers for our dinner. (Soup, salad, and Calamari)

Day 5: Rented a car and drove downtown and then out to Red Rock Canyon. Very pretty. Returned to play more poker and slots. Over the years, we have become friends with the members of the Mark Otoole band. Actually my wife knows there life history and I know there names because I usually gamble why she listens and I just pop in and out for a song or two. Actually as it turns out, 3 members of the band grew up about 20 minutes away from me in Illinois. I grew up in Monticello and they grew up around Champaign. I even played sports against them! On Tuesday the band was playing at the Excalibur. I know, I know…. but if we wanted to see them, then we had to go slumming!!!!! (more…)

My wife and I go to Las Vegas each summer as an opportunity to get away on a vacation without the kids (though they are all on their own now except our 16 year old son). We love Vegas. We have the boats in Indiana and though they are a good escape they are not Las Vegas. We are small rollers (vp, Pai Gow Poker, and slots). We love the shows, the food and the people. We have stayed at one hotel for the entire trips until last year when I made multiple reservations for our stay. We like the difference in hotels though the moving can be a pain. We also rented a car again this year. Having a car has taken away one thing that we always enjoyed and that is walking the strip and going into all the different casinos and gambling a bit then moving on. Therefore our list of visited casinos is much shorter than it has been in recent trips.

We flew out of Indianapolis on Sat, July 30 at 2:10. Indianapolis has been the cheapest place for us to fly Southwest. Columbus does not have the better rate so the past couple times to LV we have driven to Indy and flown from there. We arrived and checked in with no problems and our flight was on time. Very good flight. Smooth and arrived 20 minutes early. I like the direct flights and at 5:20 LV time we were there. We went to Dollar and picked up our car. Things seemed a bit unorganized at Dollar as a group of people were standing under a tent, no line, no order seemingly. Attendants were driving up cars and would get out and say “mid-size” and whoever needed a mid-sze jumped in and off they would go. A Dodge Stratus came up and I had ordered a Dodge Stratus or “similar” mid-size, so when the attendant asked who wanted a mid-size, my wife and I took our bags to the trunk, put them in and off we were to the BC.

We had stayed at the Barbary Coast last year for three nights. BC is a nice, comfortable hotel. It had one of the best rates for a Sat night stay so I booked it. We also like to gamble there. They have good slots and Pai Gow Poker for $5 ($10 at busy times). We checked in with no problems and were given a 4th floor room overlooking Ballys and the Bellagio fountains. BC doesn’t have all the extras that some of the others have but we like it. It is nice to sit at the window at night and look down the strip. After checking in we headed down to the casino. We were to meet two friends at TI at 7:00 and we wanted to check out the casino first. We sat down at the Pai Gow table ($10) and began playing. As with all Pai Gow games it is a slow sociable game. We like it. It is simple, no pressure, and drink service is very good. We played for about 45 minutes before we decided we had better head down toward TI because our friends would be calling us soon to meet with them. They called as we were approaching Venetian and we finally found them (after searching for a while because the crowd around TI for the Sirens show was still milling around). We decided to go to Kahunaville for some drinks and food. I had heard a lot about Kahunaville on this board but had yet to visit it. We were told it would be about a fifteen minute wait so we went to the bar and had a drink. We were called to a table. I had a crab cake sandwich (outstanding) and my wife had a cheesesteak sandwich (outstanding). Our friends had eaten in mid afternoon so they just had drinks. Kahunaville soon became very rowdy as the bar tenders (one on each side of the bar) began a competition juggling their bottles and putting on their show. The bartender each tried to get their side of the bar become the loudest as they performed their act of juggling bottles and pouring drinks from stacked cups. Finally our side won the yelling match and the bartender began pouring into patron’s mouths. She went up and down the bar pouring a shot right from the bottle into people’s mouths. My wife was able to crowd up to the bar and get a shot. Overall we had a great night. Our friends had been at Vegas all week and were flying back in the morning. We had passed Mystere and my wife and I had seen it last year. When we raved about it, our friends wanted to see if they could get tickets and go see the 10:00 show. They were lucky enough to get tickets so we left them as they went up to the show and we went back down the strip to the BC. We again jumped in on the Pai Gow table and played till about midnight. One thing about Pai Gow is that you get can win slowly and then you can lose slowly. It is a good break from slots and vp. We ended the night around even with our Pai Gow play. (more…)