I got back from a Friday to Sunday trip to Vegas. It’s Tuesday now and if I wait any longer, I just won’t get to it so I better at least start it now. I meant to write a report my last trip in Aug that included 2 nights at Wynn, 2 nights at MB, UFC 63, and a $30K loss, but never got around to it.

Some highlights for you (and for myself) so I remember to come back to these things. Showed my brother in law and his friends the pampered side of Vegas, Dinner at Fleur de Lys, Love at Mirage, Michigan game, $400,000 gone in 60 seconds, strange sighting in the elevator, $10K win, and the craziest airport check-in line ever.

Flew out of Burbank Friday night since I was coming from that area. Just made my flight. My wife flew out of LAX an hour after me. I land, call up my brother-in-law and his buddies to come pick me up. The point of this trip was to show my BIL and his friends a good time in Vegas. They were supposed to be there the whole weekend but realized that they had forgotten about my BIL’s ex’s 21st BDay party. As much as everyone kept telling him that he should skip the party, he insisted that he (and all his buddies) needed to be there. Bummer for them. I had booked them a premiere palace tower room at Caesars. Since they needed to leave on Saturday afternoon, they went to Vegas a day early. I insisted on paying for a room at a nice hotel for Thursday night but they refused (very nice considerate guys for 22 year olds). They booked themselves a room at the Sahara for $40. $10/person. They were very proud of themselves at finding such a bargain. While I waited for them to pick me up, I checked in at the airport. I normally don’t like playing or staying at any of the Harrah’s resorts but I find them very useful for their free rooms since I can put up friends and family without the pressure of playing there.

I get picked up and we head towards Caesars to get them settled in when my wife calls saying they she landed already. So we head towards THE Hotel so they can drop me off, allowing me to check in while my BIL goes to pick up my wife. I check in through the VIP lounge and we’re off to the HOB for dinner. I’m usually RFL at the start of every MB trip with my host picking everything up by the end, but this time I was actually RFB+ coming in with everything automatically being taken off with nothing but tips showing up on my active charges. Anyway, back to HOB - we are ready to pig out. The guys are loving it asking if it’s really okay to order anything they wanted. I say yes and tell them to go crazy. They take me up on it and I see them eat like I haven’t seen since I was in college. HOB has some nice live blues music after 9pm. Very cool, had a good time. They don’t usually take reservations for groups of less than 10 but my host had made reservations for us. After dinner, BIL and friends head to Caesars to check out their room. Apparently they were blown away. 2 bathrooms, huge shower, jacuzzi tub, flat panel TV. Sounded like they enjoyed it a lot. You know, the typical 21 to 22 year old stuff - mooning nobody in particular out the window, realizing that this is what a bidet looks like and taking turns using it.

Meanwhile, I had the gambling bug. Now last time I got destroyed playing baccarat so I decide to start off with a little craps. I would be on fire all weekend at the craps table. I convince my wife to play with me. I roll and we’re up about 500 right away. I tried a different strategy this time around. I usually play $120 on 6 and 8 and if things get going, I pick up some other place bets along with some hardways. This time, I play a max of three $25 come bets with full odds with some additional bets here and there when the shooter rolls for a while. It’s just me and my wife on one end of the table and this other young guy and his girl come up on the other end. He buys in for 300. I had bought in for 3000. He and I are shooting the dice back and forth and we’re both pretty hot and shooting for 5-10 minutes each time. My wife did very poorly whenever she would shoot which made her very sad and this other guys girl did okay. By the end of the hour, I was up 3000 and he was up 1000. We were very happy and had a great time with the dealers. We were tipping and betting for the dealers very freely. It was pretty cool that it was just the 4 of us at the table for most of the time. Good start. I’m exhausted from a very long work week and we head upstairs to crash. On the way, I want to bet on the Michigan game. I’m a huge Michigan fan but they’re favored by 30 over Northwestern. Now I know Mich and once thing I know for sure is that they don’t beat anybody by 30. I’m so confident I’m about to place 1100 on Northwestern to cover the spread. My wife is skepticle. She knows I have a horrible track record on my sports bets and is able to plant that seed of doubt in my mind. I compromise and place a bet for 550. Off to bed.

The next morning, head down to the pastry shop, buy a croissant, bagel, juice, and coffee and bring it up to the room. Start watching the game. Very happy that the weather is poor in Ann Arbor meaning likely a lower scoring game. Proves I’m right. Head down during halftime and it’s time for some more craps. Quick 30 minute session. Head down pretty fast and it’s my turn to shoot. Get a nice little run and I’ve made up my losses for that session and end up another 500. Up 3500 for the trip so far. No good seating in the sports book so I head to the THE Bar to catch the rest of the game. Just me and the 2 bartenders. We’re watching the game and I’m enjoying a couple of the best bloody mary’s I’ve ever had. Mich was only up at 11 late in the game and life was good. BIL and friends come to MB barely awake but still giddy about the good time they had at Caesars on their last night in Vegas. Eat at the THE Cafe. Pretty good food overall. Would have been a really good meal had it not been for our extra surly waiter, Victor. I think he just saw 6 young looking kids and thought we should be treated like crap. We remained polite and somehow, by the end of our meal, he was the nicest guy in the world. My wife likes to believe that since he was such a jerk and we were being so polite, that he realized he was being foolish and came to his senses. I personally think that after I gave him my signature card, he saw that I was RFB+ and realized that he should be a little nicer. We made fun of his miraculous transformation throughout the rest of our day.

Stop by the the sundries store, helped the kids load up on some drinks and snacks and they’re reluctantly driving back to LA. I tell them it’s not too last since I have Caesars booked until Sunday. They all give my BIL the evil eye as they decline and thank us for the free food and room.

I collect my sports winnings, while asking my wife why she didn’t let me bet the $50,000 I meant to bet. Wink Now I’m up 4000 for the trip. I want to stop but I’ve only placed about 90 minutes since I’ve been there.

Okay, it’s been pretty boring up to this point, but the rest of the way is much more interesting. I promise. I’ll have to continue tomorrow night though. I’m still recovering and need to get to bed.

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…)